The Toldi I tanks entered Hungarian service about 1940. They were used by the Hungarian Army against Yugoslavia in 1941. They were mostly used against the U.S.S.R. between 1941 and 1944. Their primary role was reconnaissance, due to their light armor and good communications equipment. They were not effective against the Soviet T-34 when they encountered them in operation Barbarossa.

When I opened the box I found: one small bag of resin parts, one small bag with photo etch parts, a die cut clear plastic sheet used for the headlights, and the instruction sheet.

All of the parts are molded in a grey/green resin, and are crisp, very well molded, and have excellent detail. The replacement mufflers are a sight to behold, and will look excellent when installed. There are also two nicely-molded resin tool boxes for the fenders, and many other small detail parts.

Many people don’t know that I am half English. I use that as an excuse to love some of the more interesting British aircraft. One such plane is the famous Avro Vulcan. Just something about that big bat shaped wing appeals to me. I have never had the good fortune to see one fly in person but I have seen video and have been able to view a few in the flesh.

This, of course, means that I have the old Airfix 1/72^nd scale kit in the stash. To say that this kit needs some loving attention to build right is probably an understatement based on some of the builds I have seen online but one day I will tackle her and mark her up in as one of the bombers used in the Falklands.

One thing you may not know is that the Vulcan fleet had had their refueling probes removed prior to 1982 and the maintenance crews had a hard time tracking down probes to get aircraft ready for action even resorting to taking probes off museum planes.

The movie Top Gun, love it or hate it, raised a lot of interest in the Navy Fighter Weapons School, and that interest was not lost on modelers with the markings of the Adversary planes standing out. Furball has given us an enormous sheet of markings covering twenty-two different schemes covering both the F-5E, F-5F and the T-38A between 1976 and 1986. There are options for twelve F-5Es, four F-5Fs, and six T-38s. As noted in the header, there are separate sheets for the 1/48^th and 1/72^nd scale planes and both cover the same subject. AND, there are complete markings for all 22 planes!

Here’s a complete rundown of the aircraft that are included in this set:

One of Trumpeter’s latest releases is a somewhat odd choice. After all, only one version of the SU-101 self-propelled artillery vehicle was ever manufactured, and it never made it past the trial stage. Still, with a number of “paper Panzer” kits out there, it’s not always too surprising to see what choices model companies provide. Also, with the increased interest in online video games like World of Tanks, there seems to be a new interest in these proposed, or prototype versions.

Italeri recently released the first ever kit of the Mirage IIIC in 1/32^nd scale – an elegant and iconic aircraft of the cold war that served (and continues to serve) in a variety of air forces around the world. Now they’ve come out with the Mirage III E/R variant. This version of the full-size craft was first marketed in 1964 and featured a slightly longer fuselage - about a foot - in order to increase the size of the avionics bay situated aft of the cockpit. This also had the consequence of increasing the internal fuel capacity a bit, which was good as the Mirage III was always known for its relatively short range. All this bumped the cockpit forward a bit, and the difference shows in that the rear of the cockpit just aligns with the top lip of the intakes, whereas it sat further back on the IIIC.