The origin of Pen and Sword Books is closely linked with its sister company, the Barnsley Chronicle; one of the UK's oldest provincial newspapers – established in 1858 – and one of the few weeklies still in private ownership. The first books published by the company were in response to public demand following of a series of articles published in the newspaper:- Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks told the story of crash sites in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park, and a further weekly feature on the history of two Kitchener battalions, known as the Barnsley Pals, aroused a thirst for more information. Following on from the success of Dark Peak Wrecks and Barnsley Pals books, a number of local history paperbacks were produced along with a series of battlefield guide books. Battleground Europe proved immediately successful and as more and more titles were produced the company made the decision to launch a book publishing arm of the group.

This is a review of the Veloce Buick Riviera 1963 to 1973

I haven’t written a book review in over 50 years, so bear with me.

The Veloce book is packed with information about the first three generations of the stylish, luxurious, and performance-oriented Buick Riviera. Tons of pictures accompany performance data, available option equipment for each year, changes and upgrades by year. I didn’t realize Buick started using the Riviera name in 1949 as a trim package and would later be changed/upgraded to compete with the Ford Thunderbird.

Also included are pictures of Riviera’s that have been customized with paint, wheels/tires, and body modifications.

The Veloce Buick Riviera is a fantastic addition to your hobby area reference materials.

Thank you to IPMS for allowing me to review this kit.

And now for something different – for this reviewer at least. I’ve always been intrigued with the bright brasswork of early automobiles and the combination of dark green paint and brass trim caught my eye when perusing the list of review items.

The kit arrives in a very sturdy cardboard box with separate cover in full color. Each tree is carefully wrapped, clear parts and rubber tires are packaged separately, and a very nice gloss printed instruction manual is included.

Construction is relatively straightforward, I deviated from some of the sequences to facilitate painting and avoid knocking off some of the smaller bits. The 10hp Renault engine is nicely detailed but I ran into problems attaching the exhaust pipe. Part of this is due to somewhat obscure illustration and compounding this was the fact that the pipe itself was broken during assembly. Let’s chalk that one up to builder error.

It was some time after 2:00 PM on June 10^th, 1979 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France. The 47^th 24 Hours of Le Mans had concluded with Car 41, the Porsche 935 K3 from Kremer Racing standing at the top of the podium, having won the rain-soaked race. The car was driven by Klaus Ludwig, Don Whittington, and Bill Whittington.

The kit box and instructions indicate manufacturers as Platz Co. Ltd. and NuNu Hobby Model Kit by Si Nok Development Company Ltd., both of Japan. The kit is molded in white and black with the usual supporting parts in clear and two mirrors in chrome. We also have a fret of photoetch, a sheet of mesh, and two sheets of decals. The paint color chart is on the outside of the box. This allows the buyer to see what he needs before purchase. The box photos of the model were somewhat helpful during assembly.

ICM has been going full bore on World War One ground war models for some time now, and during this process have come out with a variety of Model T variants from the period. As was the case elsewhere at the time, the Model T was pretty much ubiquitous, and served on all fronts in a remarkable range of roles. This latest offering provides no less than three variants all in one package.

Listed as “Anzac Patrol” the packaging offers a staff car, a utility truck and a scout car, all on a common chassis, the late-model 1917 variant of the Model T. Both the scout car and utility truck share the exact same sprues, with only the sprue with body parts distinguishing the scout car. Because of so much commonality among the vehicles, they can be built in an “assembly line” fashion that wouldn’t have seemed out of place to Mr. Ford himself.