AFV Painting System: US Olive Drab (Model Air) Set #402

Published: September 8, 2016
Company: Acrylicos Vallejo

Among several integrated sets of Model Air paints produced by Vallejo for common AFV camouflage schemes is their U.S. Olive Drab set, consisting of four color paints, an Olive Drab Primer and a clear Satin Varnish.

Opening the box reveals a vacuform tray holding six half-size (quarter ounce) bottles, each one holding slightly less than half as much paint as one of Vallejo’s standard bottles. The assumption is that the paint set would be one-stop shop, with enough paint for (at least) single project, although my experience with Vallejo paints is that this set could easily be stretched across three or four normal-sized 1/35^th scale builds.

A brief disclaimer: Let me confess up front that I am a big fan of Vallejo paints, and I have been using… more

Su-76i

Published: September 5, 2016
Company: Dragon Models

Dragon has recently released the interesting “cross-over” SU-76i Self Propelled Gun (SPG) in 1/35^th scale, marrying their excellent and accurate Panzer III/Stug III chassis with what appears to be an out-sourced superstructure. The superstructure features intricate bolt detail, and is accompanied by new storage boxes on both sides as well as rear-mounted fuel tanks. This was an unusual armored vehicle used by the Soviets, and promises to build into an unusual subject for German and Russian WWII armor fans.

Background

Germany and the USSR employed a large number of captured enemy vehicles during WWII because of shortages in their inventories. Sometimes they also created hybrids by combining domestic and foreign components, and one example of this approach… more

Thick Mud Weathering Effects

Published: February 3, 2020
Company: Acrylicos Vallejo

We live in a Golden Age of modeling, we do. It seems that not a day goes by before some new product is offered to plastic modelers. This time around is a new set of excellent diorama weathering effects offered by Vallejo called ‘Thick Mud’. As the name suggests, each of six varieties offered contains a different shaded sludge mixture that looks, acts, and cleans up like mud.

This is the stuff that we have all tried to perfect: using water, paint, pigments, real dirt, fine sand and some kind of fixing agent. Vallejo has simply taken the guesswork out of it for you, but they’ve smartly rendered the concoction in an easy-to-use-and-clean-up acrylic medium.

The set includes the following shades:

• 73.807 European Mud - this is probably the closest shade of the… more

WWII German Rubber Rafts

Published: September 1, 2016
Company: Bronco Models

The Kit

Bronco has recently released a fun little kit of two German WWII rubber rafts, which come in a small, side-opening box with instructions and painting suggestions on the back. Two identical sprues of soft grey plastic make up the contents.

Expecting a run-of-the-mill modeling experience, I was more than pleasantly surprised by the engineering and design of everything – these were made with the modeler in mind. There are enough parts to assemble two rubber rafts. The top and bottom of each raft fit perfectly around a third, curved, inner bottom part to leave a single, very thin seam line around the exterior.

The nicely detail wooden-slat floors were engineered so they could be painted separately, masked, and then assembled with the rest of the raft,… more

Wooden Boxes

Published: July 11, 2016
Company: Res-Im

RES_IM, a small company out of Czechoslovakia, continues to add to its list of quality aftermarket and modeling supply products, this time with a package of ten generic wooden boxes in 1/35th scale.

The small, sturdy box contains three separate baggies of resin parts mounted on casting blocks. Two large, square boxes, three medium-sized rectangular flat boxes and five smaller, square flat boxes. All boxes are solid resin and sealed. All contain excellent fine wood grain and cross members representing generic crates. No decals, markings or instructions are included – although I’m pretty sure instructions aren’t needed here!

The resin boxes must be separated their casting blocks of resin, and this is no simple task. The entire bottoms of the boxes are attached, so it… more

sWS w/2cm Flakvierling 38 Halftrack

Published: May 27, 2016
Company: Bronco Models

Following right on the heels of their Schwere Wehrmachtschlepper (sWS) IR-Searchlight halftrack, Bronco Models has now offered the same wide-tracked vehicle sporting a four-barreled 2cm Flakvierling anti-aircraft gun.

Like the one before, this ‘new’ kit is actually a reissue of the high-quality Great Wall (Lion Roar) kit from a few years back. Aside from the box art and the color of the plastic, the main difference between the two kits is that Bronco includes a complete engine assembly. At some point GW introduced these parts as an aftermarket set you had to purchase separately for their sWS kits. Bronco brings everything together into another solid offering, with more to come.

Background

Unlike the ‘Uhu’ searchlight version, the subject of this kit was… more

TBF/TBM Avenger Eggplane

Published: April 19, 2016
Company: Hasegawa

Summary

Hasagawa has re-released their previously out-of-production Tamago Plane Series Egg Plane caricature of the venerable TBF/TBM Avenger, this issue sporting two sets of new markings, including the popular set for USS Mission Bay (Code E16).
The small, sturdy box contains two sprues of relatively hard, blue plastic, a clear plastic canopy packaged separately, one medium sheet of decals which are thin and in perfect register, and one instruction sheet totaling 6 pages with 2 steps, printed in black and white.

The markings in the kit cover two schemes: TBF-1C: U.S. Navy USS Mission Bay Code: E16 and TBM-1C: U.S. Navy VC-42 Code 21.

Construction

Assembly took just over 15 minutes, with most of that time involved with clipping and cleaning the… more

sWS 60cm Infrared Searchlight Carrier "Uhu"

Published: March 4, 2016
Company: Bronco Models

Summary

Newly offered in injection-molded plastic by Bronco Models out of China, is a wide-tracked sWS Utility Halftrack sporting a 60cm infrared searchlight and accompanying night-vision IR equipment.

This "new" kit is actually a reissue of the high-quality Great Wall (Lion Roar) kit from a few years back. Aside from the box art and the color of the plastic, the main difference between the two kits is that Bronco includes a complete engine assembly. At some point GW introduced these parts as an aftermarket set you had to purchase separately for their sWS kits.

Background

The subject of this kit is a fictional design. There were no plans to make an infra-red carrying sWS, not even on paper. The name "Uhu" (Eagle Owl) was not a generic name, but was… more

Gato Class Submarine

Published: February 3, 2020
Company: Revell

Revell has re-released their vintage WWII Gato Class Submarine in enormous 1/72 scale – topping off at just over 52 inches in length! Surface detail of the deck and fittings is excellent, as well as their renderings of the 20mm, 40mm, and 4inch deck armament. Also included are three sets of pre-bent, steel wire steps as well as a variety of pre-drilled stanchions for stringing safety cabling.

Overshadowing everything, however, is simply the sheer size of the hull – an ambitious project for any modeler.

The United States Navy Gato-class was the first mass-produced US submarine class of World War II. Together with the Balao and Tench classes… more

PanzerKampfwagon II Sd.Kfz.122 (F) w/UE Trailer

Published: February 10, 2020
Company: Bronco Models

Summary

Newly offered in injection-molded plastic by Bronco Models out of China, the Sd.Kfz.122(F) Flammpanzer is a real gem of a kit. Bronco had previously released an all-new version of the gun tank, but this is the first Flamm version since the discontinued kit from ICM/Alan in 2006. It comes with a (captured) French tracked trailer and enough jerry cans and oil drums to make any diorama-minded modeler happy. The fuel and water cans and the oil drums are straight from a separate Bronco offering reviewed by Eric Christianson.