The Ju-87G Stuka was the last of the line. There were some purpose-built G’s, but most of them were D models with the cannon pods added. The first use of the Ju-87G was at Kursk, but there were only a few, and they made no difference.

Master has turned out a pair of new barrels for the 37mm cannon. They are turned brass, and so are much more durable than the original barrels.

I was able to find only one 1/144 Ju-87G kit, Eduard’s. The Eduard kit is very good, I built one for a review back in 2014. So I used the new barrels on the “old” kit.

Prep

I removed the barrels from the underwing pods with a sprue nipper. I then used a #11 blade to form a depression in the front of the pod to use as a pilot hole. The spot is quite small, and small drills have a bad habit of slipping off.

The year is 1947, Operation High Jump is under way and will become a disaster. Admiral Byrd says it was due to weather and conditions in the Antarctic, but was it really? Could an attack by Nazi UFO craft have damaged and destroyed the High Jump fleet and aircraft? Did this cause the Nazi’s to then leave for an even more remote location to regroup and plan their ultimate revenge against the allies? That location…. The Moon!

Osprey Publishing brings us the new Osprey Adventures book “Nazi Moonbase”, written by Graeme Davis and illustrated by Darren Tan. This 80-page book gives an inside look at what the Nazi Moonbase is, what it’s made of, and how it got to be up there in the first place.

The book is broken down into chapters that delve into the beginnings of the Nazi space program to its present day status. Some of the chapters include

Master Model of Poland has figured out a way to produce very fine brass parts for detailing aircraft. These are wonderful additions to models, particularly the pitot tubes, refueling probes and gun barrels, which seem to get bent or broken depressingly often. Not only that, because of the strength of the brass, the parts can be made smaller diameter than the plastic parts provided in most kits.

This detail set is the pitot tube for the Panavia Tornado, currently in use with the Luftwaffe, the RAF, Italian AF and the Royal Saudi AF. There are 4 kits available in 1/144, Revell, Dragon, Academy and Anigrand. Since I already had the Dragon kit built, that’s the one I put the new pitot on.

The instructions for this detail set are VERY good. Preparation consists of removing the kit pitot and making a flat spot on the nose. I used a medium grit sanding stick to make the flat spot.

This is a great photoetch set for the Kinetic Sea Harrier FRS.1 kit. This set adds a lot of extra detail to the exterior and makes it look even better.

The photoetch parts are for the:

• Wing details
• Landing gear details
• Various grilles
• Landing gear bay details
• Wing pylon details

In the Packet is:

• 1 photoetch sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

Summary

This is great photoetch set to bring a lot of additional details to this very good kit.

Thanks go to Eduard for providing this set to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

This is the third edition of Michael Rinaldi’s first book on modeling techniques. It has been expanded from 208 pages in the first edition and 224 pages in the second edition to a whopping 288 pages of glossy, high grade paper. This 64 page increase over the second edition includes three additional chapters, two by Michael Rinaldi, and one by Lester Plaskitt. The chapter on figure painting by Marijn van Gils is no longer included, but figure modeling by Lester Plaskitt to go along with his Sd.Kfz 251/22 Drilling is included. This edition is touting a “Lay-Flat binding” that works quite well, allowing you to open to a particular section and have the book stay open, ‘flat’ as it were.

I must confess that I have been somewhat intrigued by the idea of using metal landing gear on my aircraft models for sometime now, but have just never followed through with a purchase. I initially felt the only time metal gear would be truly advantageous with a model that has spindly legs (like the F-105 Thunderchief) or if a particular model is quite heavy with the addition of resin parts or a good deal of nose weight. I am convinced those are the best reasons. However, I am open-minded on the issue.

When I had the opportunity to review a set of the SAC landing gear for the 1/48th scale Kinetic AMX I had to give it a go.

Contents Description

The parts are packaged in a clear blister pack and have no instructions. Many of the parts are cast as part of a metal sprue and will require cutting with side cutters or a fine saw to remove the metal parts.

It’s that time of year again. That time of year to think about purchasing your 2017 Cross & Cockade International Calendar. “But”, you say, “it is only June of 2016! What’s the hurry?”

Well, first, you should realize that there may just be a limit to the print run for these calendars. I honestly don’t know if there is such a limit, but if there were you’d rather be on the “I got mine” side of that line.

Secondly, “the profits from the sale of the 2017 Cross and Cockade International Calendar are once again going to assist in the upkeep of the British Air Services Memorial at the St-Omer airfield in northern France” according to Roger Tisdale of Cross & Cockade. There is always a need for support for this fund, so why wait until closer to the New Year to provide some financial support to this very worthy cause? One can check out the St-Omer Memorial at http://www.webmatters.net/txtpat/?id=258

A feature that you can quickly notice on the Sukhoi Su-15 Flagon-F is the complicated nose pitot tube. Although Trumpeter made a valiant effort in molding the Su-15 TM pitot tube with its twelve separate vanes, the limits of the injection molding process come into play. I have used another set that used a combination of resin and photo-etch that was an improvement, but assembly was very difficult and the photo-etched vanes don’t really convey their 3-D nature. This Master Model set provides a quantum leap over any previous attempt to portray the Su-15 TM nose pitot tube. As a bonus, Master Model also provides the ability to build the slightly less complex Flagon-A nose pitot tube. I have also listed the Trumpeter Su-15 UM Flagon-G above, but I only have conflicting evidence that this set will help that kit. There should be no problem for the wing mounted pitot, but I have seen a variety of nose pitot tubes for the Flagon-G.

Background

The French military has a proud history of tank design, starting with the grandfather of all modern tanks, the FT-17 during the First World War. This was the first tank to incorporate a gun mounted in a rotating turret. Immediately prior to the start of the Second World War, the French Army fielded a good number of world class tanks such as the Somua S-35 (Tamiya kit 35344). But disaster struck the French, and their massive Army was humiliated when it was outmaneuvered by German forces in May 1940.

Before you read the overall review in this kit, let me start with a disclaimer: I’m not an armor guy. I’m an airplane guy that is that is very timidly exploring the armor genre. This is only my 3^rd 1/35 model.

Having said that, Dragon is releasing a 1/35 Tiger I “Tunisia Initial”, with an impressive total of 24 sprues, including one clear sprue, a couple of small photo-etch frets and some metal cord to be used as a towing cable. Tracks are of the DS kind. Beware: some sprues have the same letter, so check if in the instructions they are printed in “black” or “light blue” to distinguish between them.

I think some (if not several) of these sprues have been released previously. Despite the different vintages of the sprues, all of them are molded in a medium grey plastic with clean sharp features and no flash anywhere.

MrBlack Publications is a fairly new company that publishes several series of Hobby Modelling and History books and magazines. This Scale Model Handbook series covers figures, but other series are devoted to other areas; i.e. armour, aircraft, dioramas, etc. This book includes a unique collection of work that is aimed at all levels of modelers. This issue features eight well known artists who describe their techniques for sculpting and painting their figures or busts. The book itself comes in a nice clear re-sealable cover for protection. The 52 pages include the covers. The inside covers and the last two pages are devoted to figure advertisers. If you visit the product web site, you will find additional photos of the contents.

The Moebius website sums up this vehicle by noting,

The Special was a fastback version of the 1954 Hudson Hornet favored by stock class drag racers in the 1960's. Complete with the high performance 308 Hudson engine, this kit replicates this unusual car in 1/25 scale.

In its purely stock form this car was still a hallmark of speed and handling. By ’55 the innovation of Hudson would begin to yield to the corporate manufacturers sporting V-8 engines, but in 1954 the “Hornet” was still the one to beat!

This is an extremely detailed, highly accurate, and well-engineered kit. It will take a lot of patience and only very experienced modelers should undertake this little beauty due to the large number of minute, sometimes microscopic parts. With 759 parts in a model that’s less than 6” long, the kit packs a lot of tiny parts in a dense model of the Cat D7. The fit of the parts is phenomenal. The many pipes and levers, layers of body parts, and even the articulated treads all came together nicely.

The kit is part of MiniArt's WW2 Military Miniature series. Previous versions of the kit include: