Subject

In the late 1970s, Porsche was dominant in GT and sports racing. For the 1978 race season, Porsche designed the 935/79 Turbo with the goal of claiming the Le Mans 24 hours title. The new longer, ground-hugging body of the car pushed the limits on the silhouette regulation. Due to the 935/78's unique body design, the vehicle earned the nickname "Moby Dick". The vehicle featured a 3.2 liter, air-cooled twin-turbo engine with four valves per cylinder and Porsche's first liquid-cooled cylinder heads, which produced 850hp. The race team entered the 935/78 Turbo in the World Championships for Makes Round 4, as a test for the Le Mans race, and in an impressive debut won. At the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours, the 935/78 qualified 3rd, but fell to an overall 8th place finish as a result of mechanical problems.

Allow me to start by thanking Pavla Models for their most generous contribution of numerous models for review by IPMS/USA.

Background

The "Lizzie" is one of my favorite aircraft for some quirky reason, and one on a very short list of those I wish I had the opportunity to fly myself. There were three versions - unsurprisingly the Mk.I, II, and III. There were a 189 Mk.I, 517 Mk.II, and 964 Mk.III, including license built. The Mk.I and Mk.III pretty much look alike - the Mk.II is recognizable by the smooth, slightly tapered engine cowl. As the Mk.I were quickly shunted off to the Middle East, the Mk.II is most prevalent in the early war years in Europe.

Most Dragon models today are a collection of old sprues and new sprues added to create a new kit variant. In this case, Dragon has done so and in this case, redid the areas that had zimmerit applied. This being said, you have many options that need to be reviewed and decided on before you start this kit.

Steps 1, 2, & 3 - Lower Hull

As with most armor kits, the first step is the running gear. Remember those choices I mentioned in the paragraph above, well, here is the first one. You have a choice of two slightly different drive sprockets. The second choice is between the end caps over the bogie springs, and the third is the choice of mufflers.

The instructions give you two sets of muffler and you will need to drill out some locating holes depending on which muffler type you have chosen.

Brief History

(taken from the photographic reference manual provided in kit).

Original conceived in 1915, as a little torpedo boat early prototypes were a failure due to the heavy weight of the torpedo. Soon afterwards, Italy entered WWI and more of the boats were ordered. Development never ceased, and by the end of WWI over 244 MAS's were in service. The first true torpedo MAS gained considerable fame by sinking the Austrian Battleships Wien and Szent Istvan.

Development of the boats continued thru the 20's and 30's. Speed was essential and improvements were made to the hull and more powerful engines installed. Finally the much sought after 40 knots was achieved in MAS 424 in 1928. Three 500 hp Isotta Fraschini Asso engines powered the boat.

Introduction

The Valentine tank was designed by Vickers-Armstrong as a private venture and was offered to the British War Department in 1938. Production for the Valentine started in 1939 with an initial order for 250 tanks. Eventually more than 8,000 Valentines in 11 different marks as well as various purpose-built types were produced, accounting for approximately 25% of British wartime tank production. Over the length of the war it was produced in several variants including the Archer ATG with a 17pdr and the Bishop SPG with the 25pdr. The Valentine saw service on several fronts including North Africa, Italy, NWE and the Far East.