David Doyle's book on the US Coast Guard Cutter 37 is one of the latest entries in the 'Legends of Warfare' series with entries in Ground, Naval, and Aviation. Schiffer Publishing’s The Legends of Warfare series has expanded rapidly since its 2017 debut in the market with now over 100 titles released. This hard cover series covers a wide variety of monographs at a good price point. Catch up with Schiffer Publishing at https://www.facebook.com/schifferpublishing.
For some time now, I have been wanting to check out a Kagero publication. I see them for sale at the IPMS shows from time to time and I can’t believe I waited this long to get my hands on a copy. The only Aircraft Carrier I have in my stash is the Akagi so I thought this a fitting edition to start with. First of all, I have to say I was gob smacked at the quality of the print. The book is softbound, and contains amazing color images on a full color, gloss A4 sized paper.
Kagero's Super Drawings in 3D version was released in 2020. Kagero Top Drawings are geared for model builders in a more affordable and benchtop-useful format.
Another excellent pictorial book with large line drawings in color and B&W of an obscure subject - the most numerous class of post-war destroyers until the US Navy Arleigh Burke class, all started post-WW2. Project 30bis served as the backbone of Soviet fleet destroyers until the 1960s. This publication is designed for modelers, including scratch-builders, for any scale desired. The accuracy and number of views of the entire ship, ship sections, and ship fittings (even down to fairleads and bollards) are stunning, as usual. Even the colors appear to be accurate. This issue shows the class (named Smelyi class in Russia) as originally built - keep in mind there were many variations throughout a long time of service in Soviet and other navies.
Right off the bat the 2 inserts are going to grab your attention! The color Sheet C is a large 16”x23” profile and top view of the ship as she was in 1944. Additionally, it has a profile showing the armaments for 1944 as well. This color version is obviously to reflect the camouflage scheme and will be the perfect reference for painting. The flip side of this is sheet D, the planes arrangement on the stern deck, which includes 3-view and technical data for the OS2U Kingfisher and SC1 Seahawk aircraft.
While Kagero has an established reputation for quality books that modelers appreciate and use on their reference shelves, Super Drawings in 3D focuses on ships beautifully rendered in 3D CAD. Number 16056 in the series focuses on the Schnellboot Type S-38 and S-100, the most common of the WWII German Kriegsmarine classes, with the Type S-38B serving from 1939 and the S-100 from 1943, with both variants serving until Germany’s surrender in May 1945.
The book is broken into the following sections
One of the latest items provided to the IPMS-USA Review Corps by OKB Grigorov was this 1/350-scale submarine representing the Barracuda-class of submarines developed after WWII. The boat is 3D printed and is under the Trimotium Historic Miniatures name within the OKB Grigorov company that comes from Bulgaria. The kit contains a total of ten pieces and should not present too much challenge to any modeler familiar with working with either resin or 3D printed kits.
OKB Grigorov is a Bulgarian company that has been producing resin accessories and after-market bits for several years. My first experience with them was several years ago when I was searching for some embellishments for a 1/72-scale Merkava. I must admit that that was the last experience I had with OKB Grigorov. That was a mistake on my part, and this kit is how I fixed it.
As a member of the Reviewers Corps for IPMS/USA, we have access to several kits and modeling accessories that one might not otherwise have, and best of all, these accessories and/or kits are free if you conduct the review. Anyway, when several kits became available to the Reviewers Corps, I noticed the offerings from OKB Grigorov and thought, why not? Time to see what 'these guys' are up to, and I am delighted to inform you that OKB Grigorov has been up to quite a lot. All of it to a modelers favor. I will skip a full-blown review of their product line and simply suggest that you visit their website.
Overview
This is a new tool kit that they did it right. 6 options for anti-submarine and anti-aircraft fits. Accessories include a small photoetch fret that adds to the model, harpoon missiles, and three different SH-60B Seahawk models as well. I think AFV Club has put together a nicely detailed ship. Plenty of options, plus the instructions have good call-outs for those options that are well organized. I had a few quandaries as I went but nothing that I couldn’t resolve between multiple photos from the instructions and art. The fact that the microscopic pin and hole alignment for the masts actually functioned said a lot for the way they molded this kit. I found the hangar bay doors and the hangar bay itself didn’t fit without trimming and my original boxing had 2 B sprues which kept me from finishing this kit for months. IPMS was able to contact the manufacturer and get a new sprue C sent my way.
Paint colors used by Japan during WWII are elusive and always seem to be up for debate.
ICM has added a set of Imperial Japanese Navy colors to their range of acrylic paint sets.
This set is packaged in a small rectangular box with images of the colors printed on the front. The back of the box features a profile of a Japanese ship with color call outs. This set includes five 12ml bottles of color and 1 17ml bottle of clear gloss. The bottles have twist-off caps and the opening is big enough to allow a Popsicle stick to be used to mix the paint.
The colors in this set are as follows:
Another in ICM’s range of paint sets, which is intended for use with any kit of a WWII Royal Navy ship. The set contains the following six 12ml paint pots; I have listed their likely intended uses: