This kit is a representation of the British Army’s attempt to mount the 25 pdr Field gun on the Valentine chassis to create a self-propelled gun. The need was created by the fluid nature of the North Africa battles. This stopgap design served the British Army till replaced by the American M7 Priest and the Canadian Sexton.

Box Contents

Sprues and decals

History

The Sd.Kfz.6 Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen was designed by Bussing-Nag and Mercedes Benz as a prime mover for the German army – one of a number of half-track designs. The unit was produced during the 1930’s. The Sd.Kfz.6 had a five ton pulling force, capable of pulling off the road. It was built from 1935 to 1943 in several versions. In 1942, production ceased, and the Sd.Kfz.11 took its place, as this unit was cheaper and easier to manufacture. The pioneer version had a passenger body of up to 15 soldiers. This vehicle weighed 9 tons and was powered by a 6 cylinder 115 php Maybach NL54 engine, with a maximum speed of 50 km per hour.

Items in the Box

The model is made from injection-molded plastic, tan in color, with thirteen good presentation instructions, decal sheet and clear window and lens sheet, and a photo-etch sheet.

Let me start this out as saying this is my first IPMS review and I hope you find it informative and interesting. The IT-1 was a Soviet Cold War missile tank based on the chassis of a T-62. Instead of a main gun, the tank fires specially designed 3M7 Drakon missiles from a pop-up launcher atop the turret. The vehicle saw very limited usage from 1968-1970. The tank became unpopular with the military due to the limited amount of ammunition and a large dead zone around the vehicle which was created by the missiles minimum range. Eventually the IT-1s were converted to recovery vehicles.

Anyone who has ever worked on his own car, either tinkering with a modern Honda Civic or Dodge Grand Caravan or a classic automobile like a 1960s Mini Cooper or Ford Mustang, will know the series of repair manuals under the Haynes brand name. Over the past few years, the Haynes title has begun producing a series of books covering aviation and military vehicle topics, including the title in this review, the M4 Sherman tank. As the blurb on the title page states: “An insight into the history, development, production, uses, and ownership of the world’s most iconic tank”.

This book is a hardback edition, A4 format in size, and contains 164 pages. It is divided into 8 main sections, each of which is well illustrated with black and white and color period photos, color photos of restored vehicles, together with numerous tables covering production and serial numbers, as well as photo captions from wartime Sherman tech manuals:

MiniArt has released a model of the 1941 GAZ-MM. These trucks are very similar to the Ford A and they were widely used in World War 2 by the Soviet Army.

This model is not a limited run release. There was no flash at all, and the connector gates are small. There are few locating pins and the plastic is a bit soft, so be careful when removing parts from the sprues. I know that by experience, as I managed to damage and/or bend some very small parts when releasing them from the sprues.

You get 14 sprues, including a small photo-etch fret for a total of 371 parts. There is a very small decal sheet, which only applies to one of the three finishing options. Instructions covers 35 steps, not counting sub-assemblies required within several steps. The instructions are a bit vague at moments. Make sure you dry fit all parts and consider looking at the subassemblies in later steps, to be sure you are putting them together right.