It’s a little hard after all this time for the average person (like me) to really understand the magnitude of the disaster that was the 1986 Chernobyl Reactor #4 meltdown. Although the Russians themselves are pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, it is roughly estimated that somewhere above 300,000 workers ( called “liquidators,” ironically) were cycled through the clean-up process between 1986 and 1989, although as many as 500,000 might have been involved. At least 40 died immediately or only shortly thereafter, and of the rest . . . well, the stories aren’t pleasant. One worker from a team of around 30 states that he and four others are the only ones alive today, all others having succumbed to cancers of various sorts. What the ultimate death toll was (or will be) is unknown, but it may have resulted in as many as a million premature deaths worldwide.

It never rains but it pours. The first company to release styrene figures from the Civil War was Dragon, which released a terrific set of Union soldiers in 1/32nd scale some decades back. Unfortunately, they never followed up with the promised Confederate infantry, as they apparently didn’t feel the sales merited it (hard to understand, as I literally bought a case of them for myself).

However, recently two different companies have suddenly released figures from that era – Masterbox and now ICM. ICM, in my opinion, has taken the lead in this arena by releasing BOTH Union and Confederate troops.

This new book is the second in a series for Wargaming terrain published by Pen & Sword. This book specifically focuses on buildings and terrain for Africa and the Middle East.

The structure of this book is based on an introduction to the author’s techniques for building terrain for war-gaming. The book starts with an overview of important tools that a modeler will need to complete builds for their games. This is followed by sections that focus on the paints and materials that are used in the individual builds.

After the introduction, the bulk of this book is taken up by a series of builds that are intended to show off a range of techniques for building buildings. There are four main sections, each section focuses on a specific type of building or terrain and attempts to display a basic structure that can be improved in subsequent builds. Each subsection is designed to build on the skills displayed in the last subsection.

Those of us of a certain age remember well the Berlin Wall and what it stood for and probably still remember when it was torn down in 1989. Those of you who are younger may never heard of it. If not, it is worth an internet search.

The kit has already been reviewed here and a very nice job was done so I went for a less weathered look, partly to be different and partly because I haven’t decided how I want to display it yet. It yearns for a vignette or diorama setting.

The build is pretty simple. There are 3 sections of wall each made up of 3 parts. There are also 3 pieces to place on top of the wall though only 2 are needed for the 3-piece section.

When completed the section is just over 4 inches long, 4 inches high and almost 2 and a half inches wide.

Once again ICM is modeling one of the worst man-made disasters of the 20^th century – the catastrophic explosion and meltdown of the Number 4 nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986 – an event that would impact most of the world in one fashion or another. That ICM has the boldness to create such a fascinating look at recent history in model form says a lot about this company’s choices of subject. The fact that they are continuing with this series says even more.

In the Chernobyl #1 set, we explored the sealing of the area and the first radiation checks by local authorities. In this set, we confront the conflagration itself, with firefighters taking the first steps to control the resultant fires caused by the explosion of the reactor. This set combines a large fire engine, four new firefighter figures, a bit of debris and a picturesque backdrop that duplicates the cover of the box.