I think most of us realize that if we want more detail we will often find it in resin sets, and if we really want the best barrels we’ll find them made for of us out of brass. The Polish company, Master Model, has been producing excellent brass barrels in 1/32 and 1/48 scales for the aircraft modeler and 1/700 and 1/350 brass barrels for the ship modelers. Recently, they have started a line in 1/72 scale and the first product is one that everyone can use – Browning M2 aircraft .50 caliber barrels. Just think of all the Allied aircraft that mounted the M2 .50 caliber machine gun and you can see how popular this could be.

Description

This is my second review of Sci-fi & fantasy modeller and I am a bit disappointed. I like to challenge myself to present a balanced review of the Good, Bad and Ugly and at the same time keep it very objective. However, as in my first review, I can not find any Bad or Ugly to report on. Once again, the fine editorial staff and writers have produced a magazine filled with a variety of high quality articles produced on high quality materials and definitely worth the purchase price.

The publication consists of 100 pages, about 7 X 10 inches on heavy stock semi-glossy paper. The isssue is very article dense with only a few advertisements with over 98% of the page space being given over to relevant content.

PLAMO MANUAL, No. 801 is the latest in a series of modeling manuals from ModelArt. Previous manuals have addressed, among other topics, planes, cars, ships and airbrushing. The subject of this review is a manual on modeling armor.

The manual comes in a convenient size, 7-1/4” X 10”. It consists of 112 picture- packed pages and is bound in a high gloss paper backing. The pages are also of high gloss paper. The photographs are excellent quality, bright, crisp, and each is very focused on its topic. Thepictures in the articles speak for themselves.

The down side of this publication for me is that 99.5% of it is in Japanese. However, because the manual is so well organized, and the material is presented in such a logical manner it is easy to follow.

History

I could not find very much information on this vehicle since it was a one-off field conversion. It was part of the HQ Company of the s.Pz.Jg. Abt. 653 during the battle of Kursk and it appears that this vehicle survived until at least summer of 1944, but I could not confirm that.

The Kit

This is a kit of the Panther D as a Befehlspanzer or command tank from DML’s Cyberhobby line. The kit comes as a smart kit and is loaded as usual with a boat load of extra parts. And correctly for an early D, it does not have Zimmerit coating since this wasn’t applied to tanks until September of 1943. The kit contains the following:

Background

Arguably one of Germany’s premier fighters in World War I, the Fokker D.VII quickly became won acceptance by its adoptive aircrews as it began to enter service in the summer of 1918. A well-balanced and stable gun platform, with exceptional maneuverability and reliability, the D.VII demonstrated significant performance improvement over prior Germany types, including its famed older brother, the Fokker Dr.1 triplane.

In order to meet wartime demand, Fokker licensed production of the D.VII to Albatross. Albatross cranked out the D.VII at its Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke (OAW) facility. Multiple models were manufactured, incorporating running changes and three distinct powerplants – two of Mercedes origin and one from BMW.

By war’s end 2,800 D.VII’s rolled off of the production lines.