Review Author
John Noack
Published on
February 10, 2020
Company
MikroMir
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$19.80

History

“The Type UB I was a class of small coastal submarines (U-boats) built in Germany at the beginning of the First World War. Built to meet the need for small maneuverable submarines able to operate in the narrow, shallow seas off Flanders, the vessels were intended to be quickly constructed, then shipped by rail and assembled at their port of operation. The design effort began in mid-August 1914 and by mid-October the first 15 boats were ordered from two German shipyards. The German Imperial Navy subsequently ordered an additional pair of boats to replace two sold to Austria-Hungary, who ordered a further three boats in April 1915. A total of 20 UB Is were built. Construction of the first boats for Germany began in early November 1914; all 20 were completed by October 1915. Several of the first boats underwent trials in German home waters, but the rest were assembled and tested at either Antwerp or Pola.

Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$16.29

This product is a premade diorama grass mat that represents the steppe region of Russia. A steppe is a vast area which is usually a level grassy, treeless tract of land. This mat’s measurement are 5 inches by 9 inches, or 130mm by 230mm to our metric speaking friends.

The mat is packaged nicely in a plastic, hanging container with a paper backing slid in and stapled. There is some grass and stones that came lose in shipping that make it look a little messy. This loose debris can be glued back onto the mat with a little white glue with very little effort. There are two colors of grasses represented, plus what looks like little tuffs of cactus needle fuzz. The different sizes of rocks look like the walnut kitty litter my cat uses but represents rocks very well. There also are some areas of little, light green speckles that appear to be moss.

Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
March 26, 2018
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$1.99

Here is the description from Ammo’s website:

“The Synthetic Brush range made of high-quality fibers, offers great spring and color carrying capacity, making them an excellent option to paint medium and large areas of our models. The ideal brush for working with military vehicles, aircraft, groundwork, and all manner of scale models. Thanks to the fine point, smaller sizes are also suitable for detail painting.

They are solvent-resistant and can be used with any paint type including acrylics, enamels, and oils. These are heavy duty brushes at a very economic price, making them a great option for all types of painting and weathering techniques and tasks. Both round and flat shapes can be used to apply washes, filters, pigments, splashes, mud, and a wide range of weathering effects.”

Review Author
Jarrod Booth
Published on
February 10, 2020
Company
Minicraft Model Kits
MSRP
$2.99

Minicraft recently released a second decal scheme for their Beech Bonanza F-33 kit. Along with the Bonanza model, this display stand was looking for a home and a kind word on the IPMS Review Corps list.

This stand is packaged in an industrial strength clear plastic bag with a cardboard fold-over label stapled to the bag top. There are four parts of clear plastic, attached to the sprue with somewhat discrete attachment stubs. With care the parts can be removed with minimal stub marks left. These can be polished out, or the base can be painted.

The parts fit easily together. The vertical shaft slides into the round base and fits securely without glue. This shaft can be cut down to any desired length. Make sure you insert the solid end of the shaft into the base. The top has a hole drilled for the ball joint. Remember this also if shortening the shaft. I left mine as is.

Review Author
Mike Lamm
Published on
March 27, 2018
Company
Hauler
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$10.40

Hauler produces photo-etched and resin upgrade sets for armored fighting vehicles (AFVs), airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and dioramas. They also produce a few resin kits. Their products are in most of the common scale sizes, 1/72, 1/48, and 1/35, but they also produce a number of other items in common railroad hobbyist scales.

The kit for this review is a small set of photoetch designed to upgrade Revell’s 1/72 T-80 kit. The most obvious pieces of photoetch parts in this kit are designed to replace the plastic grills over the engine and exhaust, as well as the side skirts covering the lower portion of the tank’s hull. However, there are also parts to replace the stowage basket on the turret, the commander’s machine gun mount and ammo box, as well as the headlight mounts and covers. In all, there are 25 parts included on one small sheet of photo-etch and a small set of instructions in the package.

Book Author(s)
Various
Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$12.95

This is 20th magazine in Ammo’s weathering line. I really like how they take one topic and run about ten articles to explain how to improve your skill on this technique. The magazine is in the larger, A4 European style, since it is published in Spain. There are 75 pages of high gloss color photos broken down into 11 articles. The article’s models range from five armored fighting vehicles, a locomotive, a figure, a submarine and a Sci-Fi Maschinen figure. Each article is six to eight pages long and full of photos detailing the step by step camouflage pattern being used. There is no construction of these kits discussed, it is just all painting and weathering. I noticed that almost all the articles use only Ammo by Mig products. Makes sense since it is their magazine series.

Book Author(s)
Various
Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$12.95

Faded is number 21 in the Weathering Magazine series published by Ammo by Mig Jimenez. They take one topic, in this case faded vehicles, and created nine articles to help the read improve their skill on this topic. There are 70 pages for these nine articles including many high gloss photos. The wide range of subjects should appeal to most modelers. There are three tank articles, a farm tractor, a submarine, a Star Wars A-wind fighter, a car, a railroad tanker car and a Messerschmitt BF109 airplane. One article of an Aussie M1 tank is a work in progress from the magazine before this one, the “Camouflage” issue. Most of the articles use only Ammo by Mig products, but a few use Tamiya paints too. The magazine is in the larger, A4 European style, since it is published in Spain. Since the articles appear to be written by Spanish authors and then translated into British English, some spelling is different than American English.

Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
February 10, 2020
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$4.95

This is Ammo by Mig Jimenez’s 2017 product catalog (or catalogue in British English since this is translated from Spanish to this). This publication is large, 132 pages of glossy, colorful pages. It starts with a one-page introduction directly from Mig Jimenez. He writes a paragraph that I really think sums up modeling progression:

Review Author
Tim Wilding
Published on
March 29, 2018
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$4.95

Ammo by Mig Jimenez has developed a line of oil paints that are already thinned and come in a clear bottle with a brush attached to the cap. Here is their description for these oilbrusher:

Review Author
Keith Gervasi
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
Minicraft Model Kits
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$49.99

History

The B-52 is arguably the best bomber ever made. First deployed in 1955 as a high altitude “atomic bomber” later versions of it are still in use today.

The Kit

Inside the box you will find 8 sprues of light grey and clear injected plastic. An 8-page instruction manual and a nice sheet of decals. Basically, only the fuselage halves and sprue F are new to this kit as everything else comes from, and is marked, for the B-52H kit. The one minor hitch here is that the very fine panel lines in the wings do NOT match those on the fuselage as these are more Matchbox like. The decal sheet is very nice and in register.