Our Czech Republic pals, Plus Model, have a new set of accessory items to spiff up your latest project. The Japanese military field kitchen equipment consists of forty resin pieces and a small sheet of photo etch. The photo etch is for the carrying handles and clasps on some of the various containers and buckets. In my review copy the photo etch sheet was absent so I'm basing that statement on the assembly instruction illustrations included with the kit.

The resin pieces are excellent, nicely detailed, and free of any casting issues. The kit includes:

• A three piece work bench/table
• A four piece field stove/wok with chimney
• Three mess kits
• Two food crates
• One large pot
• Two medium pots
• One small pot
• Two covered pots
• Three large rice bowls
• Three small rice bowls
• Three tea cups
• Tea pot
• Three water canteens
• Six clear plastic bottles
• One large sack of rice and barley
• One double-stacked rice and barley sacks

You'll need to fabricate your own chopsticks, should you desire. One fun fact that I gleaned from the internet is that the empty burlap sacks, that once held rice/barley, were often refilled with sand and used as reinforcement for fighting positions. You know, large sandbags.

The website Lone Sentry has a nice synopsis on Imperial Japanese rations during WWII for those that may be interested in some additional reading. The entry on that website also describes what was in all these sacks and crates and how they were typically utilized. Worth reading.

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/intelligence-report/japanese-army-rations.html

Assembly of the kit is pretty simple. Just remove the molding plugs, clean up the individual bits, and a painting you can go. The only assemble is the work bench/table and the field stove. As mentioned earlier, the table consists of three pieces and the field stove has four pieces. The field stove base includes a cutout for the fire that would be needed to get things cooking. The box art Plus Model provides for this kit will be most helpful when it comes to painting and finishing your Japanese military field kitchen.

There are any number of applications for this resin kit from Plus Model. If you are seeking some accessory bits for a "soldiers at rest" diorama this kit is your ticket to stardom. Perhaps you just want to include a few of these items as stowage on an armor project?

With these nicely molded, finely detailed resin pieces, and with the shear number of pieces included in this kit you'll have more than enough items to enhance any scene you might imagine. Even a post-apocalyptic one. (You should have known that was coming.) Either way this diorama/accessory item from Plus Model will add some wonderful detail to your next project.

My thanks to Plus Model for the review copy. Děkuji.