The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet Red Army heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armor protection during the early part of World War II, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Later in the war, the KV series became a base of development for the Joseph Stalin (Iosif Stalin, or IS) series of tanks. The KV-85 was a KV-1S with the 85mm D-5T cannon in a new turret, and with the ball mounted hull machine gun removed and the hole welded shut. 148 of these tanks were produced from the second half of 1943 until the spring of 1944 as a stopgap until the IS tank series entered production. This tank had its original turret, but later models were equipped with IS-1 turret.

• Kit No. QB 72 374 Exhaust & Damper Cooler, $5.50
• Kit No. QB 72 375 Gun Barrels, $5.50
• Kit No. QB 72 376 Undercarriage Covers, $5.50

These are simple but clean sets of precisely cast resin replacement parts that quickly and easily improve already good 1/72 scale early P-40 kits. Each set consists of one gray resin block with easily removed molded parts. The hollowed-out exhausts, scale thin damper cooler flaps, machine gun barrels with oblong cooling vents, and detailed undercarriage covers (landing gear doors) are intended for Airfix’s new-tool 1/72 Curtiss Hawk 81-A-2 (P-40B/C) kit, but can fit other kits as well. QB 72 374 has two rows of six round exhaust pipes attached to the resin block by a narrow feed that can be easily sawed free, as can the Damper Cooler (the cowl flaps underneath the rear end of the engine).

Resuming after a holiday break, I finished the model on January 2. Once the fuselage was closed and the wings and undercarriage were glued, the major work involved rigging the undercarriage, wings and control wires.

Castor Oil, Grim, Mud, Dirt and Goo

Reference photos show that once an Eindecker went into front-line service, it rapidly became stained, oily, and dirty. The two main factors were the dirt and grass airfields, which soon became muddy during most months of the year (except when they became snow-packed ice fields), and the engines which threw off their lubricating fluid as they operated. My understanding is that this was primarily castor oil, or some similar substance that was ubiquitous to all rotary engines. Consequently, I had no choice but to dirty up the wings and fuselage. Fun!

Introduction

Growing up building all genres of AMT/ERTL/MPC kits, it was sad to watch the demise of the company to a shell of its former self. Being a particularly big Star Trek fan and with AMT being the only game in town all those years ago for Star Trek models (before the internet), it was a sad to see them go.

Then, a few years ago, along came Round2 – acquiring the AMT/MPC molds, fine-tuning several of them, and re-releasing most of the old kits we all remember. Many are being re-released with Retro-Style packaging, while others are being issued with all-new box art and packaging. In late 2012, Round2 re-released Star Trek Deep Space 9 (DS9) in a new, colorful package with a short history of the space station on the box bottom. Thanks to Round2 for reviving those old Star Trek kits, for updating a few of them like DS9 (to include the USS Defiant), and especially for bringing out the new ones!

I was a sonar technician on the USS Tecumseh, an SSBN, for 3 years while it was being overhauled at the Newport News, VA, shipyard. We were tied up at a pier during the refit, and the 688 class attack subs were docked at the next pier. As a result, I was able to walk all over LA class subs, visit them, and got pretty familiar with them. Most of the attack boats were being upgraded from Flight I to Flight II at this yard, adding the Tomahawk vertical launch tubes. So I jumped at the chance to build Riich’s 688 class, Flight I model.

I’m not a big fan of the 3-piece hull provided, but the option of making this boat as a waterline model is COOL. I stopped and took photos before I put the upper hull and lower hull together, just to show this.

I had to use a good amount of putty to get the hull sections to mate up, as they didn’t match perfectly. But with some putty and a #10 X-Acto blade, it was pretty easy to get it looking decent.