Overview

“WW2 Vehicles, Through the Lens 5” is a captivating installment in the "Through the Lens" series, authored by Tom Cockle. This book delves into the world of World War II vehicles, showcasing an impressive collection of historical photographs and detailed descriptions that bring to life the engineering marvels of the era.

Content and Structure

The book is structured in a way that balances visual appeal with informative content. Each chapter focuses on different classes of vehicles, including tanks, armored cars, and transport vehicles. The photographs are the standout feature, providing readers with a rare glimpse into the operational history and design of these machines.

ICM has released this kit, which uses the older release American Made truck G7117, now with the addition of the Mobile Field Chapel, figures and accessories. Such chapels were used by British Army Chaplains to perform their duties in all theaters of war. The kit contains:

• Nine grey Sprues
• Two clear sprues
• One Decal sheet
• One instruction guide

The detail quality is excellent in every way with this kit -- crisp and detailed molding has become the norm for the latest ICM kits.

The assembly is quick and easy as we have come to expect from these kits. It was seamless in every way, so I will not spend time writing about each stage. Instead, here are just a few points and comments.

The ever-busy Vargas Scale Models has recently released several World War I Russian armored tractors; each one slightly different from the others. One would think that this would make for a great opportunity to use an economy of scale, but that would be wrong - each version appears to have a different chassis, superstructure, armament, and armor. I guess Luis Vargas just woke up one day, and, for our benefit, decided to create a bunch of Russian tractors!

Vargas has historically occupied a niche specializing in unusual, 3-D printed, limited-run, resin armor models, mostly pre- and between the World Wars. So far, this has been a winning strategy for this prolific company, fleshing out all those subjects ignored by others. This offering continues in that tradition.

The Patriot missile system came into the limelight when it was deployed to allied bases during Operation Desert Shield/Storm. I remember a lot of footage of it being fired at incoming SCUD missiles, where it had some success. I have always wanted a Patriot system in my preferred scale, and Trumpeter has released the system with its prime hauler, the M983 HEMTT.

You get over 150 parts molded onto 7 sprues of gray plastic, a sprue of clear parts for the cab, a few extra parts, 14 rubber tires, a die-cut masking set for the windows, and decals. The instruction booklet leads you through the 16 steps of construction, and there is a separate Painting & Marking guide in full color with color call-outs for several brands of paints. Unfortunately, there are no detailed painting instructions for the engine, inside the cab, etc., so I used references from the internet for my build.

I recently reviewed ICM’s 1/72 offering of this iconic truck. When this version came up for a review, I could not say no to the opportunity to review it. According to scalemates.com, the original tool came from ICM in 2014 and has been reissued many times since. Given the age of the mold, there is a little flash, and the parts are crisp. As many ICM fans know, ICM plastic is on the soft side. It is easy to clean up, but you cannot be too aggressive when you clean up the pieces. There are ten frames, with two of them being doubled. There are two frames for clear parts and two sets of what I am assume is rubber for tires. There is a separate frame for the driver. The instructions are typical ICM, with exploded diagrams and paint call outs with ICM paints. Color-equivalent charts can be found online, so if you do not have ICM paints, you can easily find replacements. There are decals and markings for one vehicle in the 2022-24 time frame.