Over the years of my modeling enjoyment one of the questions I am often asked by fellow modelers is, why did you buy that”? Usually these questions are in reference to a specialty tool (pinvise, punch and die, or hex punch) or specialty item (metal barrel, decals, or resin sets). My standard response has always been the same. This is a hobby and by its nature is supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable. Any item that I see as a way to make it more so is usually worth the price.

This new release from True Details definitely fits that bill perfectly. You get four sets of 16 different styled connectors. For the Ultra detailer, this is the cat’s meow in saving time. Depending on your use and ability, you can drill these out to handle one or several cables. Some of the larger connectors on my sample contained air bubbles but this could work to the builder’s advantage as you don’t have to drill out the connector to accept the cable.

Bronco models have repacked its Jeep and airborne anti-tank 6 pdr gun, together with 6 figures into this “full meal” boxing. Actually the vehicle has the necessary part to be the airborne variation used to tow the gun, including all the fittings for the ammo boxes.

When you open the box you find 26 (!) sprues –including one clear-, 3 photo-etch frets, and 3 decal sheets, including one for the soldiers rank. You get all the parts needed to model the airborne variation of the Jeep used to tow the gun, including all the fittings for the ammo boxes. You actually get several extra parts in this boxing and maybe you can model other versions of the Jeep, but I am not sure.

The surface detail is impressive, petite yet well defined. The tires even have the maker letterings in raised detail and would look very good under some dry-brushing.

Airifx continued their string of new releases related to British forces in Afghanistan with the Quad Bikes and crew. Basically, these are all-terrain vehicles adapted for military use. There are two complete vehicles and their accompanying trailers with four crew members. These are new kits, so the molding is superb. Given the diminutive size of these vehicles, however, the parts are rather fragile so please remove them from the sprues with care. The kits are molded in that familiar Airfix blue-grey plastic. There’s one sprue for the figures, two sprues each for the vehicles and trailers for a total of thirty seven parts. There is a modest decal sheet and colored instructions with 3-D drawings for instructions. As is typical with Airfix kits, the spues are packed together loosely in a plastic bag which means some loose, and this case, broken parts.

For those readers not familiar with this series of publications, they are published by Ampersand Publishing, the firm responsible for the excellent Military Models in Review (MMiR) armor modeling magazine edited by Pat Stansell, one of my favorite magazines. As the title suggests, each issue of Allied-Axis contains a number of photo journal articles covering various aspects of the Second World War. The issue under review today contains three separate articles. For the most part, each page of any given issue is devoted to a single photograph, with an appropriate written caption. Thus the detail contained in each photograph is extremely good, due to its size. For the most part, the clarity of each photograph varies from good to superb, depending on the quality of the original print used. The Journal paper quality utilized is also very good.

The Big Macks book is part of Ampersand Publishing Company’s Visual History Series - single-subject reference books featuring a historical introduction followed by extensive black-and-white period and walk-around photographs. The book is by renowned military author David Doyle, has 112 pages with two pages of text, and the remaining pages are all photographs. There are no ads.

The two pages of text is the Introduction, which provides a brief history of development of the various Mack truck models from the early NO-1, 2, 3, which were all prime movers. The introduction also describes the next two models, NO-4 and NO-5, which were wreckers rather than prime movers. The NO-4 trucks were used by the Army Air Forces as aircraft wreckers, whereas the NO-5 was intended for field artillery use. The NO-6 trucks were intended for Allied use through the Lend-Lease program, and the NO-7 was the final model of the wartime prime movers.