Fine Molds has recently released two new-tool versions of the WWII Japanese Army Type 41 75mm Artillery. This boxing differ only slightly, and this review represents the slightly modified gun with a smaller shield and a crew of 4 figures in poses transporting (pulling) the weapon kit # FM39 Imperial Japanese Army Artillery Type 41 Mountain Gun “Infantry Regiment”. The smaller shield meant a lighter and more easily transported weapon – for the more mountainous terrain.

This is an all new effort by the folks at Fine Molds and is not the old tooling of the gun, which was done is white metal. The kit contains four total sprues molded in tan plastic: two for the gun, one containing the crew figures, and the final sprue contains the personal gear and weapons of the crew. There are also four strings which represent the tow lines, and a rather large decal sheet.

A new release in Dragon’s Black series of modern armor the M48A3 Mod.B is a welcome option over the aged Tamiya M48A3 kit from decades ago. Hopefully the drawbacks and challenges of the old Tamiya M48A3 have been corrected with this new release.

Build Notes

Before starting, the Dragon kit has modest cast hull texture; so if a rougher cast texture is desired, glue the hull top & bottom together first adding parts A3, A4, D1 & D3. The mounting pad for D17 & D18 bumper will need to be built up to support the extended double bumper. You may also want to assemble the F13 & F20 Turret upper & lower along with F10, F11, & E1before adding casting texture. Proceed to add cast texture before starting Step 1.

The Big Macks book is part of Ampersand Publishing Company’s Visual History Series - single-subject reference books featuring a historical introduction followed by extensive black-and-white period and walk-around photographs. The book is by renowned military author David Doyle, has 112 pages with two pages of text, and the remaining pages are all photographs. There are no ads.

The two pages of text is the Introduction, which provides a brief history of development of the various Mack truck models from the early NO-1, 2, 3, which were all prime movers. The introduction also describes the next two models, NO-4 and NO-5, which were wreckers rather than prime movers. The NO-4 trucks were used by the Army Air Forces as aircraft wreckers, whereas the NO-5 was intended for field artillery use. The NO-6 trucks were intended for Allied use through the Lend-Lease program, and the NO-7 was the final model of the wartime prime movers.

Continuing the sincere thanks to Neil at HK models for providing IPMS USA this pre-release kit for review; your contributions are of great value and we look forward to more releases from your company…

… so here we are at part 2; putting the basic airframe together! First, a note about the surface detail. It is about as good as it gets; not obtrusive, subtile, but there! I used a bit of black wash on the left upper wing to highlight what is there… very nice.

The previously assembled cockpit and engine/bomb bay/nose gear assembly was offered up to the left fuselage; and fit was perfect! Same for the inlet ducting for the cooling system… everything slid together and seam assembly was tight.

Platz Hobby’s latest boxing of their very nice 1/72 scale Lockheed T-bird kit provides an impressive array of decals to finishing the model as one of six different Japanese Air Self Defense Force T-33s based at Hamamatsu airbase. The license-built T-33s, along with AT-6 Texans and T-34 Mentors, formed the backbone of the JASDF’s training command at this historic air training base. Sixty-eight T-birds were in service at Hamamatsu in the mid-1950s, and they were among some of the most colorful T-birds to be found anywhere at the time.