Thank you to the Eduard Company for sending this detail set for review, it is always a pleasure to see what your new products bring to the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us modeling products to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.
PJ Production is a Belgian company that is self-described as a company who specializes in the creation and production of resin scale models and accessories aimed at amateurs of military aircraft kits and aviation-related dioramas in 1/72nd, 1/48th and 1/32nd scale.
This is one in a series of architectural models that Italeri is producing. Kudos to them for doing some really different things in modeling, with their Leonardo Da Vinci line and now this architectural one.
No number of parts is given, but my guess is around 60 or so, most of those being the columns at the top. The parts are sharply molded in a light tan plastic with good detail. Included is a sheet of images of statues that are cut out and glued to the interior of the outer wall parts so that they show through the arches, which is a neat effect. You also get a few gladiators, a lion and what I think is a bear, but in 1/500 scale, they are pretty tiny and painting them is a challenge. You get a booklet about the colosseum with its history in Italian and English and the instructions are in this booklet. The history is pretty extensive and makes the model more interesting.
Guideline Publications newest release is No.117, Douglas F4D/F-6 Skyray and F5D Skylancer. This is a softbound book of 58 pages and is very well illustrated with both color and black and white pictures, line drawings and many color profiles. I love this era of aircraft with lots of colorful schemes in Gull Gray and white. This book is a great reference so let’s take a look inside.
The book starts with the development and teething problems of the F4D mostly due to the planned engine not being ready and the test engine being underpowered. There are several excellent pictures of the prototype which, interestingly enough, was painted over all Sea Blue. When the fuselage size was increased, and the larger engine installed, the program took off and the shape is one familiar to modelers. The program progressed through carrier trials and acceptance and its eventual deployment.
Of late there has been a plethora of new WW2 German Panther tank kits in 1/35th scale from multiple manufacturers, and where there are Panther kits, there almost certainly will soon be subvariants of the Panther. Sure enough, having recently released kits of the Panther Ausf A and Ausf D, together with a Bergepanther Ausf A, Meng has added to their Panther pride with a Jagdpanther Ausf G1.
The Jagdpanther was a devastatingly effective attempt to mount a more powerful 88mm anti-tank gun to the Panther tank chassis, as such a gun was too large to put into the turret of a Panther. Also, producing tracked mobile anti-tank vehicles without the complexity for the need of rotating turrets made such vehicles cheaper to produce both in terms of financial cost, and time/manpower resources.
I wanted to build one of the new USN Super Carriers and since I wanted a water line model, I added Coastal Kits 1/700 water base that was reviewed previously.
I broke the build into separate parts- hull, air wing, flight deck Italeri has released several versions of the US nuclear carriers in 1/720 scale and this latest rebox release represents CVN-70, the USS Carl Vinson which is notably as the carrier to dispose of Bin Laden’s body along with supporting the current war on terror. I am big fan of the carrier too as most know as my son was stationed on her for five years.
While the F-4 Phantom is the plane many people think of when they think of the Vietnam War, the F-105 Thunderchief is the one that has always interested me more. Designed to deliver a nuclear weapon in a bomb with a low-level toss bombing attack it instead found itself conducting the majority of the strike bombing missions over Vietnam. Known as the Thud, a description of it’s gliding capability or lack thereof, the 105 would not only drop iron bombs on target but also shoot down its share of Migs and knock out SAM sites in the Wild Weasel mission.
This 160-page softback book covers the F-105 in full detail from history of the design, it’s different versions, a short time as a Thunderbird and its missions in Vietnam. It also provides all the technical information anyone who wants to know more about the plane would need. This is helped by 260 photos in black and white and color.
This is the 5th book in the Tank Craft series which details tanks and also covers model kits and accessories to build the tanks covered in the book. This book covers the British tanks – Cromwell and Centaur which were Cruiser type tanks. The Cromwell being one of the most successful Cruiser tanks used by the Allies during World War II.
I found this book to be a fountain of information and rare pictures of both tanks. The profile pictures are a particular favorite and awesome source for modelling.
The chapters on the different model builds and kits are of great interest and will provide a good resource when modelling these two tanks.
I was impressed at the amount of information and history found in the pages of this extremely enjoyable book. The pictures alone are worth the cost of the book. I will find this book indispensible in my library of armor books.
This publication is an MMP Books publication distributed in North America by Casemate Publications. MMP Books are characterized as being very high quality and this product is no different. This publication consists of scaled line drawings of the Mosquito Mk. VI. There is no text other than captions for the drawings.
This publication is an MMP Books publication distributed in North America by Casemate Publications. MMP Books are characterized as being of very high quality and this product is no different. This publication consists of scaled line drawings of the He-111H. There is no text other than captions for the drawings.
