History

The landmine has always been a danger to troops traveling in unprotected vehicles, and this threat was taken to new levels by insurgent forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result of attacks by mines and IED's, the United States military invested in a special mine clearing vehicle manufactured by Force Protection Inc. Called the Buffalo Mine Protected Clearance Vehicle, or MPCV, it is based on a 6x6 truck with a specially designed armored body. Its shape is designed to deflect blast away from the crew compartment, allowing the vehicle to survive quite large explosions. It carriers a crew of two, plus four plus engineers trained to detect and make safe mines and IED's planted by the road side. A 30-foot extending arm allows the crew to uncover suspect devices while staying safely within the vehicle. Powered by a 443hp Mack AI-400 engine, the Buffalo is capable of 65 mph and has a range of 300 miles. Combat weight is 27.5 tons, with a load capacity of 19 tons.

For those old-timers in the hobby, the name Airfix may bring back many a fond memory of simple kits that only generally resembled what they were supposed to, and could be put together on a rainy Saturday afternoon at the kitchen table. However, since being taken over by the toy giant Hornby, Airfix has been in the process of re-inventing itself. Old kits are being updated and new ones issued as well. Their latest military vehicle offering is a King Tiger. It's all-new molding, as Airfix never did a King Tiger. There are 89 parts on three sprues. The molding is good – nice and crisp. However, they chose to mold all the tools and cables, etc., onto the hull. This makes adding zimmerit tricky and requires careful painting to pick them out.

Sturmgeschutz, abbreviated StuG, was the weapon of the Strumartillerie, the branch of the German Artillery tasked with close fire support of infantry. StuGs were very successful in their intended support role and destroyed, among others, many bunkers, pillboxes, and other defenses. The StuG is not generally considered to be a true tank because it lacks a turret. The gun was mounted directly in a casemate-style fashion, with as low a profile as was possible to reduce vehicle height, and had a limited lateral traverse. Omitting the turret made production simpler and less costly, enabling greater numbers to be built. By late 1943, improved Allied tanks and tank destroyers with improved guns, rotating turrets, and superior mobility forced the StuG into being primarily an ambush weapon. From December of 1943 to March of 1945, 1139 were produced by Krupp at Magdeburg. StuG IV (Sd.Kfz.167) was armed with a 75mm StuK 40L/48 gun mounted in a cast version of “saukopf” mantlet.

The Kit

This is the Eduard photo etch set for the Vulcan Models Vickers Mk VIb. Included are 93 parts, only two of which replace photo etch parts that are included in the Vulcan kit.

The set includes 21 parts that add detail to essentially bare walls within the driver’s compartment. Where there had been just a seat, the floor, and three walls, you can have a nicely detailed interior, missing only a driver. The remaining 72 parts replace plastic parts, including the fenders, air intake, smoke launcher mounts, spot light mount, rear stowage basket, antennae mounts, and numerous parts for the gun mount. Detail parts for the fire extinguisher, tool rack, and muffler mount are also included. All of the parts but two supplement the photo etch that is provided in the main kit.

History

The Toldi was a light tank manufactured for the Hungarian army and was based on the Swedish Landsverk L-60B tank. It was named after the 14th century Hungarian knight Miklós Toldi.

The 38M Toldi was produced and developed under license from Swedish company AB Landsverk between 1939 and 1942. Only 202 were produced. There were four variants: