Anyone who has ever worked on his own car, either tinkering with a modern Honda Civic or Dodge Grand Caravan or a classic automobile like a 1960s Mini Cooper or Ford Mustang, will know the series of repair manuals under the Haynes brand name. Over the past few years, the Haynes title has begun producing a series of books covering aviation and military vehicle topics, including the title in this review, the M4 Sherman tank. As the blurb on the title page states: “An insight into the history, development, production, uses, and ownership of the world’s most iconic tank”.

This book is a hardback edition, A4 format in size, and contains 164 pages. It is divided into 8 main sections, each of which is well illustrated with black and white and color period photos, color photos of restored vehicles, together with numerous tables covering production and serial numbers, as well as photo captions from wartime Sherman tech manuals:

This is about as simple as a review can get. First, thanks once again to Quickboost for the review items; once again you provide something I would not have thought to manufacture, but is, to my mind, a worthwhile improvement!

This set contains Angle of Attack (AOA) vanes, two IFF antennas, and an air data probe. All are much more delicate than the kit items; the IFF blades are, in particular, much more refined than the kit items. The AOA vanes are likewise much thinner than the injected molded parts. And the air data probe, well, has the tube already hollowed out for you!

To review, I added the IFF blades to my already-completed SU-25; the kit items were shaved off, and I installed the QB items. Very nice.

A quick and easy set for your use; thanks to our friends at Quickboost for providing us these little gems and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review them! 10 of 10…

Hobbyboss has produced a model of an unusual subject: a Soviet armored draisine (a draisine is a light self-motorized train vehicle). I must confess that I have never heard of this vehicle before, nor it is easy to find references online.

The box comes with 41 parts in a sturdy box. All sprues are molded in light tan and bagged independently, to prevent scuffing and scratches during transportation. There is no flash on the parts and the connector gates are small.

Construction of this kit is straightforward, with good engineering and excellent fit. Something to be noted is that the bogies could be easily replaced by HO scale ones, if anyone would like to convert it and add it to their HO layout. While on the same topic, the bogies are wider than the standard gauge. They are about 5 scale feet, which is close to the Russian gauge.

Bottom Line

Provides seven types of round and square windows (not portholes) with covers for 1/700 WW2 German Navy warship models. 336 very small pieces.

Lion Roar expands its 1/700 warship photoetch set lineup with German Navy (DKM) windows. These are not portholes, but are windows used on above-the-hull superstructures. A small instruction sheet only has pictures of each porthole showing proper orientation. There are no guides as to which windows go where on what ship – you are on your own to determine how to use them.

Master has a whole range of turned and photo etched metal details for aircraft and ships, in all scales. From gun barrels to radar masts, the details are not only more in scale, but stronger than anything in resin or PE, thus resistant to the occasional bump or clumsy hands. This item provides a turned metal pitot tube for the 1/32 F-104.

In the Bag and Installation:

The single-piece turned aluminum part comes in a bag with card hanger. The part is perfect, the correct length, and has the proper shape. A small protruding rod at the aft end is used to insert it into the nose cone of the kit after drilling the correct size hole.