The 150 mm SFH18 Howitzer was widely deployed by the German army on all the key fronts during World War 2. Developed in secret, during the years limiting German rearmament under the conditions in the Treaty of Versailles, when Germany began their rearmament in 1933, it was a fully functioning design ready for immediate deployment. Interestingly enough, its first combat use was by the Chinese National Revolutionary Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The SFH18 had a simple and reliable design and a maximum range of 13.5 km. The gun and its limber could be separated and towed by horses, or more commonly by a half-track. A less common 105mm version was also developed and shared the same carriage as the 150mm version.

The Red Air Force versus the Luftwaffe in the skies over Eastern Europe.

June 1941: Having conquered most of Western Europe, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the vast Soviet Union. Disregarding his Non-Aggression Pact with Joseph Stalin, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, a full-scale invasion of the Soviet homeland aimed squarely at Moscow.

In the skies over Russia, the battle-hardened airmen of the Luftwaffe made short work of the Red Air Force during opening days of Barbarossa. To make matters worse, Stalin had executed many of his best pilots during the perennial "purges" of the 1930s. Thus, much of the Red Air Force was destroyed on the ground before meeting the Luftwaffe in the skies. By 1944, however, the Soviet airmen had regained the initiative and fervently wrested air superiority from the now-ailing Axis Powers.

The Typhoon family of vehicles that have been in service since 2014. These vehicles serve a number of different functions and the main goal of the program is to provide a new united platform for all Russian armored wheeled vehicles. All of the vehicles in the Typhoon grouping have been designed as Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected armored vehicles. This new kit from Meng covers the newest member of this family, the K-4386 Typhoon-VDV. This vehicle was specifically designed to be dropped into war zones with the Russian Airborne Forces. It has been designed to be light, lightly armored and heavily armed for its size.

Brengun Models is a scale model and detailing parts manufacturer located in the Czech Republic. Their lines include limited production run multi-media kits and exquisitely detailed photo-etched, turned brass and white metal replacement parts for aircraft in the most commonly produced scales.

Brengun has produced a set of wheels with three different tread patterns for any 1/72 scale P-47N. There are no instructions, and any modeler familiar with resin parts will have no issues installing these wheels in lieu of the kit parts. A close-up evaluation of the parts (see photos), indicates a simple cut and replace installation that provides realistic scale-detailed wheels with significantly improved appearance to molded plastic kit parts. Note that the castings contain two hub inserts that are suitable for any of the tread patterns.

As a hard-core Star Trek aficionado as well as modeler, this is a model I’ve been waiting literally decades to see. The classic Enterprise’s Galileo shuttle appeared in a number of episodes, and was always a fan favorite simply because it brought starship technology down to a human level. Round 2 has seen fit to finally release their long awaited Star Trek shuttle, and it’s been more than a little interesting examining and building it.