Once in a while, you see a movie that, while not hugely financially successful, makes for a great 2 hours of fun. Such is the "The Relic", a 1997 monster flick starring Penelope Ann Miller, James Whitmore, Linda Hunt and Tom Sizemore. It shows up on cable pretty regularly and if you have the chance, watch it. The star of the movie is a 12 foot long mutant creature called the Kothoga that is part mammal, part reptile and all bad. It likes eating brain parts. Stan Winston Studios produced the monster and did it perfectly. Pegasus Hobbies has given a great opportunity to model the creature with this kit.

The kit itself is a mini diorama which contains the creature, a large museum base (the entire movie was shot in the Natural History Museum in Chicago), stanchions with rope, a name plate and a figure of the relic. The relic and Kothoga are molded in vinyl and the rest is in ABS plastic.

In 2003, Polar Lights re-tooled and re-released the classic 1966 Aurora kit in a larger 1/8” scale. This 2011 re-release includes 31 parts molded in blue and clear styrene. Parts had no flash and includes a new face sculpt, giving you the option of 2 different faces within the kit. This release also includes a newer comic book cardboard back highlighting a scene from the included comic book instruction manual where through the flames of war behind Captain America, visions of Bunker Hill and Iwo Jima can be seen among other American icons.

The overall construction is very simple, the comic book instruction manual has color instructions presented in the classic Aurora style. The Manual suggests that different sub-assemblies be constructed and painted separately, but I felt this method was too complicated for such a simple kit.

When this model set became available in the Reviewer Corps back in March 2009, I got all excited, and I thought I had reason to be. This seemed to be a project made for me, as a long time ago I was a Doctor Who fan and knew the Daleks probably better than your average IPMS/USA dude. But now, I look back at this project and wish I had never taken it. Frankly, I was going to get cute and throw in all sorts of in-jokes and trivia in this review, sort of like I did with the Lamborghini Jota review I did a few years back. This kit does NOT deserve it.

Nor does it deserve a "slam job".

The DShK 1938 (Degtyaryova-Shpagina Krupnokaliberny, “Degtyaryov-Shpagin Large-Calibre”) became the standard Soviet heavy machine gun of WWII. It fired 12.7x108mm cartridges (the West’s M2 .50 cal fired 12.7x107mm) fed by belt or box magazine. It was frequently deployed with a two-wheeled cart and a single armor shield (similar to that used by the Maxim) as well as on a tripod for anti-aircraft. It was mounted on GAZ trucks, on late war tank cupolas (IS-2, ISU-152) in tank turrets (i.e. T-40), and other vehicles and ships.

A modernized DShK 1938/46or DShKM version appeared post war, which looked much the same. The Soviet Union , Russia, People's Republic of China, Pakistan and Romania have manufactured the DShK which has appeared throughout the world. I recall in Vietnam it was called a “.51 cal.” as it fired a slightly larger round than our M2 (the rounds were not interchangeable), and was one of the weapons our vulnerable helicopters learned to respect.

Description:

Kit includes parts to build a four-wheeled, wagon-style, horse-drawn farm cart. The box art is nicely done, but is the only painting guide for the kit. The back panel of the box includes a sprue map and exploded-view assembly instructions. No decals are included.

Inspection:

The kit includes two sets of identical sprues, with a total of 52 parts molded in light gray soft plastic, including bottom, sides, front and back panels of wagon body, suspension pieces including front and rear axles, hitching beams and turning mechanisms for front axle, as well as four spoked wheels, seat bottom and backrest, and various hardware. There is no visible flash on any of the parts, but mold separation lines are present on all of the parts. The wood sections are nicely represented, with fine grain molded into the surfaces.

Assembly: