Background

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.

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 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.

Here is another great addition to Pen & Sword’s Images of War series. In the past, the series had focused on specific battles and campaigns. The shift to specific vehicles is a welcome shift and this book does not let down one’s expectations.

The book starts out by pointing out the evolution from the M113, the original evolution from the M113, the original armored personnel carrier to the Bradley, named after the famous and well-loved general from WWII, Omar Bradley. The manufacturer of the M113, FMC, developed two vehicles- the XM765 and the XM763 which would eventually morph into the M2/M3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. The new vehicle began its service in 1981 and variants continue to serve to this day. A total of 2,300 M2s and M3s were eventually produced. Text is in English and there are over 300 color photos in the book, many of which are previously unpublished, as well as tables with, as well as tables with general data and engine data.

This subject needs no introduction or prolonged history so I’ll skip it. The kit has been around for a few years in various versions, this time as the short nosed F-4J of the U.S. Navy’s VF 102 aka the “Diamondbacks”. Having read a lot of great things about this kit I had high expectations and they were all realized when I opened the box. There’s a whole lot of plastic in there and it’s done to the highest standards. Most important is the one piece upper fuselage that eliminates the tricky gap you’d have otherwise. In fact a closer examination shows that most of the major joint lines fall in places that exist on the real thing making the builders job one of aligning the parts and gluing them. You get a full complement of missiles, iron bombs and drop tanks. The only negative out of the box are some faint mold seams on the canopy parts. Add to that a massive decal sheet with every (and I mean every!) stencil carried on this Navy bird, and you have a complete package.