This is the third edition of Michael Rinaldi’s first book on modeling techniques. It has been expanded from 208 pages in the first edition and 224 pages in the second edition to a whopping 288 pages of glossy, high grade paper. This 64 page increase over the second edition includes three additional chapters, two by Michael Rinaldi, and one by Lester Plaskitt. The chapter on figure painting by Marijn van Gils is no longer included, but figure modeling by Lester Plaskitt to go along with his Sd.Kfz 251/22 Drilling is included. This edition is touting a “Lay-Flat binding” that works quite well, allowing you to open to a particular section and have the book stay open, ‘flat’ as it were.

Background

Prior to the start of World War Two, the armed forces of the Soviet Union were lacking in any sort of self propelled artillery. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by German forces in 1941, Soviet forces suffered massive loses of military material. Hand in hand with these losses came the forced uprooting of many of their key military production plants eastwards, away from the advancing German armies. But these plants were soon up and running again, and with heroic efforts on the part of the workers and plant managers, were soon churning out replacement vehicles in an attempt to cover the initial losses.

Not many of the Vickers A4E12 (late) amphibious tanks were produced and oddly enough only two were purchased by the UK from Vickers. In all, a total of 43 examples were produced with the largest number, 29 purchased by China in 1932. The Chinese A4E12s were used operationally through 1942 when they were turned over to the Army Mechanized School in Chengdu. The instruction history indicates this Vickers tank never saw any combat in China, but who is to say for sure. You may also notice a striking similarity between the A4E12 and the Russian T-33 light amphibious tank. Not so strange when you consider the Russians purchased eight examples from Vickers.

Italeri has recently begun producing a line of 1/56 scale AFVs and figures. This might be an unusual scale for most model builders, but is a fairly common wargaming scale equivalent to the 28mm scale. The Cromwell tank kit is one of their newest kits promoting the on-line video game, World of Tanks®. Italeri currently has four kits in 1/56 scale promoting World of Tanks®, the other three kits include the Pz. Kpfw VI Tiger, the Pz. Kpfw. V Panther, and the M4 Sherman.

This kit comes packaged in a side-opening box displaying a Cromwell tank crushing a burning car, with the British Union Jack flag in the background on one side, and a World of Tanks® logo proudly displayed on the other. This artwork is exactly the type of branding World of Tanks® does with their video game, and the result is very striking.

This magazine is a listing of 1/35 scale plastic model kits for German armored fighting vehicles (AFV). Most kits are shown on one page with the manufacturer and name of the kit, plus the name of the modeler that built the sample model.

The text is mostly in Japanese, but the manufacturer, model name, and model are all listed in English also. This makes it easy to thumb through the photographs and identify the kit manufacturer. The models are all beautifully done and the color photographs illustrate the models very nicely. Some of the kits are not shown as built examples but rather photographs of the box art and sprues. There are also a few reference photos of the original vehicles.

An introductory section shows detail photos of assembly and painting of an AFV Club Schwerer Panzerspahwagen Sd. Kfz. 232, and a Dragon Tiger I.

The book includes the following sections