Tamiya has released a brand new model (new tool) of the Dingo Mk.II, which is a great addition to their growing line of 48th scale military miniatures.

Upon opening of the box you find two sprues for the British Armored Vehicle. Tires are molded in plastic (no rubber, which is good), but they are molded together with the wheel hubs. It would have been nice to have them molded independently to make painting easier. The model has a simple interior and two figures.

You can build the model with the top either open or closed. There is no engine provided, however the engine compartment is provided, so I would imagine some aftermarket company will come to the rescue.

While the interior is simple, I would say it is adequate for the scale and once you have the figures inside is likely to be just fine. There are a handful of ejector pin marks in the interior, but I doubt those will be visible, even if the top were to be left open.

Model Art Magazine is a monthly magazine that covers aircraft, armor, ships and car modeling. Model Art started releasing magazines in 1966 and has evolved from there over the past forty six years.

This is a special issue released by Model Art covering plastic model aircraft of the IJN in scales 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32. The book is broken down into six sections. Interceptors, Night Fighters, Land - based Attackers and Bombers, Trainers, Experimental and Reconnaisance Land - Based Aircraft and Foreign - Made Aircafts and others.

Each section includes photos of finished models, period photos, available kits, year released and a rating system for a lot of them. The ratings are from one to five stars and you find most of the older kits tend to have a lower rating, but this not always the case as some of the recent releases have some lower ratings.

The very last part of the article consists of minor scale plastic kits (1/100, 1/144 and 1/700).

Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 182. It is also known under the informal name Königstiger (German for "Bengal tiger"), often mistranslated as King Tiger or Royal Tiger by Allied soldiers.

The Tiger II was the successor of the Tiger I, combining the latter's thick armor with the armor sloping used on the Panther medium tank. The tank weighed almost seventy metric tons, was protected by 100 to 180 mm (3.9 to 7.1 in) of armor to the front, and was armed with the long barreled 8.8 cm Kampfwagenkanone 43 L/71 gun. The chassis was also the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless tank destroyer.

This kit allows you to build one of two versions of a prototype WWII Russian tank destroyer based on the ISU-152 assault gun. The goal was to field an anti-tank gun heavy enough to deal with the heavier German tanks like the Tiger II, JagdTiger and any potentially larger tanks the Russian thought might be in the works with the Germans. The first prototype ISU-152-1 (Object 246) was developed in April 1944 and mounted the BL-8 long barrel gun. Performance did not meet expectations so the gun was reworked. In August 1944 a second prototype ISU-152-2 (Object 247) replaced the BL-8 with the improved and slightly shortened BL-10. The penetrating power and accuracy still did not meet expectations so the gun was again sent back for improvements but the war ended before this was ever completed. The 155mm designation in the kit name is incorrect and should not be used in the description of this vehicle.

Overview

The SU-152 was a large caliber self propelled assault gun base on the KV heavy tank chassis, designed to provide mobile artillery support for mechanized units to replace the antiquated and slow moving towed artillery that Soviet forces fielded at the start of the Second World War. The pilot vehicle was designed in just 25 days, and the SU-152 entered production at the Chelyabinsk tank factory in January 1943. The vehicle proved not only to be an excellent assault gun, but was also capable of destroying the German Tiger 1 and Panther tanks at long range, gaining the SU-152 the nickname among Soviet troops of “Zveroboy” or “Beast Killer”. Production of the SU-152 ended in December 1943 in favor of the ISU-152, which was based on the IS-2 tank chassis.