Tim Wilding
Reviews By Author
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The Second World War Illustrated, The Second YearPublished:
The second year of World War II was one of almost unrelieved disaster on the Allied side. The German side was doing very well, except their Italian partners. This 280-page illustrated book tells the story of the war from September 1940 to September 1941. This is the second volume in what I assume with be six book series. Here is the table of contents:
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Panzer III Aust. J "North Africa"Published:
The Panzer III was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany and used extensively in World War II. It was intended to fight other armored fighting vehicles. However, as the Germans faced the T-34, more powerful anti-tank guns were needed. Therefore, the Panzer III effectively swapped roles with the Panzer IV and was used primarily for infantry support. The kit can be built with standard Panzer III Aust J version with or without the spaced armor. The large, sturdy box holds six bags containing two sprues each, a small photo etched sheet and decals for five different versions of this tank. The instruction booklet is 20 pages long with 23 assembly steps and five color painting/decaling placement pages. You must decide before building which version you want, since you have to… more |
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Sd. Kfz. 173 Ausf. G2 JagdpantherPublished:
The Jadgpanther was a Heer (German Army) tank destroyer based on the Panzer Mark V Panther tank chassis. They had an 8.8cm anti-tank gun installed in a fixed superstructure that replaced the Panther’s turret and 7.5cm gun. This Meng Model’s Jadgpanther is the last production run made from November 1944 to May 1945. Meng packages this kit in a large, sturdy box with very nice box art and an AK-Interactive paint chart of the required colors to finish this kit. Inside this box are 10 tan colored sprues of plastic, one clear plastic sprue, one photo-etched sheet, one metal side skirt sheet, a sprue of poly caps, a small decal sheet, metal tow cable and a small length of chain for the boom. A bonus for this first edition run is a metal barrel. The instructions are a 26-page booklet… more |
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Ammo by Mig Jimenez ShadersPublished:
Ammo has released a new line of 20 paint effects colors in 10 ml bottles. I am reviewing four of these colors: #0863 Light Green 0864 Light Olive Drab, 0865 Military Green and 0866 Dark Green. These are the four green tones that they offer, along with blues, greys and earth tones. Here is what Ammo’s website says about this new product: “The AMMO SHADERS are a new type of product designed to create a variety of effects on all types of models in a simple and fast way. The transparent and ultra-fine paint allows all skill level of modelers to apply stunningly realistic effects that seemed impossible before. From fading effects to wear and tear, shadows and highlights, altering the colors to different hues, this new range can even be applied to effect base colors like a… more |
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MB Military VehiclePublished:
The develop of the iconic Jeep in 1940 lead to the production version known as the Willys MB Military Vehicle. Over 640,000 vehicles were produced by Willys and Ford during World War II. Meng’s new tooled kit follows their flame thrower version released a few months ago. The kit consists of three sprues of tan plastic, one sprue of clear parts and the Jeep’s body. There is no photo-etch parts and a small decal sheet for three different jeeps. One of the sprues is the 50-caliber machine gun and this is dated 2014. The other sprues are dates 2019. The 50-caliber machine gun receiver is molded separately and has a hollow barrel guard. There are three choices of barrel assemblies included. This is the best machine gun I have seen in 1/35 scale. The other two plastic sprues have a… more |
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French Light Tank R35Published:
The KitTamiya’s French Light Tank R35 is a new tooled kit of the pre-World War II tank. By the 1930s French military planners could no longer ignore the obsolescence of their masterpiece FT17 tank from late WWI, and work started on a genuine successor to fill the void. One of the answers they came up with was the R35 light tank, which utilized rolled steel lower and three-piece cast upper hull designs and was armed with the short barreled 37mm gun. It was crewed by two. When hostilities with Nazi Germany burst into life in May 1940 the R35 was right in the front line. While it showed its armor was reliable, the 37mm gun was inadequate when it came to take out German armor. The Fall of France in June 1940 meant that production of the R35 was curtailed to approximately 1,600… more |
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German Tank Destroyer Marder III M "Normandy Front"Published:
This kit represents the final Marder series of tank destroyer, the model M, that was used in Normandy during the D-Day operations. This version of the Marder was the most produced by the Germans during World War II. Tamiya has taken their kit # 35255 Marder III M from 2002 and added some new parts and figures. Gone are the one-piece rubber band style tracks being replaced with two sprues of link and length tracks. These new tracks make up two sprues that also include new drive sprockets and a dozen 7.5cm rounds to fit into the side ammo bins. A new sprue with four new figures, helmets and headsets is included. The new instruction sheet is in booklet style, not the older Tamiya trifold style. This is nice and helps in referring to different assembly steps – just flips the pages, not the… more |
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Pz. Kpfw. V Panther Ausf. G "Last Production"Published:
The German Panzer V Panther, next to the Tiger, is probably one of the most popular and recognizable tanks of World War II. Academy has released the G version of this iconic tank in an all new tooled kit. This version is from very late in the war, about January to April 1945 timeframe. Inside the large box is five bags of sprues, two instruction sheets and a small bag of decals and photo etched sheet. The F sprue is attached to the C sprue. There are four sprues of link and length tracks and four of the D sprues which is mainly road wheels. I like that the sprue letters are molded as cut outs, not the raised letters as usually. This makes it much easier to find and read these letters. Eight clear poly caps are included, but only two used. The decals sheet is three turret number options… more |
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KTO Rosomak Smoke Grenade LauncherPublished:
The KTO Rosomak is a Polish 8x8 wheeled Infantry Fighting Vehicle. This smoke grenade launcher upgrade set is made for the IBG Models KTP Rosomak Polish APC – “The Green Devil”, kit number 35032 and for kit number 35033, the basic Polish APC. It is designed to be used with any Rosomak that have the 30mm turret. This aftermarket kit consists of a resin plate, six brass launcher tubes, two types of resin tube covers and five very small brass rivets. The kit is very well packed in clear plastic bubble pack that is stapled to a backing card. There is a one-page instruction sheet that is inside this backing card. The parts are housed in cutouts in the foam backing, so they are very well secured and easy to see while still packaged. The resin feels more like plastic to me,… more |
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Osprey Duel 90 - USN Fleet Destroyer vs IJN Fleet Submarine: Pacific 41-42Published:
This book is number 90 in Osprey’s Duel series where they take two opposing forces and compare/contrast them. The two subjects are the Imperial Japanese Navy’s submarines verses the US Navy’s destroyers. The book explains the develop of both these forces before the attack on Pearl Harbor, then goes into greater detail of the next 13 months of fighting until the end of 1942. The book starts with a four-page introduction detailing Japanese developing submarine tactics of using their force to attack US Navy capital ships in a war of attrition leading up to a decisive grand battle between the fleets. They developed large, fleet submarines that were over 300 feet long and had airplane hangers on them. Whereas, the US Navy’s destroyer force was not training is anti-submarine warfare… more |