Model Art Issue 930 is typical of other Model Art magazines in that it is written entirely in Japanese, with occasional English words, usually in article titles or in captions.
This issue covers:
The Avia B.534 was developed in 1934 and although obsolete by the time WWII started it was used in combat as late as 1944! The 534 went through a few changes along the way most notably the cockpit and landing gear. A 534 is credited with having been the last biplane to record an aerial victory (A Hungarian Ju 52 on Sept. 2nd, 1944).
Upon opening the box you will find a bag of 3 blue grey injected plastic sprue with a zip lock bag of clear parts inside, a zip lock bag of photo etch parts, a zip lock bag containing masks, a decal sheet and 12 page color instruction booklet. The injected plastic is molded very crisply and with no noticeable sink marks very little flash. The photo etch parts are small to say the least but look nice and the decal sheet is printed cleanly and in register.
On 26th of August 1940 during the Battle of Britain, the two aircraft represented in this kit met over the English coast, during which the Do-17z would fall victim to the guns of the Defiant, and the Defiant itself would fall victim to escorting Me 109s moments later. Two of the four German crew were lost in the encounter. The Defiant’s crew survived a crash landing. Fast forward to 2013 when an underwater survey revealed this very Do-17 in shallow sand off the English coast. In an extraordinary effort the RAF museum sponsored an expedition to raise the wreckage from its watery grave. (Click here for the Recovery article). It will eventually be placed in the RAF museums “Battle of Britain” hall to complete a collection of aircraft that took part in that battle. You can follow this continuing effort on the RAF museums website.
This is the publication's thirty-third issue and as the subtitle says, it is “the photo journal of the Second World War”. This issue deals with five subjects in 96 pages, the paper being glossy and reproducing the images well in black & white. The only color photos are on the covers (front and back). Two of the subjects are outright allies and one German. The final two started out as allies (French) but after 1940 their tanks were used by the Germans. At the beginning of each chapter there will be a short text on the history of that subject and most of the photos will also have a brief text about that photo. The photo sizes varies, but about 65% of them cover the full page and the remainder have anywhere from two to four pictures per page.
The Ampersand Group, Inc. and David Doyle in conjunction with Hobbylink Japan have published another book on U.S. Army Half-tracks in the Military Modeling Series. Part 2 is a continuation of their previous book, Part 1, with Part 2 covering half-tracked multiple gun motor carriages and gun motor carriages.
What you get is an 8-1/2" x 11" glossy hardbound book covering 448 pages with high resolution black and white glossy, detailed historical photos covering the different variants of the half-track based vehicle. The book is divided into 8 chapters with Addendums, Appendix and a Bibliography:
Eduard Models continue to expand its line of aftermarket details sets. This time is a pre-painted photoetch fret for Martin Baker Ejection seats. In particular you get ejection handles for
In my opinion this is an excellent idea. There are plenty of sets for seatbelts but very limited on the area of handles. The fact that they are prepainted makes it even more useful as those small yellow & black stripes are challenging the paint, to say the least.
Application of the parts is trivial. Remove, fold and glue in position. It took me longer to assemble and paint the plastic ejection seat than to actually apply the detail parts.
Aires Quickboost has released an easy set to convert the AMK 1/48 Aero L-29 Delfin to the L-29R reconnaissance version. The major differences were the camera bay that fits under the forward fuselage and the installation of semi-permanent auxiliary fuel tanks on the wing tips. The supplied instructions identify proper placement of the new Quickboost parts. If you have the older Planet Models 12448 resin model kit of the Aero L-29 Delfin, this set will probably work on it as well, although I do not have that kit to test fit.
Quickboost has molded the camera bay and the auxiliary fuel tanks perfectly in light tan resin with no apparent bubbles. The Quickboost auxiliary fuel tanks and camera bay are supplied on two resin sprue with thin resin attachments to the parts that should minimize any cleanup.
Hobby Boss has recently re-released the TriStar kit of the Pz. 38(t) under their own label. Fortunately for me, the last time I worked on this particular vehicle it was using the elderly Italeri kit some years ago, so I can approach this model with no previous expectations. Let’s take a closer look at the kit.
Aires in their AEROBONUS line has started offering resin aircrew figures. This is a great initiative, because there have not been a lot of quality aircrew and ground figures for those of us who want to add one to a plane or scene; a figure can give a model context and a better sense of scale. This product lines includes pilot which are seated (molded to the ejection seat), standing and in the case of this review, climbing into the cockpit. What is nice about a climbing pilot is that you get the sense of animation as well as scale without the pilot obscuring all of the work you may have put into the cockpit.
Before I begin, one quick confession: I never watched this show much when it first came out. It was in direct competition with the original Star Trek and as a kid, I only go so much time in front of the idiot box.
That being said, what we have here is one fascinating vehicle. Featured in the second episode of Lost in Space, it was part of a real attempt at science fiction story telling before the gradual descent into satire. It’s in 1/350th scale, which makes both it and the Jupiter included in the same scale as the series of large-scale Enterprise kits currently available. For that matter, you could have the Jupiter docked on an aircraft carrier deck.
