Eduard has produced this nice photoetch set to add considerable detail to ICM’s Horch 108 Typ 40 WWII German Personnel Car. The set adds much better detail to the light and equipment mounting brackets on the front fenders, the brackets and plaques on the rear doors, the rifle clamps, and many other miscellaneous details.
This is a new, very nice kit from ICM. The parts have very good detail, go together will, and end up with a highly detailed model. Care must be used due to small parts, so the kit may be difficult for beginners.
The kit comes with all the parts in one plastic bag. The five vinyl tires are separately bagged, as are the clear plastic sprue parts. The bulk of the kit is on six dark yellow sprues. The parts have extremely good detail and there are many finely cast pieces. There are lots of small pieces and the kit includes 211 parts overall. The front grill is particularly well cast with openings between the individual grill slats. There is no flash apparent on the parts and mold seams are minimal. The detail on the parts is incredible and this should make for a highly detailed model. The plastic is quite soft so care will need to be taken to avoid gouging the plastic when cleaning up the parts.
The BMD is an air-droppable infantry combat vehicle built originally for the Soviet Airborne Forces. It was one of the first vehicles into Afghanistan in 1979 and like BMP soon proved to be inadequate to the task. Like the BMP, the BMD was upgraded as a result of the war experience, being fitted with a 30mm 2A42 automatic cannon and 7.62mm PKT machine gun and the AT-5 Spandrel anti-tank missile system. These upgraded vehicles were built and they served in Afghanistan and in Kosovo with SFOR. The vehicles still serve in the airborne forces of Russia and Ukraine. According the Cookie Sewell 2500 were built and the majority of the BMD-2 and the older BMD-1s were placed in storage in depots around Russia and the Ukraine. Fast forward to 2014 and crisis erupted in the Donets Basin (DONBAS) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbass)
This is the first Takom kit I have built, and I must say I was most impressed once I opened the box and got into the build.
In the box is:
The sprues are well molded with very crisp details on all the parts with no flash. The plastic itself seemed very soft. The sprue lay out is a dream and makes it extremely easy to find parts as needed.
Construction starts with the upper Hull. This is very easy to assemble with few or no issues at all. My only personal comment is the total lack of interior detail, which would have added a lot to the kit, and allowed for the various hatches and doors to be built open. The machine gun and cannon sub-assemblies are built next, and do have a few fit issues that needed filling. Once the gun sub-assemblies are installed, the upper hull is set aside for now.
Dragon Models offers up yet another premium early Tiger I kit for German WWII armor enthusiasts; this time with the famous ‘131’ vehicle captured in North Africa. This particular vehicle was shipped to Tunisia between 12 March and 16 April 1943. The tank was assigned to No. 3 Platoon in No. 1 Company of the 504th Schwere Heerespanzerabteilung (German heavy tank battalion) during the North African Campaign. It bears the turret number 131 by which it has come to be known. Preserved at The Tank Museum in Bovington, England, it is the only operating Tiger tank in the world.
The New Vanguard series is Osprey’s long running series that looks at weapon systems through the ages. One of their most prolific authors, Steven J. Zaloga, has turned his considerable talents toward one of the most least understood Soviet Main Battle Tanks, the T-64. Unlike other Soviet tanks that were exported around the world and have seen combat, the T-64 has largely remained within the confines of the old Soviet Union, making this volume on the slim side. As with all Osprey books, this one includes color profiles by Ian Palmer, a cut away of the vehicle, and plenty of photographs.
The kit contains a 3 ton truck, apparently an Opel Blitz although it does not say so, a driver figure, and a sprue of fuel drums, jerry cans, bags and rolled up tarps, and decals for two marking options.
There are two duplicate sprues for the wheels and tires, some suspension parts, headlights and other parts that are identical. The ejector pin marks are on inside of truck bed and inside of the doors and easy to hide. Unfortunately, there is no option for canvas cover to be over the bed. There is also no engine in the kit. The grill is molded solid as are the tool clips. The kit does have an option for clear headlight lenses or covered headlights with a horizontal slit across the face of the headlight.
Initially the assembly went very well. The parts fit well and are generally designed for easy assembly. The steering column inserts from engine well side of the firewall and is very secure, ensuring proper angle of the steering wheel.
L.Z. Models has added another great vehicle to their line of wartime construction equipment with a resin kit of the US Army LeTourneau CarryAll LS Scraper. The CarryAll is a smaller LS variant of the famous Le Torneau scraper, and was used widely by US and other armies during and long after WWII. The Scraper was usually seen towed by a CAT D7 and later a D8 tractor, and is a perfect companion to L.Z. Models’ tractor and bulldozer kits.
The L.Z. Models kit is a challenging build due to the intricate cabling system, but was enjoyable to work through the assembly. Resin and photoetch experience is required for this kit.
No one needs to remind the typical armor modeler of the significance of the Russian T-34 in the development of modern armor. I have at least twenty variants of this machine in my own collection, and have been fascinated with this vehicle ever since Tamiya released the very first decent versions back in the 1970’s.
This latest addition to the T-34 inventory comes from Academy models, and is a T-35/85 specific to the last-stage battles of World War 2 that took place within the confines of the German capital immediately before capitulation. At that point, even twelve-year-old Hitler Youth were being armed with the cheap and effective panzerfaust, and being sent up to the front lines often with nothing more than a solitary single-shot weapon. But they were effective enough to create some consternation among the Soviet armored columns driving into the heart of the city.
I remember assembling my first Tamiya Panther kit back when I was in college; a wee bit before the Paleozoic. That was in the heady days when a typical tank model could be thrown together over a weekend. What they lacked in detail was more than made up for by expeditiousness.
My last encounter with the Panther D was with Italeri’s release, which I made some years ago. This kit had poorly rendered wheels and other shortcomings, but was still an enjoyable build. This latest release from Tamiya, however, eliminates these shortcomings and offers what may well be the definitive Panther D.
