This is a multimedia kit comprised of 650+ styrene parts on 17 sprues, magic tracks, one braided metal wire (which is very stiff even after annealing), one photo-etched fret, decals, and the set of instructions that need to be reviewed very carefully before gluing any parts together.

Most Dragon models today are a collection of old sprues with new sprues added to create a new kit variant. In this case, Dragon has done so and you will have some sprues with the same letter but are called out by the color or upper or lower case (see Sprues Black G, Blue G and Black g).

Step 1. This step is the assembly of the idler wheel, drive sprockets, road wheels, and return wheels. There are no problems here other than the removal of the mold line which is noticeable on the road wheels.

Step 2. This step is the chassis build. There are 4 mold stubs on the top of the chassis tub that need to be removed. If you don’t remove these stubs the fenders will not fit.

This book is the third in the "Under the Gun" series from Australia’s Firefly Books from the Oliver Publishing Group, which must bring their title list to around a dozen titles by now. This edition has more than 50 black and white photos. “Images are from the US National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) collection, showing captured or disabled vehicles; many of these have never been reproduced – 21 different vehicles are depicted in the color illustrations created by talented Chilean artist Claudio Fernandez.” With only one to three large photos per page, all with excellent captions, the reader can actually see the details the author refers to. How many times have you scratched your head trying to identify details an author points out, that he may have been able to have seen on his 8 ½ x 11 pre-publication glossy that became virtually invisible when shrunk to the small published size?

Squadron Signal has produced another of their walk around publications that features a detailed look at a piece of military equipment, in this case the M26 Dragon Wagon. Recently, Squadron has begun to produce a softback and hardback edition of these works; this happens to be the softback version. A review of the hardback version can also be found on this website.

The latest installment of the Panzer VOR! Series (#6) concentrates on the balance between armor and firepower among the AFVs used by the German army in WWII.

Armored fighting vehicles need to have the proper balance between mobility, armor (protection), and firepower. Increasing or decreasing one would affect the other two. The book has a 3-page introduction on how the different parameters were modified during WWII for the Panzer I, II, III, IV, Panther, and Tiger tanks. It is clearly interesting to observe that with each mark (A,B,C, etc) there was an increase in fire-power and armor at the expense of mobility through the period 1939 to 1945.

The book also briefly covers the same “gun vs armor” equation for the allied forces, including the Sherman, Matilda, and T-34, among others.

Armies cannot conduct military operations without supplies; the German Army had no problems with their supply trucks in the European areas, but found their trucks useless during the Russian spring and autumn “mud” period on the Eastern Front. A quick solution was to equip the rear wheel drive trucks with a tracked running gear. The 3 ton truck was the most widely used in the German Army, so these would be the basis for the fabrication. Four different tracked trucks were built: Opel, Ford, Klockner-Humboldt, and a heavy 4.5 ton truck by Mercedes-Benz. The official designation was Gleisketten-Lastkraftwagen or more often seen as Gleisketten-LKW offen (tracked lorry open) Sd.Kfz 3. The troops referred to all of them as “Maultier,” or mule in German, as it excelled in moving through mud – slow but steady.