Plusmodel is one of my new favorite model companies from the Czech Republic. This kit consists of 50 parts which completely surprised me with the thinness and extreme quality of the resin castings. Every part was cast perfectly – no bubbles, warping, or unsightly defects in any way. These are all signs of a well-thought out casting process.

The furniture built extremely easily; all the parts fit together with little to no trimming or sanding. I wanted to go the extra mile, however, and experimented with India Inks for the wood grain. There is no wood grain texture on the parts – what you see is done entirely with paint and ink. I added a 1:35 gangster figure from another great resin company, Evolution Miniatures, from Brazil. I scratchbuilt the diorama entirely from plastic, using Grandt Line O-Scale window castings, and painted everything with Badger Minitaire acrylics, some Vallejo Acrylics, and Dr. PH Martin's Bombay India Ink for the wood grain.

The Kit

The kit for the AMC Gremlin X is a reissue. It can be built two ways – either stock or as a pro-stock dragster. This kit has a lot of detail and is very nicely done, very true to the real Gremlin X. The model is nice and heavy and durable.

The instructions are well drawn and easy to read. The instructions have all the parts numbered, but the parts are not numbered on the part trees. You will have to figure it out by the drawings.

The Build

Construction begins with the motor, which can be constructed stock or as a drag motor. Whichever way you choose, it’s highly detailed and true to the real thing.

The kit represents Prime Minister Josef Stalin’s personal Packard V-12. I found it difficult to get information on how this car was acquired. It was rumored that we (the US) gave him dies to make the car, but it’s unknown how true that is. I was able to get a few pictures, but my computer was giving me a fit, trying to get on a Russian site (not ICM’s), so I stopped.

The V-12 engine was a very durable engine. Packard had modified these to adapt them to marine use in our PT boats. Rolls-Royce licensed Packard to build the V-12 framed Merlin, which powered many British and Canadian aircraft, including our own P-51 Mustang, for better performance at high altitude than the Allison engine.

I like this kit, and in the hands of a modeler with greater ability than mine, this car could really sing. There are some problems that need to be addressed, though.

Good news – Hasegawa has re-issued its Skyraider kit, too long absent from the hobby store shelves. Their first boxing comes with decals for an aircraft of VA-65 from the USS Enterprise – featured on the box art – plus optional markings for the CAG aircraft of VA-165 aboard the USS Oriskany. You’ll see two models in an accompanying photo, but note there’s only one model in the box – I thought it’d be a nice comparison to show off the alternate decal markings provided in the kit by building a second A-1, pulled from my kit stash. There’s only one set of common markings in the kit (insignia, wing walks, instrument panel, etc.) so I used these items from the second kit’s sheet.

Comparing the sprues, the re-issue is identical to the first release I built when this nice kit first appeared on the market many years ago. The clear parts are packed in their own separate poly bag to prevent scratching them.

Model Art Modeling Magazine is a Japanese publication that is released monthly. The text is mainly in Japanese with some English subtitles throughout. One attractive feature about these magazines is the high quality of the photographs and the models that are used.

The March issue of Model Art Magazine is slightly different from their normal monthly issues. This issue consists of new kit reviews. They review a little bit of every type of kit to encompass all modelers. For instance, they review the Italeri 1/72nd scale Sunderland Mk. I and the Trumpeter 1/48th scale A3D Skywarrior as an example of some of the aircraft that were reviewed. For the AFV folks, there is a review of the Meng 1/35th scale A39 Tortoise and the Cyber Hobby 1/35th Super Heavy Tank out of the 4 AFV kits that were reviewed in this issue. For the ship folks, there are two reviews, and one review for the car guys – a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-27.