Gino Dykstra
Reviews By Author
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Soviet T-55 Main Battle TankPublished:
The Russian T-54 and T-55 are without doubt the single most ubiquitous tank designs ever produced, having served in literally every theater of war since their initial design work back in the 1950’s. As such, they deserve a special place in any modern armor enthusiast’s collection. This book helps iron out some of the details for the detail conscious. I must admit I was somewhat surprised as to the scope of the book when I first cracked the cover. Like most modelers, I’ve always used the terms T-54 and T-55 fairly interchangeably, as externally there are so few differences between the makes. I think I expected this book to treat them in the same manner. Instead, this book runs right into the process of creating the T-55 FROM the T-54 and never looks back. Essentially,… more |
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Les Artilleries Françaises de la Révolution et du Premier EmpirePublished:
If you’re a serious figure modeler and have a thing for the incredibly colorful and resplendent uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars, this book from the series should get your attention. One of a range of large-format books by this publisher, it’s a virtual cornucopia of detail and information regarding the artillery arm of the French Army from 1786 through 1815, when Napoleon met his own “Waterloo.” The entire book is in French and offers no subtitles, although this won’t be much of a deterrent to any serious modeler as the book is almost exclusively color plates anyway. These cover literally every aspect of the French Artillery arm including ALL uniforms, equipment and ordnance. If you have access to the excellent Historex range of kits, much of what you find in this book will be… more |
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Arado Ar 234B-2/S3Published:
I’ve built a number of models from this fledgling company, and must state one basic observation: they provide some fascinating subjects. I probably don’t need to go into a lot of historical background regarding the revolutionary Arado Ar234, except to say that it was the world’s first jet bomber and a truly amazing aircraft in many ways. I became fascinated with it during my teens when I built the venerable Lindberg kit, enthralled by the design. Leave it to Fly to come up with not one, but several different configurations of this pivotal aircraft in my favorite scale, with more to come. I checked up on the Fly internet site and was not at all surprised to see that the two earlier releases are now sold out. Get them while you can! On to the build. This is very much a… more |
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F-5E Tiger II Landing Gear (KH)Published:
Scale Aircraft Conversions has been providing replacement gear for a wide range of aircraft models for some time now, and the quality of their products is, by now, unquestioned. This new product for the Kitty Hawk Range of F-5E Tiger II models in 1/32nd scale is no exception. Comprised of ten pieces in cleanly-molded white metal, this kit is designed to directly replace most of the major components of all three landing gear, including hydraulic rams and oleo scissors. Examining the pieces next to the kit-provided gear, they appear to be exacting replicas of the originals, although some of the finicky assembly work of the plastic items has already been done for you, as well as the filling in of a few rather awkward pin marks. I compared what I had with what is… more |
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RF-5E TigereyePublished:
There’s something about this relatively small, compact and sleek fighter that can grip the imagination. I’ve been enamored with it, that when Hasegawa released their 1/32nd scale version many moons ago, I made no less than five over a single week, just to show it in some of its endless liveries. With the release of this version of this famous aircraft, Kittyhawk has not only provided us with a variant never before available in this scale but upped the game considerably over the venerable Hasegawa kit in terms of detail. Interestingly, the real aircraft has had something of a checkered career. Northrup decided to expand the nose section in order to offer a more effective reconnaissance platform than previously retrofitted standard F-5Es. This resulted in a ten… more |
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Men-At-Arms Series: French Naval & Colonial Troops 1872-1914Published:
The world’s perceptions concerning nationalistic colonialism have virtually reversed over the course of the last century, and the impact of such behavior and its aftermath by mostly European nations on less-developed areas of the world is still being debated today. That being said, for the figure modeler this era in human history is a goldmine of really interesting military uniforms, not least because so many of them combine European and local costumes in truly unique ways. As far as global colonial powers during the 19th century go, France was certainly in the top three, having footholds throughout most of northern Africa as well as IndoChina and elsewhere. They incorporated large numbers of natives to help keep order in these regions, and in the process created… more |
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Spitfires Part 1Published:
If you’re as big a fan of Spitfires as I am, you’re going to REALLY love this product by Fündekals. Labeled “Spitfire Part 1” this product is actually two and a half sheets of decals, packed with markings. Frankly, I’ve never encountered a more useful decal sheet for Spitfires than this one. Twelve different sets are included in this package (as well as numerous extras) covering everything from Spitfire Mk. 1s from the Battle of Britain to late-war Mk. XVIes. Not only British Spitfires are offered in the mix, but American Eagle Squadron aircraft are included as well. It does NOT, however, include walkways and stenciling, although it does include the gun patches associated with each aircraft. The details have been meticulously researched, and the 27-page instruction… more |
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The Etruscans 9th - 2nd Centuries BCPublished:
The Etruscans are sometimes regarded as the fore-runners of the later Roman civilization, and they certainly appear to have had enormous influence over the development of that empire, and yet despite this, relatively little is really know today about them. Their language has only ever been partially translated and very little written documentation survives except later tomes by Romans and Greeks which are debatably accurate, to say the least. What is generally believed is that the Etruscans were something of an amalgam culture, having some seafaring antecedents as well as people from the Asian subcontinent and other places (which seems to suggest they were very much a merchant culture with extensive trade routes). However, there are other later writers who claimed they were native to… more |
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I.A.R. 81 BoPi "Dive Bomber"Published:
The IAR-80 is the best-known production fighter to come out of the Romanian plant during WW2 and has always had a certain fascination for me. Developed in the 1930s as the Rumanian Air Force was working valiantly to get into the arms race then taking place in Europe, the IAR-80 featured a license-built Gnome-Rhone 14K engine and some various bits and pieces purchased from other countries, including the machine gun armament. Despite the comparative lack of experience in such design work, the IAR-80 proved to be a relatively modern and well-thought-out design, although some fixes needed to be included during its design life, including external bracing for the rear fuselage, which had a tendency to twist during high-speed turns. The IAR-81 was a fairly modest design change to… more |
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Laurie "Lightning Bolt" BarnesPublished:
For some time Master Box has been exploring an up-to-now largely ignored area in the mainstream modeling fraternity - science fiction figures - through their "Spaceport - At the Edge of the Universe - Strange Company’s Adventures" series. Up until now, the action centered mainly around a rogue’s gallery of characters in a sleazy cantina somewhere on the fringes of the law and known space. Laurie adds an interesting potential element of additional trouble as she is one of two new figures who are clearly intent on raiding the cantina, although I do find myself wondering who her target might be. As with most of the figures in this range, she comes on a single gray sprue with a limited number of parts. Assembly is quite straight-forward with only a little filling needed around the… more |