History

This kit is a rerelease from an older one by Italeri. What has changed is the decal sheet. The kit is an easy build in one of four different versions, and I have chosen to model the Marine Corps Pelielu Island from August 1944.

In the Box

The contents of the kit are on five olive green styrene sprues. Also included in the box are a set of rubber tracks, a piece of plastic mesh for the deep wading tank screens, and decals for 4 schemes. There are evident sink marks throughout, mostly in places that would not be normally seen.

The kit instructions are a large booklet with 9 steps to complete the model. The ninth step shows assembly and application of the deep wading vents for one of the versions.

The four versions of the model are:

In late 1943 the British Cabinet of War submitted a request for a new cruiser tank that could counter the threat of the German 88mm cannon. This tank was to be named the A41 and by May of 1944 20 preproduction A41s had rolled off the production line. This vehicle was also called the Centurion Mk 1 and in April of 1945, six of these new tanks were deployed to Germany for field trials. Unfortunately, this was too late for these vehicles to see active service but the Centurion, in a number of different versions, formed the backbone of the British Cold War main battle tank core. This new release from AFV club adapts their base Centurion kit, first released in 2006, to cover this very first preproduction version of this important tank.

Thank you to Phil and to Bill for all the work that you do!

First Impression

This ICM offering is a bundle of two of previous releases: the T-34-85 Soviet Medium Tank kit No. 35367 issued March, 2018 and the Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.B. King Tiger with Henschel Turret kit No. 35363 released July, 2016. The kits are separately packaged. The King Tiger has eight light-gray crisply molded sprues and a set of vinyl tracks. The T-34-85 consists of five dark-green sprues, one clear sprue, a set of vinyl tracks and individually packaged body halves. Two decal sheets are provided. The King Tiger versions are: PzKpfw.IV Ausf.B s.Pz.Abt. Feldhernhalle, Hungary, March 1945; PzKpfw.IV Ausf.B s.Pz.Abt.

ICM has been pumping out the WWI-era model kits as of late and I have been reveling in it. After learning this kit was available, I jumped at the chance to grab it after recently finishing their FWD Truck kit. For this moderately skilled modeler though, this one proved to be a bit more challenging and frustrating. Details on the parts were crisp and the included engine is nice as well. However there are quite a few sink marks, and not all of them are so easily hidden.

What’s Inside the Box

The kit comes as the standard ICM kit does—with a colorful box top that slides off of an enclosed brown cardboard box. Parts were packaged well and details were crisp with no flash to speak of.

History

The name ‘clouded leopard’ is taken from a beautiful medium-sized wild cat that is found throughout much of Southeastern Asia and pictured below to satisfy your animal interest for this beautiful cat.

This kit is a Taiwan Infantry Fighting Vehicle (TIFV) and appears to closely resemble the Stryker vehicles I have seen at Ft. Lewis. That’s where the apparent similarity ends, as the basic CM-32 vehicle series is new design built in Taiwan, the Republic of China.