In the 1950’s the American trend saw greater use of the pickup trucks as second vehicles, Due to good marketing Chevrolet set records in the production of trucks with a market share of almost 37%. The 1950 3100 had a 6 cylinder Thriftmaster motor that utilized a GM Model ‘B’ downdraft carburetor with a concentric fuel bowl and a centrally located discharge nozzle. This carb had an improved fast-idle/choke mechanism that helped cold weather starts. The deluxe cab had optional Nu-Vue windows with chrome trim, a wooden floor in the cargo box and optional chrome grille and bumpers. This AMT kit comes with optional parts to make a stock 3100 pickup or a road service vehicle for a Texaco service station truck. The kit also comes with a color pre cut placard with the box top art work suitable for framing.

Britain's most produced tank during WWII was the Vickers Valentine, representing a full 25% of all tanks built. The Valentine made its combat debut in Operation Crusader in North Africa, 1941 and production ended in 1944 after 8,275 were built. All but 30 of the 1,420 vehicles built in Canada were Lend-Leased to Russia, along with 2,394 of the British built Valentines. It is said that when offered replacements, Russian crews asked to keep their dependable Valentines. No wonder then, that the Ukraine model company, MiniArt, was the first to provide a truly state of the art model kit of the Valentine, with one version kitted specifically as one of the Valentines that served on the Eastern Front. MiniArt has marketed a few variations of the Valentine to capture the subtle differences between them. These are all new tooled models – they are not re-releases of the old Alan, VM or Maquette models. Every serious Armor modeler should have a Valentine in his collection.

This kit is an acknowledged reissue of a kit first issued in 1966. In those days, for you youngsters out there, the big thing was motorized kits, especially armor. Accuracy was not terribly important, as long as it looked cool squeaking its way across the carpet. Usually black, the rubber tracks were stretched around the running gear and off it went. This kit is that kit, minus the stamped metal gear box, motor(s), and wired control box (no RC, kids, just levers and wires).

MiniArt has recently issued another link in their diorama chain of accessories. This time it’s a modular Brick Wall consisting of three main sections, two half sections (which appear to be blown out) and two corner units which can be assembled into any configuration that you wish. These “walls” are vacu-formed and needs to be cut carefully and then assembled. The length of the walls can be doubled if the backs aren’t going to be seen. The set consists of six full wall pieces and four half end pieces, and two lamp poles. The lamp poles are attached to two white sprues which also contain parts that must be in common with other kits. Some of these items can be used for whatever purposes you can think of. There are lamp hangars, which can be attached to an outside wall, which supports lamps that are also provided as extras. I have seen these on other kits while checking out their web site. Consider it a bonus, I guess.

One sure way to mess up the kit speculators is to re-release a rare kit. In this case, re-releasing the classic Monogram B-52 with X-15 combination was eagerly awaited, as some on the open market paid over $400 for this particular kit, which was released in the “Young Astronaut” series back in 1992 or so. Thanks to Revell/Monogram for providing us this excellent kit!