Opening the Box

Wow was it Christmas or what? This is a smaller armored vehicle in the big picture of things, but there is no doubt it is a big kit, and it is stuffed with sprues. The box is 22” by 13 ¾” by 5 5/8 “. Nope it is not going to fit in the mailbox. There is a single hull piece with 141 sprues (95 of which are the 190 Track blocks in a separate bag bundled in the hull along with the track components), So a rough sprue parts count drives this number up to over 1,105 individual parts. Also included are the Side skirts, clear parts and the copper tow cable and PE parts. Also included is an optional metal gun barrel.

So, if you thought because it’s bigger means less parts your build experience will be just like a well contented 1/35 kit. Nope not a snap-tite kit for sure. However, because the parts are larger, the detail is well executed and crisp with almost no flash whatsoever. The sprue gates and risers are larger so there will be more cleanup

This book provides an overview of the victory markings painted on the fins and rudders of the planes of the German day fighter and night fighter aircraft between 1939 and 1945. It demonstrates how these were applied in reality through the profiles of nineteen pilots, including some of the most emblematic pilots of the Luftwaffe: Hans Troitzsch, Johannes Gentzen, Frank Liesendahl, Wilhelm Balthasar, Otto Bertram, Joachim Müncheberg, Karl-Heinz Koch, Kurt “Kuddel” Ubben, Felix-Maria Brandis, “Fiffi” Stahlschmidt, Franz-Josef Beerenbrock, Heinrich Setz, Walter “Gulle" Oesau, Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, Heinrich Bartels, "Fritz" Dinger, Martin Drewes, Egmont zur Lippe-Weissenfeld and Ludwig Meister.

Chapters include:

I found this interesting and decided to share...

From Wikipedia: “The Katyusha multiple rocket launcher is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in WWII. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area more intensively than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload.

They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are cheap, easy to produce, and usable on any chassis[ A Chevrolet 7107 truck, for instance]. The Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union,were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha, and other self-propelled artillery, another advantage: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire. Katyusha weapons of World War II included the BM-13 launcher, light BM-8, and heavy BM-31.

The Clarkat Type B was a flight deck tractor used by the Royal Navy on its carrier fleet from 1942 until the mid-1950s. They were first seen on HMS Illustrious following her repair and refit in the USA in 1941-2 and served right through the Korean War. It was developed from an existing commercial tractor and was also used by the USAAF in the UK, so the possible uses for this kit go beyond an RN flight deck diorama.

Brengun has been releasing its aircraft-related accessories in a variety of media for some years now; they released a 1/48 resin kit of this type a couple of years ago, so it was natural for them to release it in smaller scales. Both kits come in their standard mid-grey resin with a small PE fret that includes the various small controls and instrument panel/dashboard. Each kit also offers a small decal sheet, containing two schemes and marking options, for a tractor based on HMS Victorious in 1944 and the other on HMS XXX in 1948.

Everyone has heard of the AVG also know as the Flying Tigers and their exploits in WWII, but did you know that there was another AVG that served in Colombia in 1932? This book is their story.

In the early 1930s there was a border skirmish between Colombia and Peru when the latter invaded a very remote section of Columbia. So remote in fact that it was only accessible by floatplane or boats and thus there was a delay in the Colombian government finding out the Peru had invaded. Due to the remoteness of this area airpower was going to be the primary force to contest Peru.

Colombia’s air force was largely under the control of the German Airline that operated in the nation as little had been done by Germany to train locals in and on the aircraft. Also, the aircraft in use were largely of German manufacture which helped Germany maintain this control.