Michael Reeves
Reviews By Author
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Acrylic Instrument Panels for Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 with WFR.GR.21 Rocket PanelPublished:
Red Fox Studio manufactures 3D acrylic resin instrument panels and details for aircraft cockpits in several scales and are now available through the AMMO website for purchase. The parts in this scale are quite detailed for their small size and are even pre-painted! The placement of these bits is easy- one simply has to separate the part from the cardstock and glue it in place using any white glue you have on hand- including that created by AMMO. The parts can also be washed with AMMO enamel or acrylic paints, and varnished with acrylic based varnishes. In addition to adjusting each cockpit detail to the correct scale, each piece features a hyper-realistic finish on the instruments, gauges, and displays, imitating the reflection of the glass bezels. The colors on the parts seem… more |
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SM.03 Sazabi CustomPublished:
I was very pleased when I heard the news that Casemate was going to be carrying Mike Rinaldi's excellent books. This Single Model series differs from the original books in size and instead of covering a handful of different projects to highlight his techniques, they focus on obviously a single model- in this case a Bandai Sazabi Custom kit. Anyone who has ever watched a Mike Rinaldi seminar in person or on You Tube knows you are getting educated when you take the time to listen and absorb what he is teaching. The text is presented in a format that highlights the techniques and why and how they are being done. Rinaldi bemoans the fact that so many SBSs don't go into enough detail. "Using oils to weather..." or "I applied a wash..." might give one a general sense of what was done… more |
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British Cruiser Tank A34 CometPublished:
The A34 Comet was a late-war addition to Britain’s armored arsenal of cruiser tanks. With a borrowed chassis from the Cromwell, the larger turret ring allowed for a more compact effective gun in the Q.F. 77mm. Exclusively welded, the larger turret had frontal armor up to 100mm. The heavier design led to the need to update the Christie suspension which was refitted with upper return rollers. Many were outfitted with the Normandy cowling over the rear grill to help cut down on exhaust gases affecting the crew and passengers. With 1,186 being made out of the planned 3000, the 11th Armoured Division was the only division during the war to exclusively use the Comet in combat. It first saw action in March 1945 as the Allies were crossing the Rhine. While not seeing a whole lot of… more |
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G7117 with WWII Soviet DriversPublished:
ICM is one of many model companies based in the Ukraine that have been affected by the recent war with Russia. Based in Kyiv, the company has been active as of late in creating and releasing new products and defying the challenges they face. This kit is a rebox with new parts for the kit released back in 2021. Let’s take a look… What’s Inside the BoxThe kit comes as the standard ICM kit does—with a colorful box top that slides off of an enclosed brown cardboard box. Parts were packaged well and details were crisp with no flash to speak of.
ConstructionThe first 27 steps cover construction of the… more |
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StuG III Early & Mid ColorsPublished:
The AMMO by Mig company is prolific in the endless useful and specific sets of paints, washes, and pigments they release. Their range of acrylic paints are designed to make painting a breeze thanks to the ease of application, with the 17mL dropper bottles. All colors in the range can be mixed with each other and with the full range of AMMO by Mig Jimenez acrylic colors. Each color is suitable for both brush and airbrush application. These acrylics are water-soluble and formulated to be safe and non-toxic. If airbrushing, I would suggest thinning first as the paints are thick out of the bottle which make them great for brush painting. This set includes 6 bottles which allow you to paint the initial StuG models armed with the short-barrel gun and the up-gunned versions introduced… more |
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Weapons of the Great War Automatic Weapons of the Russian ArmyPublished:
From the publisher’s website: This book describes the machine guns, automatic rifles, handguns and revolvers, including both the official weapons in service in the Russian Army in 1914-1917 and other weapons not officially approved but nevertheless used by the troops such as obsolete Russian and non-Russian arms both supplied by the allies or captured from the enemies. A special highlight of this book is the section describing experimental automatic weapons, without which the reader would hardly get the big picture of the state of the Russian defence engineering developments in the early 20th century. For each weapon described in the book, there is a brief history of how it was designed and started to be used as an approved army weapon and a description of the key… more |
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Universal Modern Gear Set #24Published:
Value Gear resin stowage products have long been among the best resin additions for modelers looking to detail their builds in nearly any scale. Spanning stowage from WWII through more modern and even sci-fi settings, these pieces really pop with detail and add immensely to the scenes they’re placed in. In this case, we are looking at set #11-- another stowage set for your StuG in 1/35 scale. While many of the sets are geared towards certain manufacturers’ kits, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t place them nearly anywhere, as you’ll see below. This set contains 25 original pieces unique to this set and is made up of crates, packs, sacks, and tarps in various configurations. The set provides various arrangements that can fit practically any modern or futuristic piece… more |
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Sandbag Walls (Checkpoint #3)Published:
Value Gear resin stowage products have long been among the best resin additions for modelers looking to detail their builds in nearly any scale. Spanning stowage from WWII through more modern and even sci-fi settings, these pieces really pop with detail and add immensely to the scenes they’re placed in. In this case, we are looking at set #11-- another stowage set for your StuG in 1/35 scale. While many of the sets are geared towards certain manufacturers’ kits, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t place them nearly anywhere, as you’ll see below. This set contains 8 pieces and represents varying arrangements of sandbag emplacements that can be used in gun pits, checkpoints, roadblocks, bunkers, or really anywhere you might want some protection. There are a couple corner… more |
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StuG Stowage Set #11Published:
Value Gear resin stowage products have long been among the best resin additions for modelers looking to detail their builds in nearly any scale. Spanning stowage from WWII through more modern and even sci-fi settings, these pieces really pop with detail and add immensely to the scenes they’re placed in. In this case, we are looking at set #11-- another stowage set for your StuG in 1/35 scale. While many of the sets are geared towards certain manufacturers’ kits, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t place them nearly anywhere, as you’ll see below. The set comes with 24 different pieces, and looking at the listing on the website, these are a variety of the smaller bits from sets 1-9. While there isn’t a larger block here representing a pile of stowage for the engine deck,… more |
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StuG Stowage Set #10Published:
Value Gear resin stowage products have long been go-to resin additions to modelers looking to detail their builds in nearly any scale. Spanning stowage from WWII through more modern and even sci-fi settings, these pieces really pop with detail and add immensely to the scenes they’re placed in. In this case, we are looking at set #10-- stowage for your StuG in 1/35 scale. While many of the sets are geared towards certain manufacturers’ kits, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t place them nearly anywhere, as you’ll see below. The set comes with 20 different pieces, and looking at the listing on the website, these are a variety of the smaller bits from sets 1-9. While there isn’t a larger block here representing a pile of stowage for the engine deck, one could easily add… more |