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August 2016

Box art

British Army AH-64D "Afghanistan"
Review Author
Jarrod Booth
Published on
August 30, 2016
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$33.00

This AH-64D Apache Longbow is license built by Westland/Boeing for the British Army. A couple of interesting features unique to the British built aircraft are the inclusion of folding rotor blades, and Rolls Royce Turbomeca engines that replace the General Electric T700 in the US machines. There are also some avionics and weapon systems differences.

This was a very enjoyable and for the most part easy model to build. The two instruction sheets are a foldout type with, for the most part, clear pictures and logical directions. There is one for assembly, and one for the parts tree map and decal guide. It was nice having the tree map separate as I didn’t have to fold pages back and forth to find a part.

Box top

Space Pirate Battleship Arcadia - Limited Edition
Review Author
Clarence Wentzel
Published on
August 30, 2016
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/1500
MSRP
$74.99

Background

This is a kit of the mother ship, Arcadia flown by the space pirate, Captain Harlock from the adventure filled world of Leiji Matsumoto. Originally created in 1977 for a manga TV series, Captain Harlock has appeared in various film and TV shows, most recently a 2013 feature film, “Space Pirate Captain Harlock”. This space battleship is used for his interspace travel. The Arcadia carries a number of Space Wolf fighter planes for protection and offense.

The Arcadia is equipped with heavy firepower. The main armament consists of triple-mount pulsar cannon turrets, two on the upper deck and one on the underside. When Captain Harlock’s friend, Tochiro, designed the Arcadia, he must have been influenced by pirate ships of old, because the rear of the Arcadia resembles the stern of a Spanish Galleon. I am not sure of the significance of this but it looks neat.

Cover

US Navy Light Cruisers 1941 - 1945
Book Author(s)
Mark Stille
Review Author
Bill Kluge
Published on
August 31, 2016
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$18.00

The latest New Vanguard naval edition from Osprey covers one of the least well-known class of modern US Navy vessels, the light cruiser. The operational lifetime of the Navy’s light cruisers spanned 50 years, from the commissioning of the USS Omaha in 1923 to the scrapping of the USS Roanoke in 1973. Their heyday occurred between 1941 and 1945. By 1947, most of those that had survived the World War II had been decommissioned. A few soldiered on either as gun platforms during the Korean War, or were adapted to missile platforms during the Cold War.

Box Art

Saab J 29F Tunnan
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
August 31, 2016
Company
Pilot Replicas
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$55.99

Background

The Saab 29, colloquially called Flygande tunnan (English: "The flying barrel"), was a Swedish fighter designed and manufactured by Saab in the 1940s. It was Sweden's second turbojet-powered combat aircraft, the first being the Saab 21R. Despite its rotund appearance, from which its name derives, the J 29 was a fast and agile aircraft for its era. It served effectively in both fighter and fighter-bomber roles into the 1970s.