The second of eighteen different designs for an assault tank to break through enemy defensive lines. The designs were completed by May 15, 1943. No prototypes were built, but the project helped to set the stage for another heavy assault tank, the A39 Tortoise.

The kit comes in a sturdy flip top box with the computer created illustration of the model on the top. The parts come in several bags to keep everything, more or less, protected when shipped.

ICM continues to crank out some lovely combo kits these days, especially around World War 1 subjects. This kit, which includes both their previously released Type B Cargo Truck, as well as US drivers, is an example of this.

The Standard Type B Liberty Truck was the first standardized vehicle ever produced by the U.S. armed forces and was essentially an attempt to reduce the enormous inventory parts problems then associated with logistical support as well as come up with something that had all the best features of trucks of the time. It was produced by some fifteen firms to rigid specifications and served overseas starting around fall of 1918, so they were in service for little over a month before the end of the war. A large number of these were sold off to private companies and some served with postwar armies around Europe. All told almost 10,000 were produced – a prodigious number of one vehicle for those times.

This awesome book Includes a vast amount of information with a very complete description of the Sherman tanks from the early M4s through the M4A6. The book is profusely illustrated with black & white and color photographs, color illustrations, charts, and diagrams. Modelers, historians, and those interested in tanks in general will find this book to be an invaluable enjoyable resource. The text is informative and easy to read, and the illustrations are beautifully done.

The Jadgpanther was a Heer (German Army) tank destroyer based on the Panzer Mark V Panther tank chassis. They had an 8.8cm anti-tank gun installed in a fixed superstructure that replaced the Panther’s turret and 7.5cm gun. This Meng Model’s Jadgpanther is the last production run made from November 1944 to May 1945.

AFV Club has released their third version of a ‘Gun Truck’ employed by hard-pressed convoy security forces in Viet Nam. This time around we meet the ‘King Cobra’, sporting three 50cal M2 ‘Ma Deuce’ machine guns mounted on a fully equipped M113 APC hull, sans wheels and track, thrown right up into the bed of a M35 5-Ton truck, all black and bad. I took one look at the box top and I knew I had to build it.

The Viet Nam gun trucks have a fascinating history; borne of necessity, built with Southern ingenuity, and purpose-made to rain hell on its adversaries if attacked. While they were never officially sanctioned by the U.S. Army, an estimated 300 to 400 trucks were transformed in this way. Only a single gun truck, the ‘Eve of Destruction’, survives today, permanently on display at the Army Transportation Museum in Fort Eustis, VA.