Italian armored equipment has never received the level of coverage than armored equipment from other countries has gotten. This book is part of recent efforts to correct that historical trend.

The book has 3 main sections: the walk-around of three preserved self-propelled units (two M 41 and one M 42), a section with line drawings, and a brief historical summary, with period photos.

The walk-around is clearly the most important part of the book. It covers three surviving Semoventi, the M 41 da 75/18 at Rome, the M 41 da 75/18 at La Spezia (this one is a full running Semoventi), and the M42 da 75/18 located in Rimini. The last one is in German markings and built to German specs, after the Italian surrender.

The pictures are in full color (for a total of 171 pictures among the three Semoventi), including interior pictures. They show every detail from the running gear to the weaponry, armor plates, external brackets, etc.

History

The B5N2 Kate entered service in 1939, replacing the B5N1. The B5N2 was given a more powerful engine and streamlined a bit to try and make it capable of outrunning enemy fighters. The B5N2 was replaced by the B6N Tenzan starting in 1943, but continued to serve right through to the end of the war.

The Kit

After opening the box, I was impressed by what I found – 8 sprues of medium grey and 1 sprue of clear injected plastic, 1 small (but very nice!) fret of photo etch, and, in the bag of PE, 4 white metal parts (for the folded wings). Also, for some reason, the cowling is on a sprue by itself and attached in a most peculiar manner. The plastic is flash free, the clear pieces are very nice, and the detail is above average on this kit. There are a few pin marks but nothing that is un-fixable.

Once again, Round 2 Models’ Polar Lights brand brings modelers (young and old alike) another great classic TV subject – the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, complete with everyone’s favorite mystery-solving K-9 and his best friend.

Re-released and touting “All New! Simplified Assembly,” the Mystery Machine comes molded in black, turquoise, and clear plastic, and is accompanied by steel axles, a full-color sticker sheet, and pre-painted Scooby and Shaggy figures.

Assembled in under 30 minutes by 7-1/2 year-old Camden, the kit’s design is simple and fit is pretty good, although he did need an assist from large hands to snap in the clear windshield piece and a couple of drops of super glue to hold the wheels onto the axles.

I’ve built several B-29s, one of them a Minicraft kit for an earlier review. That being said, I’m still waiting for the moment of inspiration to strike when I get out another B-29 kit and build the Tu-4 “Bull” which is almost identical to the B-29. Or a Washington, also a B-29 with RAF decals.

Minicraft has reissued this kit with very different markings. Little attention has been paid to the early B-29s, which were painted OD. I built this particular kit with the kit markings because it is different, and the markings are certainly visually and historically interesting. In fact, the location of the B-29 I built, Vladivostok, USSR, in November 1944, probably points to it being one of the prototypes for the Tu-4.

The recent release of the Meng AMX-30 B was quickly followed up by the AUF 1. It uses virtually the same hull as the AMX, so it’s an obvious follow-on to the AMX. In the 1970s, the French Army explored a new self-propelled howitzer to replace the MK F3 155 mm. Development of the AUF 1 was completed in 1972 and production began in 1977 with a run of 440 vehicles. Vehicles were also exported to Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It’s armed with a 155 mm gun with an auto loader and a crew of four.

The kit is composed of eleven sprues molded in green and five sprues of track links and pads molded in brown, a small sprue of clear parts, a small fret of photo etch, and a lower hull and turret. There are decals for two vehicles, though the color profiles only feature one.

Assembly

I wrote the review for the AMX 30, so the assembly of the chassis and tracks is nearly identical to the AMX 30.

Quickboost now provides a seat with safety belts for the A6M2b Zero among their line of resin aircraft accessories. This is a tiny seat, but the details are excellent. The seat is molded in gray resin that is without flaws – no problems with seams or bubbles. The mold block attaches to the bottom of the seat, thereby making clean up easy, particularly as the attachment point will not be visible once the seat is installed in the cockpit. I removed the mold block with a jewelry saw and smoothed the surface with a few swipes of a sanding stick. Several of the lightening holes in the seat back had some flash, but that was easily cleaned with a sharp knife blade.

Once again, I’ve chosen MiniArt’s 1/35 diorama series for my conversion project. Like the other kits in this line, the walls and base are thin vacuformed styrene. The air ductwork is also vacuformed in halves, like the walls. This requires a lot of putty-work to clean up the gaps as usual, so I do not recommend this kit to beginner modelers. However, despite the extra modeling work required for these kits, the results can be very rewarding. I used half a tube of Squadron Green Putty on this kit, and the putty and sanding took longer on the ductwork than the walls.

For years, I’ve been fascinated by what has come to be known as the 1946 Luftwaffe, or Luft ’46 – the seemingly inexhaustible blizzard of drafting-table designs the German aircraft industry produced before and during the Second World War for aircraft that were never built. The what-iffyness of these proposals that could have been flying against the Allies had the war continued for one more year has always deeply intrigued the science fiction fan in me. I first became aware of the phenomenon in 1967 when I bought Aireview’s German Military Aircraft in the Second World War, which included a series of line drawings of aircraft I’d never heard of before. As the decades passed, more and more information about these fanciful designs has come to light from declassified government files.

Designed in 1935, the B-17 became a force to reckon with by 1942 when the F model was introduced. It had a total production run of 3,405 – 2,300 by Boeing, 500 by Vega, and 605 by Douglas.

This release by Hasegawa features a new set of decals, but the same basic moldings which this kit had 35 years ago: overall good fit, lightly raised panel lines, light grey plastic, and some sink marks expected in an older kit. It has 98 parts and comes in a nice box with a sturdy cardstock bottom and a nice glossy top.

The August issue starts off with "Model Art New Item Special Information". They cover a multitude of new kits that have just hit the market or are getting ready to. Some of the kits mentioned are the Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1, Wingnut Wings 1/32 AEG G.IV, Wolfpack 1/48 T-38A, Meng 1/35 T-90A, and Takoma 1/16 Renault FT.

The feature article focuses on IJA aircraft and different techniques that can be used to replicate realism in your models. This article consists of forty pages. A few of the techniques shown are replicating fabric covering, chipped paint, and oil leaks. Of note is one reference picture of wing tip lenses. There is some debate on whether the lenses are green or blue. This is a color photograph and the lens is blue.

The Model Kit

Roden’s T-28 has a very respectable cockpit included in their kit. Their biggest weakness is in the seats and instrument panels. The Roden cockpit is composed of 17 parts, where the Aires tops out at 45, which include the individual components for each seat belt. Aires has developed a complete replacement that not only addresses these weaknesses, but also improves the side consoles without a lot of scratchbuilding.

The Aircraft

The T-28 Trojan was built by North American Aviation as a training replacement for the venerable and very dated T-6 Texan. The Navy wanted a tandem, tricycled training aircraft to train recruits to the new aircraft entering service. The contract was signed for VSN2S in 1946. The Army, also wanting to replace their T-6’s, contracted for their version of the VSN2S, the T-28 Trojan. In 1949, the newly formed United States Air Force and the Navy took delivery of the first T-28 Trainers.

Hasegawa has re-released their “J” mark (Japanese) F-4EJ Phantom II. And that is a great thing, as this model is a pleasure to assemble. The box has 8 grey sprues, one clear sprue (for a total of 132 pieces), and a very large decal sheet with markings for five 8SQ aircrafts, including stencils for one airframe.

Regarding the stencils – they are the proper color. These airplanes were “hand-me downs” from other squadrons and they arrived in a two-gray interceptor camouflage. When transferred to a maritime strike squadron, their stencils were masked off and the aircraft were painted over, leaving a grey surrounding to the stencils –which are black. Only after the airplanes were sent for overhaul at the maintenance shop did they get re-painted and new stencils (in white) were applied. If you look carefully to the box image, you can see the grey surrounding area in the stencils.