Tamiya has released a newly tooled kit of the M18 Hellcat. There are six new sprues along with a clear sprue from their M4A3E8 kit and a sprue for the 50-caliber machine gun that is from past kits. A decal sheet has two marking options. A length of black thread is used for the tow cable and has enough for two lengths. Two poly caps are included in a small bag. There are no photo-etched parts. The black and white instruction booklet is 16 pages long with 37 construction steps. A separate color three-page, tri-fold supplement has the two painting/marking schemes and a history of the M18 in eight languages. Something different with the instructions is that it shows painting and decal marking locations in each step, plus they are also on this supplement.

Like many avid modelers of WW2 armor, I have to admit that until recently I had a major blind spot regarding Hungary’s contribution to the Axis cause. Amazingly for such a relatively small economy, Hungary possessed even then a robust arms industry. They did purchase armor from other sources, the most notable being Germany and Italy, but even so their home-grown products were comparable to some of the best equipment in the world at the time. I really have no idea how they’ve slipped under the modeling radar until recently.

Mr. Martinez’s book is absolutely stuffed with never-before-seen pictures of Hungarian armor, both indigenous and otherwise, and although printed completely in French, it still provides an excellent overview of this poorly documented subject. I spent some time translating the chapter and subchapter headings, which gives you some idea of the contents:

Heimdal is a prolific French Publisher of military history and is distributed by Casemate Publishing. It is a large book at 520 pages and hundreds of black and white and color photographs as well as contemporary drawings and profiles done by the author. The text and captions are in French, though it appears there was an English version of this work from another publisher. My reading knowledge of French is minimal, but that did not take away from my enjoyment of this work. In many regards, the photographs speak for themselves, but a rudimentary knowledge of French might be helpful in reading the captions. It would have been nice to also see color profiles of the trains. There is a plethora of material, so each page is loaded with photographs.

Boom. And just like that a Academy Panzer II model kit landed at my door. So The adventure begins. I have built many models of armor but was not a fan of early German subjects. This kit looked interesting and as a new molded kit I was curious what new technologies have been used on this kit. This review will read like bullet points for easy reading.

Un-Boxing

The box itself has very nice art on it. Paint call outs on the side have seven manufacturers listed and are a big plus in my book. The manufacturers are: Humbrol, GSI Creos, Life Color, Model Master, Revell, Vallejo and AK. The kit is a skill level 4 (out of 5) and is clearly marked on the box. The box itself is top opening and very stout.

This is a downloadable user guide from AMMO, it is in pdf format and very interesting to look at. The guide can be found in the Downloads section at the top of the AMMO website.

There are ten pages to the guide and is designed to get a familiarization on the use of both Acrylic and Enamel washes.

The first part of the guide talks about what a wash is and what it is used for then goes into the differences of an Acrylic or Enamel wash. The guide shows that AMMO has an acrylic wash the same color as their Enamel washes. How to use the washes is the next section of the guide and why use acrylics.

This was a basic and quick review of the user guide because it is very easy to go to the website and see the guide for yourself.

Go to: https://www.migjimenez.com/img/cms/PDF/AMMO_Acrylic-Enamel-Washes.pdf