Bill O'Malley
Reviews By Author
KrAZ-255bPublished: February 14, 2014 IntroductionThis is one ‘Bear’ of a truck and one bear of a kit! The KrAZ weighs twelve tons, has a payload of seven and a half tons, and is nicknamed ‘The Bear’. The kit will definitely not fall together out of the box on a Sunday afternoon. A difficult kit to assemble, it’s worth the effort and builds into one massive truck! BackgroundExcerpt from the… more |
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US ScooterPublished: May 18, 2020 This is another in the Scooter series of models recently released by Plus Model. The kit is a 30-series Cushman Autoglide and includes Army & Navy markings. KitThe Plus Model kit comes in a blister pack containing 12 resin parts, 1 clear plastic part, 4 photoetch parts, brass wire, and decal sheet. The photoetch parts are very small but add nice detail to the scooter.… more |
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U.S. Airborne Scooter with Machine GunPublished: January 16, 2014 BackgroundU.S. Air Force Fact SheetCushman Airborne Scooter - In the late stages of the war in Europe, Allied paratroopers used scooters like this one to maintain contact between units, increase their mobility and haul small loads. The Cushman Motor Works designed the Model 53 Airborne Scooter to be airdropped by parachute or carried by glider, and it had a hitch to pull… more |
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U.S. Airborne Scooter with ReelPublished: January 3, 2014 This is a nice little (very little) kit that has great potential as a vignette or diorama accessory. This kit is not for the faint of eyesight or those with more than their share of thumbs, but can be a nice one or two day build. The kit is a challenging ‘craftsman’ type build, but that adds to the enjoyment for an experienced modeler. BackgroundU.S. Air Force Fact Sheet:… more |
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Sd.Kfz.3 Maultier AmbulancePublished: December 20, 2013 This is a great kit that Dragon has produced and it’s a joy to assemble! BackgroundThe Opel Blitz Maultier (“Mule”) platform was developed in 1942 to deal with the lack of paved roads on the Eastern Front in Russia, and was produced until 1944. An Opel Blitz wheeled truck chassis was modified by replacing the rear drive wheels with caterpillar tracks. The Maultier half-track… more |
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US MRAPS in ActionPublished: November 26, 2013 This is another book in Squadron Signal’s In Action series that profiles a family of military vehicles with photos of them in actual use. The series uses in-field photos to trace the history and development of the vehicles. The history of Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles is chronicled from the earliest armored security vehicles (ASVs) that were built to replace… more |
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L1500S LLG WWII German Light Fire TruckPublished: November 15, 2013 This wonderful ICM kit has been kindly furnished by MMD Squadron for IPMS review. When Hitler came to power in 1933, all fire services came under the newly created Fire Protection Police (Feuerschutz-polizei) as an arm of the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei), commanded by Heinrich Himmler. The fire equipment color changed from red to Polizei dark green. After the war,… more |
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WWII German FiremenPublished: October 30, 2013 The kit includes four figures and accessories including hand extinguisher, hose, and fire hydrant. Facial expressions of three of the figures have static straight-ahead looks, but the fourth figure has a much better expression with an open mouth like he’s shouting. The parts are molded in tan plastic that is a little soft. The figures’ hands, faces, and accessory pieces have nice,… more |
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‘67 Corvette ConvertiblePublished: October 16, 2013 Thanks to Revell for providing the kit to IPMS and continuing to build and reissue good Corvette models. The kit is another reissue of the Revell kit that was first released in 1995 and has been reissued many times since. The plastic sprues contain parts indicating copyrights in 1995 and 4/17/13. The kit shares parts such as the chassis and interior with Coupe versions of the ’67… more |