Fisher Model & Pattern has released a set of parts for the newly re-released Space Shuttle in 72^nd scale. Parts included are single-piece resin parts and include

• 3 Shuttle Main Engine Nozzles
• 2 Orbital Maneuvering Nozzles
• 2 Aft Control Thruster Housings

This item is so new that a set of instructions was not yet ready to be included with the review sample provided, but as the note that accompanied my sample stated, “It isn’t all that hard to figure out where they go.”

Pegasus Hobbies is a small model company that, while geared mostly towards war gaming, has produced some very nice models over the past few years. I’ve built a few of their models, so when their new Panzer 38T came up for review, I jumped at the opportunity.

The Pegasus Hobbies Panzer 38T kit actually contains two full kits. Each tank comes in 27 pieces on 4 sprues. Since the model is aimed at gaming, construction is very simple, with the entire suspension, road wheels and sprockets, and tracks molded as a single piece. Detail throughout the model is crisp, and while it may be a bit over sized, this helps later with weathering. The only real downfall to the molding is that the main and machine guns are solid and need to have the ends drilled. [Not the hardest task, yet the machine guns do take a steady hand to drill]. Additionally, there are no decals included in the kit.

I’ve always been interested in self propelled flak guns, whether on a truck or tracked vehicle. Maybe it’s the interesting combination of equipment that makes some very unique looking vehicles. For several years I had the old Italeri sWS kit hanging out in the closet, along with some various details with the idea of building it someday. Lo and behold a new company, Great Wall Hobby, comes on the scene with all-new tool sWS. I hedged my bets and figured they would eventfully release some of the self-propelled flak halftracks based on the sWS. Sure enough, I didn’t have to wait long!

Osprey’s series “Duel” is adding another title - King Tiger vs. IS-2. As with previous publications, the book focuses on the design, development, and capabilities of these two well-known vehicles that debuted in the last eighteen months of the war in Europe. While the book does not offer much in terms of reference material for building the penultimate King Tiger or IS-2, it provides the necessary context for understanding the origins and development of these vehicles and how they performed on the field of battle.

The Jagdpanzer IV was a tank destroyer based on the Panzer IV chassis and built in three main variants. As one of the casemate-style turretlessJagdpanzer (hunting tank) designs, it was developed against the wishes of Heinz Guderian, the inspector general of the Panzertruppen, as a replacement for the Sturmgeschütz III (StuG III). Guderian objected to the needless, in his eyes, diversion of resources from Panzer IV tank production, as the Stug III and Sturmgeschütz IV were still more than adequate for their role. After the Battle of Stalingrad in September 1942, the Wehrmacht arms bureau, the Waffenamt, called for a new standard for assault weapons: 100mm of armor to the front, 40–50mm on the sides, wider tracks, ground clearance of 50cm, top speed of 26 km/h, and the lowest possible firing positions. The new Panzerjager (tank hunter) design would be armed with the same 7.5cm gun as fitted to the Panther: the Pak 42 L/70.

Well, here it is September already, and our busy beaver fellow IPMSer Ross McMillan follows through with 6 new releases, including one for the all-new Tamiya 1/32nd P-51D Mustang.
As always, crisply cast with only minimal flash and very little cleanup required. Many thanks for the review samples! Keep up the great work.

How cool is this? A teeny-tiny 9-piece German half-track in 1/100 scale – sweet! Now, I’m not an armor guy, but I do enjoy a good armor kit every now and then, and I sure do appreciate those life-like pieces of work that show up every month at club meetings and at contests. Frankly, they intimidate this aircraft modeler to some degree.

This little guy, however, is quite a different story. When I saw this was a snap kit and might be good for kids, I jumped at the chance to do this review with my 5-year old modeling “Mini Me,” Camden. As fate would have it, the night we planned to build it at a clubmate’s house, Camden and his junior clubmate buddy opted to assemble integrated air strike packages of plastic and diecast model planes, wreaking havoc on Lego ground forces, leaving my buddy Anthony and I to putz in the shop.

The AN/APG-66 radar system was developed by Westinghouse (now Northrop Grumman) in the 1970’s for use in the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon, and entered service in 1979. The radar was utilized in both the A and B versions of the F-16, and was later replaced by the AN/APG-68 system. The AN/APG-66 weighed in at 362 pounds and was a multi-role, x-band unit with a range of 160 nautical miles. In addition to the F-16 A and B, variants of the radar was also installed on the F-4EJ (Japanese export version of the Phantom II), British Hawk 200, US Navy T-39N, and New Zealand A-4 aircraft. The modes of operation were range-while-scan, track-while-scan, velocity search, and gun director.

Short History

The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a ground attack aircraft designed for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The delta winged, single-engine A-4 was designed and produced by Douglas Aircraft Company’s chief designer Ed Heinemann. The aircraft was later produced by McDonnell Douglas. The A-4 was originally designated the A4D under the Navy’s pre-1962 designation system. The A-4 was in response to a call by the US Navy for a jet-powered attack aircraft to replace the older Douglas Skyraider. Ed Heinemann opted for a design that would minimize size, weight and systems complexity. The little Skyhawk quickly began to be called by other nicknames such as “Scooter”, “Kiddiecar”, “Bantam Bomber”, “Tinker Toy Bomber”, and one of its more famous of nicknames, “Heinemann’s Hot Rod”.

Osprey Publishing, in cooperation with The Tank Museum, has published a guide of “the 40 most iconic tanks of the 20^thcentury.” Each of the tanks covered in the guide receives three pages that include a one page history, an extensive list of specifications, two full color drawings and detailed descriptions of each drawing.

Much of the histories will already be known to students of armor, but I did find bits about the covered vehicles that are new to me. The full color drawings are exceptional and show the tanks in a used condition with many covered in crew gear and other equipment. The majority are side profiles, however there are many views from the front or rear quarter. The lists of specifications are fairly extensive for the size of the book and are useful for comparing the different vehicles. Finally, the picture narratives provide additional details on the particular tanks in the drawings.

The Detail Parts

Lion Roar has a reputation for offering excellent P.E. parts for ships and this new product continues that tradition of high quality. This product is labeled as, “WWII USN Ship Vessels Guard Rails” and is not specific to any one kit, but rather, is generic and applicable to most, if not almost any WWII USN subject.

The package contains two frets, both loaded with railings and stanchions. Both frets are identical in content.

The Story

This book represents a novel approach to aviation history, and instead of the usual treatment of aircraft types, famous pilots, or even significant designers, the author identifies what he considers to be the significant aircraft producers of the World War I era, and goes through the development of the companies and the actions of their founders and CEO’s, explaining how their aircraft were developed and used. After producing a list of 92 significant producers, the authors selected 27 to discuss in detail, and he does an excellent job of presenting the startup of the firms, the personnel involved, and the airplanes, both successful and unsuccessful. He alludes to the postwar period a number of times, as many of these aircraft, such as the DH-4, Curtiss JN-4, and other types were used long after the end of hostilities, in both military and civilian roles.

Every once in a while something nice happens to you. This little photo-etch set is just the sort of thing I’m referring to. I’ve had the major parts of a Hasegawa Ki 48 Lily kit clipped off the sprues for some time in the hope that eventually I would locate enough reference material to guide me in adding cockpit detail when I continue with the build. The opportunity to review this new Platz photo-etch detail set for the Ki 48 was just what I needed to move me from a state of static inertia to critical mass. The kit box was located among the ‘in-progress’ stack, reopened, contents examined, the workbench was cleared and my Optivisor was back in place.

Prior to this book, very little had been written in detail describing the RAF Harrier GR3 operations during the 1982 Falklands War. This book fills that void very well, providing a wealth of detail in describing the lead up, deployment and day-to-day combat operations of the small contingent of Royal Air Force attack Harriers. It makes a fitting companion to Sharkey Ward’s earlier narrative Sea Harrier over the Falklands.

If you’ve ever spent time at Hurlburt Field, Florida, near Mary Esther, and mostly surrounded by Eglin AFB, you probably know something about Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The first time I was there, they had AC-130s, HH-3s, and MC-130s. Each time I went back they had something new and more esoteric. I haven’t been back since they got the Ospreys, but I’ve seen one fly, and they are a hoot.

This book is aimed at the modeler and aviation enthusiast interested in the less-traveled and publicized areas of the modern Air Force. Each chapter contains a few pages of text, with photographs which illustrate and flesh out the subject of the text. Then come side color profiles of the aircraft, and finally a walk-around showing all those things we’re interested in and those details we can’t find photos of.

The contents are, by chapter:

Model Art No. 41 Autumn 2011 is devoted to several classes of more obscure Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) warships in WW2. Specifically, Katori class light/training cruisers, Hatsuharu class destroyers, and Fuso class battleships. For each class, you get to see builds of the most recent kits, drawings, figures and photos showing intimate details of each class/kit, and background history with photos (in Japanese of course). Scales are mostly 1/700 since 1/350 kits are not available for Katori and Hatsuharu classes yet. Battleships kits are mostly 1/350 scale model kits. Coverage is comprehensive, with emphasis on historical accuracy of appearance. This edition is perfect for those modeling these ship classes.

The genesis of the modern all-gun warship occurred when Jackie Fisher, who was for a time Great Britain's First Sea Lord, serving with Winston Churchill, First Lord, during WWI, designed the first fast, big-gun battleship named HMS Dreadnought, a name subsequently given to all ships of that class. Fisher was determined that the prime characteristics of a superior warship were found in two things: speed and firepower. Consequently, this same thinking that produced the Dreadnoughts also created the first Battlecruiser, HMS Invincible, which was basically a somewhat smaller, faster ship, more lightly armored than the battleships, but almost as heavily armed. As the Dreadnoughts made all other battleships obsolete, so the Battlecruisers made all other cruisers instantly obsolete.

One thing you can never say about Dragon kits is they don’t give you a whole bunch of plastic for your outlay of freshly printed samolians.

I’m sure the aftermarket folks will work their magic in resin and brass for this kit, but in reality, little of it is necessary to the builder who wants a neat, well detailed miniature of the prototype for his collection. It’s all right here in the box.

As we’ve said, if you like lots of plastic, there must be half a dead dinosaur in this box. Beaucoup interior parts including the requisite cockpit goodies are there along with nose cannon bay, multi-part wheel wells and two very nice “bonus” engines, which you do not have to use if the mood doesn’t strike you. There are no corresponding “open” cowling pieces to go along with them, so without modifying the closed covers it’s pretty much an all or nothing proposition if you want to mount one or both Daimlers exposed.

I would like to thank Yellow-Wings Decals for this review sample and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.

The U.S. military had some of the most colorful aircraft ever prior to WWII. There were bands of bright colors on the fuselage and chevrons on the upper wings to identify section leaders. The rudders had red, white, and blue stripes. Bright tail colors were added to identify squadrons or assigned carriers. The national insignia was a large blue roundel surrounding a white star with a red roundel in the center. Added to all this were the orange-yellow wings and horizontal stabilizers. The color schemes could not get more garish. But, they did. Enter the Boeing P-26.

Designed and built by Boeing in the early 1930s the P-26 was the first all-metal monoplane production fighter aircraft used by the United States Army Air Corps, USAAC. However, it was a transitional design retaining the wire-braced wings, fixed landing gear and open cockpit of previous designs.

Acreation is one of several aftermarket companies that offers Pan Am decals for the new Moebius kit of the Orion III Space Clipper.

The small sheet is well printed and in register. It offers the Pan Am Globes, Pan American titles for the fuselage, and Pan Am titles for the wings. These last are not seen on the model used in the film but I have seen builds with them in the past. Also included are several small markings including "No Step" markings and some that are included in the kit decals, if you don't use them, to depict the panel lines.

The sheet has a continuous carrier film so make sure you cut the images close, especially the globes.

The only thing missing from this set are some instructions to tell you where to place the smaller markings. I even went to their website where they have a space for Instruction Guides, but they are listed as Coming Soon so no help for me.

A while back, I purchased RBF (Remove Before Flight) flags for a Skyraider and they gave the aircraft that final detail which changed it from bland to grand. The RBF flags added a few more degrees of realism.

Now, Eduard has come out with these RBF Flags for aircraft modeled after Israeli units, such as the F-16. Included in this set are 18 red exterior flags, 14 yellow interior flags, and 4 placards for ejection seats, all in Israeli writing. These are also colored and printed on both sides which enable them to be “posed” in any position, such as twisting them to make them appear to be blowing in the wind or just falling naturally in the cockpit.

I highly recommend these RBF flags to anyone building an Israeli aircraft for that extra effect. As always, my thanks go out to Eduard for submitting this product for review.

Background

Land of The Giants was a science-fiction classic TV show from Irwin Allen, airing 51 episodes from 1968 until 1970. In the (then) far future of 1983, a crew takes off for a sub-orbital trip from LA to London when they are hit by a space storm and mysteriously transport to a world where everything is 12 times bigger than Earth, ala Gulliver’s Travels.

The Kit

Packaged in an Aurora-reminiscent box featuring an attractive painting of the Spindrift just entering space, and at 17 parts over several trees, the kit is simple enough in construction to have its instructions printed on the back of the box. In addition to the instructions, the back of the box also has paint call-outs for Testors Model Master Acryl and Enamel paint lines. The parts are molded in orange and clear plastic and include a free paper fold-up color interior from TSDS, and a decal sheet.

The Albatross was to be a replacement for the Grumman Goose; it began life as the XJR2F-1 Pelican with a Navy designation as the PF-1 and an Air Force designation of SA -16A. The SA-16B – the subject of this kit – was an upgraded machine which had 100 inches added to each wing in two separate plugs. A seventy-inch extension was grafted outboard of each engine nacelle, with a thirty-inch one near the tip. It also had a slightly wider horizontal stabilizer and a taller vertical fin. The B model had a wingspan of 96 feet 8 inches and was 62 feet 10 inches long with an empty weight of 22,883 lbs. It was powered by two Wright 1820-76A-94 engines of 1425 horsepower each, and boasted a speed of 236 MPH, with a range of 3465 miles. At least 19 other countries operated the Albatross besides the United States.

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.