Dangerous times followed the end of WWII. In quick succession, the emerging superpowers not only armed themselves with nuclear weapons but showed an overt willingness to use them. The spread of communism into the Eastern European bloc countries and the Asian continent created a need for information so the United States and her allies could make informed decisions about the enemy's intentions. The exploits of the U-2 and SR-71/A-12 pilots who braved overflying hostile territory at high altitude in order to get a strategic, big picture of our enemies have been well documented. What we don’t hear a lot about are the efforts of those tasked with collecting localized intelligence for use on a more immediate time scale. Things as simple as weather conditions to the location and strength of enemy forces are critical to those who decide military actions.

The P-51 in Air National Markings have always interested me and when I saw Iliad Decals was releasing another sheet with them, I couldn’t pass it up. Ironically the Ohio ANG marking included on this sheet was one that I had considered including for the 2009 and the 2015 IPMS Nationals Decal sheets but never made the cut. I am pleased that Iliad decided to do this particular marking.

Their ANG Mustangs Part 3 includes markings for 4 different states: Wyoming, California, Arizona, and Ohio ANG units. The Wyoming Mustang is by far the most colorful on the sheet with its checkered tail and I had considered doing this one for the review but I discovered that the decals didn’t size up to the Airfix kit correctly. I did eventually size the checkered decals to a Tamiya kit and found that they are sized perfectly for the Tamiya kit. I’m hoping I will be able to get around to building that one soon.

Arid Dry Ground (or Mud) texture from Ammo/MiG is a newer edition to their line of Vignettes Acrylics. This product is designed for small and medium sized dioramas or vignettes and comes ready to use in a 100ml tub. This particular product has a coarser texture than some of the other textural products ( I.E. concrete) in AMMO/MiG's catalog.

Borrowing from Ammo's own description: The application method is remarkably simple. You can use any kind of tool at hand and the Arid Dry Ground Texture can be mixed with other weathering materials such as pigments or acrylic paints to create a full range of authentic earthen effects. It can be used for any scale ranging from 1/16 to 1/72. Using this product, you can obtain a perfect finish in your scenes, virtually mimicking real soil. The new format has been optimized for working on scenes and dioramas, so that the product always remains in perfect conditions for each use.

Introduction

The Sturmgeschutz III was the second most produced German armored combat vehicle after the Sd. Kfz 251 halftrack. It was the most produced fully tracked armored vehicle. It was built on a modified Panzer III chassis replacing the turret with an armored fixed superstructure mounting a more powerful gun. Initially intended as a mobile assault gun for direct fire support for infantry The StuG III was continually modified and was later employed as a tank destroyer

Background

Gallery Models is not a widely known brand and it was apparently acquired by MRC. The StuG III is their newest release and the tooling looks different from what I have seen of photos the Takom 1/16 StuG kit.

ICM has released kit of a British Royal Marine Office in their 1/16 figure series. The Royal Marine is in the standard parade uniform with sword.

In the box is;

• 2 x light grey sprues
• 1 stand base
• 1 black sprue
• 1 instruction sheets
• 1 box art print

Construction

The construction of the figure is very easy, and they assemble very well. You do need to do a little filling here and there during the assembly.

The base is a nice touch and has optional ground finishes to choose from.

Painting was easy, although I did not use all the reference colors as shown on in the instructions. I did use all Tamiya paints on the figure.

I really enjoyed building these and they look great as a team of individually.

Summary

This was a fantastic kit and fun to build.

Thanks go to ICM for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.