The very popular Concord Armor at War Series has now released PANZER VOR! Volume 5continuing the excellent combination of modeler/author par excellance, Frank V. DeSisto, with parent company Dragon Models as publisher. This edition doesn’t include the author’s bio, but Mr. DeSisto is one of the original founders of AMPS, has been published elsewhere, is a font of knowledge that he readily shares in his books, and as an advanced modeler and professional photographer, chooses photos that will offer great interest to the modeler. Following the format of the previous four volumes, there are 16 color platesby Laurent Lecocq and 175 black and white photos, all with high quality, detailed captions written by a modeler, for modelers.

A big thank you goes to Yellow-Wings Decals for this review sample and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.

Aircraft design and development was changing rapidly in the 1930s. As the dark clouds of war were beginning to form in Europe, the effort to improve military aircraft quickened. A new era of low wing monoplanes with retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpits was dawning. The British Hurricane was ordered into production in June 1936 and the Messerschmitt 109 made its public debut during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At the same time American's front line fighter was the open cockpit, fixed gear, wire-braced P-26. It would remain so until 1938 when America finally entered the new era with the Curtiss P-36A Hawk.

Saturday morning cartoons again meet the modeling bench in Round2’s resurrection of classic kits featuring Warner Brothers’ beloved Road Runner and his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. Of the three newly re-released kits, this review focuses on Road Runner and The Rail Rider – a looney dragster embodying a steam engine theme.

The MPC-branded kit consists of 5 sprues of colored parts, including 1 chrome-plated, a set of peel-and-stick decals, and a pre-painted vinyl Road Runner figure. Construction is snap-together, but is well served by a few well-placed applications of liquid cement and superglue – especially if the finished product is to be subjected to the playful hands of a little one.

This model is not a complex build, but it does have some details that are extremely small. Be forewarned: good tweezers, sprue cutters, and an extra fine razor saw blade are mandatory to release some of the over 650 parts of miniscule carpet-monster food that exist on the trees. An exploded diagram with two hull sides, 7 parts runners, one display base, a decal sheet with flags and early aircraft markings, and a PE sheet with crane structure are provided. I opted to do the kit without extra PE or rigging to show what a buyer gets for his money. In this case, a lot!

Study the instructions first; as usual, since ships hold some pitfalls if you don’t. Small parts that fit in places which are hard to get to later are the norm. Paint the splinter camo as you go along; otherwise you won’t be able to do it upon completion of the build. In this build, the hull is constructed first.

The Parts

You will recognize the molding as it goes back, to my knowledge, to at least 1999. On several of the pieces in the box, one can find the original copyright inscription of “Revell 1999”. It has also been released under the Monogram label as well, as is the case with this review item. This is not a problem, since the kit was a good kit in 1999 and is still a good kit in 2011. That having been said, there are some signs of age on the finished parts. On several pieces a tan-colored stain appears, and upon inspection with a fingertip, this substance appears to be oil. The location of the stains indicates that it might be a mold-release agent that simply was not cleaned up properly before packaging. It is advisable, therefore, to wash all of the pieces thoroughly prior to assembly. A sign of an aging or ill-fitting mold is flash, and there is some flash that will need to be cleaned up.