Mike Lamm
Reviews By Author
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German Heavy Tank VK 30.01(h)Published:
OKB Grigorov is a small model company based in Bulgaria that you may not be too familiar with. The company focuses primarily on AFVs, tanks, and naval ships in 1/72, 1/350 and 1/700 scales and they have an extensive list of products available. They produce full resin kits with photo-etch enhancements, as well as resin, photo-etch and white metal conversion pieces for other models. More recently, they began producing some plastic AFV kits. The kit I reviewed is a 1/72 scale version of the German Heavy Tank VK 30.01(h). The VK 30.01(h) was really the start of Germany’s heavy tank program and the precursor to the Tiger. It was originally designed in the late 1930s, and by the end of its development cycle, only about half a dozen chassis had been completed, with less than 10… more |
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OKB Grigorov German Heavy Tank VK 30.01(h)Published:
OKB Grigorov is a small model company based in Bulgaria that you may not be too familiar with. The company focuses primarily on AFVs, tanks, and naval ships in 1/72, 1/350 and 1/700 scales, and they have an extensive list of products available. They produce full resin kits with photoetch enhancements, as well as resin, photoetch and white metal conversion pieces for other models. More recently, they began producing some plastic AFV kits. The kit reviewed here is a 1/72 scale version of the German Heavy Tank VK 30.01(h). The VK 30.01(h) was really the start of Germany’s heavy tank program, and the precursor to the Tiger. It was originally designed in the late 1930s, and by the end of its development cycle only about half a dozen chassis had been completed with less than 10… more |
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Tornado GR.1/IDSPublished:
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS fighter-bomber, the Tornado ECR (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and the Tornado ADV (air defense variant) interceptor aircraft. First flying in 1974, the aircraft was introduced into service in 1979–1980. Due to its multi-role design, it replaced several different fleets of aircraft in the adopting air forces of the three original partner nations. The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) became the only export operator of the Tornado following a somewhat controversial trade deal. The Tornado saw its first combat operations in the Gulf War in… more |
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Stug III 75mm Assault GunPublished:
The recent re-release of Airfix's catalogue of 1/76 AFVs has generated a bit of a buzz among Airfix fans, many of whom grew up building these little gems as lads. Now, as adults, these kits bring back memories of the simpler times with the re-boxing of these little beauties. I never had much of an opportunity to build Airfix kits in my youth, I don't remember them, or their many American boxings being available in my local hobby shop. However, coming back into the hobby as an adult, I've really taken a liken to many of Airfix's recent offerings, as well as a few of their golden oldies. These "Vintage Classic" releases from Airfix, fit both categories. They're old molds repackaged into the new box with newly printed decals, and most important of all, new tracks. The kits come… more |
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Churchill Mk. VIIPublished:
The recent rerelease of Airfix’s catalogue of 1/76 AFVs has generated a little bit of a buzz among Airfix fans, many of whom grew up building these little gems as lads. Now, as adults, they get to harken back on the days of yore with the reboxing of these little beauties. I myself never had much of an opportunity to build Airfix kits in my youth, but have taken to them as an adult. Whether it’s a fiddly older kit, or one of the new-tool ones in the shiny red boxes, getting back into the hobby later in life also meant finding some great new, and OLD, kits to build. These “Vintage Classic” releases from Airfix, fit both categories. They’re old molds repackaged into the new box with newly printed decals, and most important of all, new tracks. The kits come packaged in the now… more |
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Hauler Sd.Kfz.9 FamoPublished:
Hauler produces photo-etched and resin upgrade sets for armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and dioramas. They also produce a few resin kits. Their products are in most of the common scale sizes, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/35, but they also have items in common railroad hobbyist scales. This small sheet of photoetch provides upgrades to Revell’s 1/72 Sd. Kfz. 9 FAMO (03141) kit. The Revell kit is nicely detailed on its own, but for those of us wanting to reallydetailthe kit, Hauler provides this nice set of photoetch. The photoetch comes with a small instruction sheet listing each Revell part number to use, and instructions on whether something needs to be modified or replaced entirely. The instructions are simple and easy to follow. The majority… more |
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U.S. Army Field SafePublished:
Hauler produces photo-etched and resin upgrade sets for armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and dioramas. They also produce a few resin kits. Their products are in most of the common scale sizes, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/35, but they also produce a number of other items in common railroad hobbyist scales. This diorama accessory is a US Army Field Safe. The safe itself is a resin box, with 3 additional pieces of resin representing the combination dial, door handle, and the actual door with “US” stamped on the front. There is a small photoetch sheet, which contains six pieces of photo-etch that will make up the inside shelves for the safe. A simple instruction sheet is included too. Construction goes together very easily. The shelves are… more |
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Gold BarsPublished:
Hauler produces photo-etched and resin upgrade sets for armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and dioramas. They also produce a few resin kits. Their products are in most of the common scale sizes, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/35, but they also produce a number of other items in common railroad hobbyist scales. This set of resin gold bars is an example of some of the unusual items they offer. The set includes a stack of 12 bars and another four individual bars. All of the parts are attached to their sprue stubs, and you’ll need to take care when cutting them off. The stack of bars presented the most trouble for me to get off the stub while keeping the tops of the bars intact. I was able to sand down any imperfections and they came out pretty well. The stack… more |
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Smolensk 1943: The Red Army’s Relentless AdvancePublished:
Osprey’s Campaign series of books is a well-established line covering some of the more famous campaigns in military history. The series started 29 years ago with the Normandy landings and with this installment, Smolensk 1943 being one of their latest releases. As the battles around Kursk were winding down, Joseph Stalin began setting his sights on the next largest German army on the Soviet’s Western front the German Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Center). Operation Suvorov would launch the Soviet Western Front and Kalinin Front armies against the numerically inferior German forces concentrated around the city of Smolensk. The Soviet forces consisted of over 1.2 million soldiers, outnumbering the Germans by a ratio of nearly 3:1, but the Germans had held the area for nearly two… more |
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M-8 Armored Gun SystemPublished:
In the 80s, the U.S. Army began to look for a light tank to replace the M551 Sheridan. Specifically, the Army was looking for an air-deployable tank to support its airborne Divisions and to replace their TOW anti-tank HMMWVs. In 1992, the Army selected United Defense’s vehicle designated XM8-AGS. Six prototypes were made and the M8 began trials. The basic armor package of the M8 is made of welded aluminum alloy, designed for rapid deployment and was capable of being airdropped from a C-130. There were 2 additional levels of modular armor planned for the vehicle depending on the threat level of the operating environment. Each additional level obviously increased the weight of the AFV, which decreased it’s “air mobility”, but still kept it light enough that at its maximum armor… more |