In Part One, I alluded to some issues I had with the windows in the kit so I’ll start with that. The portholes had acetate to represent the glass, which turned out to be larger than the flat spots they were intended to nestle into, so most had to be trimmed down. The same needed to be done for the ones that were in the deck.

Although the deck is meant to be screwed down, I elected to glue it as well, and discovered a section on each side of the deck that had flash which I hadn’t caught, and I paid for that by having to remove a glued-up deck just for that purpose, but in the end it turned out OK. Word to the wise: make sure that’s cleaned up before putting the deck on.

The Weathering Magazine is one of three magazine series published by the AMMO/ Mig Jimenez Company. This division of Mig Jimenez’s modeling products empire also publishes two other magazines are: Weathering Magazine: Aircraft and Special Editions. Special Editions are primarily focused on one, specific subject. The Weathering Magazine: Abandoned. Is the thirtieth edition in this series and encompasses six, specific How-To articles on a variety of subjects.

Those subjects are :

History

This book is part of an excellent series on the course of World War II in the air, and although it is a little more inclusive than the title implies, it covers the action between the 3^rd Kokutai and the Tainan Kokutai, Japanese Navy units equipped with Mitsubishi A6M-2 Zero Sens, Mitsubishi G4M-2’s, and Nakajima C5M2 reconnaissance types and based in the former Netherlands East Indies, and the U.S. Army 49^th Pursuit Group, (Later 49^th Fighter Group), armed primarily with Curtiss P-40E “Warhawk” fighters, and base in Northern Australia around Darwin. The Japanese were attempting to destroy Allied installations in Northern Australia, while the Americans were attempting to defend them. In general, the Japanese were probably better trained and more experienced than the Americans, but given the conditions of combat, the outcomes were fairly even.

The Jadgpanther was a Heer (German Army) tank destroyer based on the Panzer Mark V Panther tank chassis. They had an 8.8cm anti-tank gun installed in a fixed superstructure that replaced the Panther’s turret and 7.5cm gun. This Meng Model’s Jadgpanther is the last production run made from November 1944 to May 1945.

Once again ICM is modeling one of the worst man-made disasters of the 20^th century – the catastrophic explosion and meltdown of the Number 4 nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986 – an event that would impact most of the world in one fashion or another. That ICM has the boldness to create such a fascinating look at recent history in model form says a lot about this company’s choices of subject. The fact that they are continuing with this series says even more.

In the Chernobyl #1 set, we explored the sealing of the area and the first radiation checks by local authorities. In this set, we confront the conflagration itself, with firefighters taking the first steps to control the resultant fires caused by the explosion of the reactor. This set combines a large fire engine, four new firefighter figures, a bit of debris and a picturesque backdrop that duplicates the cover of the box.