City Building and Workshop

Published: December 3, 2012
Company: MiniArt

• Product/Stock # and Price:
  • Workshop – 72022, $43.00
  • City Building – 72019, $62.00

MiniArt is a Russian, I think, company that has produced a line of 1/72 scale buildings. These could be of use not only to the small scale modeler, but also to the model railroader as well.

I received two kits to review, a Workshop (72022) and a City Building (72019). I am reviewing them together due to the manner in which MiniArt has chosen to make them. Both very sturdy boxes contain multiple multi-colored sprues of interchangeable parts. By this I mean, for example, there are two or three different wall sections that can be assembled in many ways to produce several walls of varying appearance. The same holds true for roof and… more

Churchill Mk. III

Published: November 20, 2012
Company: Dragon Models

The Churchill tank had one of the largest production runs of any British WWII tank and was built in more variants than any vehicle except perhaps the Sherman. However, until very recently, it has been woefully under-serviced by the modeling manufacturers. The first kit was the old Airfix one from the 50's, which had many limitations. Then came the Aurora 1/48 one in the 60's which was almost toy-like. In the 70's came the 1/72/76 scale kits; the Hasagawa Mk I/II, ESCI Mk. III, Matchbox Mk IV bridge layer, and finally the 1/35 Tamiya Mk VII Crocodile. Since then, nothing has been released. However, Dragon has now released several small-scale models of this historic vehicle. The subject of this review is their kit of the Mk III version with the welded turret and 6 pdr. main gun.

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Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.B King Tiger

Published: October 17, 2012
Company: Airfix

For those old-timers in the hobby, the name Airfix may bring back many a fond memory of simple kits that only generally resembled what they were supposed to, and could be put together on a rainy Saturday afternoon at the kitchen table. However, since being taken over by the toy giant Hornby, Airfix has been in the process of re-inventing itself. Old kits are being updated and new ones issued as well. Their latest military vehicle offering is a King Tiger. It's all-new molding, as Airfix never did a King Tiger. There are 89 parts on three sprues. The molding is good – nice and crisp. However, they chose to mold all the tools and cables, etc., onto the hull. This makes adding zimmerit tricky and requires careful painting to pick them out.

The instructions are of the "silent"… more

British Heavy Cruisers 1939 – 45

Published: August 3, 2012
Book Author(s): Angus Konstam, illustrations by Paul Wright
Company: Osprey Publishing

This volume by Osprey/New Vanguard gives an overview of British 8 inch gunned cruisers (heavy cruisers by definition) in WW II. Four major sections deal with the design and development of the ships, the specifications of each class, the service history of each ship and a finally a description of the ships' armament and operation, the last part of which actually should have been a separate section as it is a general evaluation of the ships and their effectiveness.

The text is concise and efficiently written, containing a good deal of information in a small space. There are summary charts on the details of each class with one over arching table with comparative information such as dimensions, performance, armament, etc. There are b/w photos illustrating many of the ships but they… more