Book Author(s)
Mark Forsdike
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
December 13, 2022
Company
Pen & Sword
MSRP
$34.95

From 1948 through the 1950s British and Commonwealth forces fought a ruthless communist insurgency on the Malay peninsula. Thanks to sound generalship and the dedication and resilience of the officers and men, the security forces eventually broke the terrorists' resolve.

This book charts the service of one particular unit, the 1st Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment, throughout their tour of duty between 1949 to 1953, the most critical years in The Emergency. The book describes in text and photos how the Battalion – which was mostly made up of National Servicemen conscripts – was able to operate in the oppressive climate and jungle conditions of the Malay Peninsula. Its success was built on good leadership and those most elusive of factors, good morale and camaraderie.

Book Author(s)
Massimiliano Afiero
Review Author
Orlando Reyes
Published on
December 14, 2022
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$28.95

The book is part of Casemate Illustrated Men/Battles/Weapons Series. This book is Volume One of the 12th SS Panzer Division history. The book covers the formation of the unit through the fourth Battle of Caen encompassing the events between February 10, 1943 and July 7, 1944, at which time they became part of the German forces trap in the Falaise Pocket. The book is divided into seven sections and an epilogue. It also contains a bibliography and index. The sections are as follow:

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
Barracuda Studios
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$24.95

From Barracudacast’s website:

“The Aero 1D 300 gallon tanks were widely used, and were carried in this configuration by all variants of the Skyhawk as well as the F4D Skyray. This set consists of a pair of highly accurate and detailed 3D printed droptanks, complete with separate shackles for mounting to pylons. Drop tanks are printed hollow, so they will not weigh down an already large and heavy model. These tanks replace the inaccurate and less detailed tanks found in most 1/32 kits.”

Released to accompany the “KAHU” conversion, it is also valid with the standard A-4. Comprised of four parts for each tank and a set of six mounting brackets (Spares included, heck yes I tested it out)

This took me all of 20 minutes to finish the review set. CAREFULLY remove the parts from their stanchions, lightly sand, and CAREFULLY superglue with slow setting stuff.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
Barracuda Studios
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$17.98

Roy Sutherland of Barracuda Studios is back… and this time with a totally unexpected item; a 1/32 Exhaust and intake set for your Trumpeter A-4.

Consisting of four printed resin items, this one is truly necessary for tightening up a neglected area of many models.

The exhaust turbine section has the four support blades and centerline flow bullet molded as one piece. Easy to paint on this non-afterburning engine. And for those who like to look up the chute in every orfice in a model competition, this item will take care of the look.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
Barracuda Studios
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$21.95

Roy Sutherland of Barracuda Studios is back… and this time with a totally unexpected item; a 1/32 A-4 “kahu” Upgrade for your Trumpeter A-4 to turn it into a New Zealand bird.

Anyone who has been around the modeling community for a while should be familiar with Roy and his company. Well researched and flawlessly executed resin, decals, and other items for (Is it 20 years?)… This set is no exception.

3D printing has arrived at the house of the ‘cuda fish. I have this upgrade in hand and an impressive little bit of upgrade this is. I am no KAHU expert, but have seen the retired birds at work at Nellis AFB (until recently, some kind of contract change). The Kiwi markings are gone, but the overall paint scheme remained.

This set is designed to upgrade your Trumpeter A-4 to a KAHU. The instructions (which you download from Roy’s website) give full instructions on how to remove everything from the printing trestles, and how to use the remaining parts.

Review Author
Joe Staudt
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
ICM
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$47.00

While most Americans might believe otherwise, the first production automobile was built in Germany in 1886 by Karl Benz (of Mercedes Benz fame). The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was built in very small numbers between 1886 and 1893. ICM first released a kit of this vehicle in 2020, with photo-etch parts for the wheels and and drive chains. This year they released an “easy” version of the kit that replaces the photo-etch parts with plastic versions at a significantly lower cost.

The kit comes in ICM’s sturdy thick cardboard box and consists of several sprues of parts in a soft gray plastic. The softness of the plastic is good, because it means that the many small, delicate parts tend to bend rather than break.

The parts had almost no flash and very few mold lines. This is fortunate, because filing or trimming off excess plastic is almost impossible on many of the parts due to their small size and fragile nature.

Book Author(s)
Witold Koszela
Review Author
Luke R. Bucci, PhD
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
Stratus
MSRP
$52.00

The author, Wikold Koszela, has written 25+ books on warships – mostly British, United States and German battleships/cruisers, and modern Polish and Soviet Navy warships. Twelve of his publications are in the Kagero Top Drawing series. For this and other books, Witold also supplied the line and color drawings, and they are top quality and very helpful for modelers. I could not find additional information on Witold.

What You Get

You get a hardbound book, 11.875 X 8.5 inches (A4 size), 136 pages – not counting the covers and blank pages fore and aft. Unlike the 1st Volume, there is no 3-D photos or glasses. Cruisers of the Third Reich Volume 2 is loaded with 141 B&W photographs, nine tables and 24 line drawings. The last two pages of the book have four color plates, showing starboard and overhead profiles of Nurnberg, Admiral Hipper, Blucher and Prinz Eugen. After one Title and Table of Contents page, the book is arranged by ships:

Book Author(s)
Mike Rinaldi
Review Author
Michael Reeves
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
Rinaldi Studio Press
MSRP
$27.50

I was very pleased when I heard the news that Casemate was going to be carrying Mike Rinaldi's excellent books. This Single Model series differs from the original books in size and instead of covering a handful of different projects to highlight his techniques, they focus on obviously a single model- in this case a Bandai Sazabi Custom kit. Anyone who has ever watched a Mike Rinaldi seminar in person or on You Tube knows you are getting educated when you take the time to listen and absorb what he is teaching.

Book Author(s)
Jakub Fojtík
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
Guideline Publications
MSRP
$34.00

Guideline Publications Guideline Publications is the UK's leading publisher of modelling and hobby-related magazines. With a world-class portfolio of titles and an international Social Media presence, Guideline Publications has a dedicated readership that is constantly expanding into new areas.

Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
December 15, 2022
Company
ICM
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$60.99

In my last review concerning this interesting French vehicle, I described how the prototype was developed in 1938 with some of the most advanced mechanical technology of the day. The distinctive look of the machine is based on a double set of “bumper” wheels placed both in the center and the front of the chassis, designed to make the vehicle far more capable in an off-road capacity. Overall, only about 200 of these vehicles were manufactured before the fall of France, with most of them never seeing combat. Those that survived were largely converted by the occupying German forces into utility and radio cars for the Wehrmacht.

The original kit consisted of 6 sprues of well-detailed parts as well as vinyl main wheels. This iteration includes an additional small sprue which contains a machine gun pintle, two different versions of the Hotchkiss machine gun dating back to World War One, and a single box of additional ammunition.