ICM has done it again with a great combination kit with three early World War II armored vehicles. This boxing Wehrmacht Armored Vehicles (DS3524 – Diorama Set) has three complete kits: Sd.Kfz. 247 Ausf B, Panzerspähwagen P 204(f), and Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf A. From the ICM webpage for the Wehrmacht Armored Vehicles boxed set:
ICM continues to be prolific with both kits and paint sets. The Acrylic Paint Set for WWII US Navy Vehicles is no exception and consists of six 12ml paint bottles, that are surprisingly not dropper top style, but rather are wide mouthed. The colors include:
Painting instructions are on the side of the packaging, stating
ICM continues its tradition of releasing unusual subjects, and this one has never been kitted before – a U.S. Army kitchen truck. Unlike some of the other army logistical services, the U.S. Army in World War 2 did not have dedicated vehicles for delivering hot food to front line troops. Instead, portable equipment was loaded onto vehicles and transported to where they were needed, and normally unloaded on the spot.
This new kit by ICM includes a standard short-bed Chevrolet truck and a good amount of cooking equipment, which can either be displayed on the truck bed or unloaded for a quick diorama. Detail is excellent throughout.
This is one of the newer offerings from the Ukraine based company ICM. The Zil-131 has been reboxed many times by ICM. The original tool, however, dates to the 1990s. Considering the age of the tooling, despite some very minor flash, the details are very crisp for a military truck and trailer at this scale. A note on the trailer, I cannot find any information on the trailer, so I do not know if this an older ICM mold or from another manufacturer. The kit comes in a sturdy ICM box. The sprues for the truck and the trailer are packaged in separate cellophane bags. There are two separate instruction sheets in ICM’s typical style with paint callouts in their own brand of acrylic paint. There are decals for two vehicles.
This is my 3rd ICM kit to review. This kit was by far my fastest build out of the ICM kits I have done. This one took me about a week to complete. Quick build, but just as satisfying as the other kits I have done from ICM.
The Humvee has always been a personal favorite of mine and I have always wanted to do a Humvee build. Based on my previous experience with the other ICM products, I was looking forward to this build. As I have come to expect from ICM, this kit was very nicely detailed and very clean. Almost no flash to clean up at all. Had very few issues of parts not fitting correctly, and those few problem spots were easily fixed, either through clamping parts together until the glue was able to set, or very subtle manipulation of the parts to get them to connect correctly.
The Stalin tank series was developed in the Soviet Union during WW II to deal with the German Panther and Tiger tanks. It had heavy, well-shaped armor and a powerful 122mm gun that could pierce the frontal armor of nearly any Axis tank at over one thousand yards. Its greatest drawback was that the main gun used two-piece ammunition, which slowed down the re-loading time, thus putting the tank at a disadvantage in a “shoot out” situation.
This book’s title is a little misleading. While Panzer Crewman, does focus on the Germans in the Panzerwaffe, it is also an excellent primer and one-stop shop for history of Germany’s World War II panzers, tactics, and how they were employed from the first offensive battles to the grinding defensive battles on three fronts.
The authors wrote,
It’s worth comparing this, the first German tank (Panzer I), with the last into full production, the Tiger II. The PzKpfw I weighed just over 5 tons and was 13ft/4m long. The Königstiger was 68 tons and 33.8ft/10.3m long. The speed of development was dictated by what happened on the battlefield as each side alternately took the lead in an increasingly competitive arms race.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that you can’t put down. For me, it’s typically a fictional mystery. Hitler’s Miracle Weapons, Volume 2 offers all the suspense of a fiction mystery, except that it’s not. It’s non-fiction, is full of surprising facts, offers clues to mysteries still yet to be solved, and will keep you wanting more.
The use of rockets and rocket-powered flying craft by the Third Reich is not a new discovery, but what were the real intentions in terms of the development and use of these strange and mysterious weapons? Was Wernher von Braun just reaching for the stars? What secrets are still hidden in large underground rocket bunkers in France and Germany? Why are many documents regarding Hitler’s rocket program still classified today? Was there a V-Weapons atomic rocket unit?
If you are curious about any of these questions and many more, this book is an absolute must-read.
“Seidentasche aus dem Ohr einer Sau” is German for “Silk purse from a sow’s ear.” I like older kits and have a soft spot for building something beautiful from an old kit; however, when a kit is newly released, I expect more than a model from the 1970s. This kit traces its lineage to ESCI Kit No. 8026 (first released in 1974). This version of the kit first entered Italeri as Kit No. 7018 in 2004 with new decals. This kit (7018 on Italeri’s website, 557018 on MRC’s website) has amazing box art of a Panther Ausf A with Zimmerit, schürzen, new decals for five versions, link-and-length tracks, and one figure. Apart from the decals, this kit is the same as the previous Italeri version from 21 years ago, which is the same Esci kit going back over fifty years.
Reference the MRC website (https://www.modelrectifier.com/product-p/557018.htm),
Vargas Scale Models has historically occupied a niche specializing in unusual, 3-D printed, limited-run resin armor models, mostly pre- and between 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 M1917 was the United States' first mass-produced tank, entering production shortly before the end of World War I. It was a license-built, near-copy of the French Renault FT17, and was intended to arm the American Expeditionary Forces in France. American manufacturers, however, failed to produce any in time to take part in the War. Of the 4,440 ordered, about 950 were eventually completed. These remained in service throughout the 1920s but did not take part in any combat, and were phased out during the 1930s.
