Reviews

Review Author
Will Kuhrt
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$67.99

Thank you to Phil and to Bill for all the work that you do!

History

In the end of the 60s the Mikoyan Design Bureau developed the world’s first interceptor fighter with a speed of Mach 3—the MiG-25. At the same time high-reconnaissance bomber modifications were developed and designated the MiG-25RB. Using the MiG-25RB frame, the strike anti-aircraft Mig-25BM was produced in 1977. It had a new nose with radar and four anti-radar X-58U missiles. These planes served in the Soviet (later Russian) Air Force. From ICM.

Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
Company
OKB Grigorov
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$45.00

OKB Grigorov has provided a very unusual kit in the form of a British post war Paper Tank. The Nuffield Assault Tank A.T.3. Which was one of 9 various of a design proposed by Nuffield. As a Paper tank it was only a design and never left the drawing board.

Included is:

  • 142 resin parts
  • one photoetch sheet
  • one instruction sheet

The detail quality is great; The parts are very delicate and need careful removal from the resin bases. The instructions need a lot of experience to work with to get a great model.

Some of the parts were a little twisted but can be corrected if you’re careful.

The assembly is good but needs a little patience and time to get the running gear built correctly. Also, the resin tracks are very fragile, so this needs a lot of accuracy to get them fitting and looking right.

There were a few gaps that needed filling.

Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
Company
OKB Grigorov
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$45.00

OKB Grigorov has provided a very unusual kit in the form of a British post war Paper Tank. The Nuffield Assault Tank A.T.1. Which was one of 9 various of a design proposed by Nuffield. As a Paper tank it was only a design and never left the drawing board.

Included is:

  • 128 resin parts
  • one photoetch sheet
  • one instruction sheet

The detail quality is great; The parts are very delicate that need careful removal from the resin bases. The instructions need a lot of experience to work with to get a great model.

Some of the parts were a little twisted but can be corrected if you’re careful.

The assembly is good but needs a little patience and time to get the running gear built correctly. Also, the resin tracks are very fragile so this needs a lot of accuracy to get them fitting and looking right. There were a few gaps that needed filling.

I would like to have seen some small decals.

Book Author(s)
Simon Forty
Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
Company
Pen & Sword
MSRP
$26.95

The book is another in the great Casemate Images of War series. This book covers images from the invasion of Sicily through the invasion and progress up Italy until the wars end.

The images in the book are excellent and inspire ideas for dioramas for modelers.

The book is full of amazing photos of the Italian campaign, it is very much an overview as the subject is very large. It does tend to focus on the US forces.

I recommend this book to everyone with an interest in WWII.

Thanks go to Casemate Publishing for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them

Book Author(s)
Bojan Dimitrijevic
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$21.97

Some time after the end of World War 2 and the establishment of the U.N., one of the first opportunities for the fledgling organization to flex its peacekeeper muscles was on the heel of the 1956 Arab-Israeli war. This serious flare-up between Israel and its neighbors – the first really serious conflict of many to come – was seen by the world as a definite threat to the stability of the entire region. A multinational force of British, French and numerous other participants was hastily assembled and dispatched to try and create a safe zone between the hostile forces.

Tito of Yugoslavia, who was even then trying to establish international recognition and legitimacy for his communist government, looked on this multinational effort as an excellent prospect for increasing his country’s standing, and volunteered a small contingent of Yugoslavian troops to go to the Sinai Peninsula and help serve in this laudable effort.

Book Author(s)
Federico Anselmino
Review Author
Hub Plott
Published on
Company
Aviation Collectibles
MSRP
$24.95

This book is from the Italian Aviation Series and covers the T-33A/RT-33A mostly in Italian service. Like several other Italian aircraft book series this one too provides text and captions in both Italian and English.

Chapter one is an introduction to the design, where chapter two covers its design and beginnings with the USAF. Chapter three by far the book’s largest at 45 pages covers the Shooting Star’s (better known in the USA as T-bird) service to the Italian AF. The first T-33 was received in July of 1952 and the type served the IAF until March of 1982 a career of almost 30 years of uninterrupted service. Chapter four covers the use of Canadian built CT-133 in a hail preventing operation. Chapter five is a modeler’s note section with building the 1/72 Heller kit of this aircraft. The book concludes with technical data and acknowledgements.

Book Author(s)
Nicholas Hill
Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Fonthill Media
MSRP
$36.95

In the aftermath of World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were not the only powers who pursued and developed nuclear weapons. Both France and England pursued the development of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons after World War Two. The problem came in developing reliable and effective methods of deploying these weapons. In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, prior to the missile age, the only option was the manned bomber. Unfortunately, as antiaircraft systems became more effective and sophisticated, questions began to arise with respect to the ability of the manned bomber to penetrate these defense systems and reach their targets with gravity bombs.

Book Author(s)
Syed Ali Hamid
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$22.00

Some decades before Pakistan became a separate nation, India had its own armored corps serving as a colonial force. Realistically, it was more of an armored unit in name than in fact, as early on their British overlords put them right at the bottom of the list in terms of supplies, even as World War Two swept the globe. Unspoken (for the most part) at the time was the belief that Indian “natives” were, perhaps, a wee bit too unsophisticated to manage large mechanical devices like armored vehicles – colonial thinking at its best.

Book Author(s)
Artur Walachowski
Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$24.00

This is a book that provides you details of how to finish and weather military ground vehicle models. It has detailed chapters on 10 different and varied model kits.

The detailed chapters are very well illustrated with very well-presented photographs. The methods and materials used are very well shown and will help move your knowledge and work to a new level.

I found this book very helpful and used some of the ideas already on my latest build of an early Tiger 1. The methods depicted and described are great and will lead to better finishes. The only criticism I have is that it could have been improved with more written descriptions with each photo shown.

I recommend this book to everyone whatever level of modeling you are at.

Thanks go to MMP Books for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$21.99

This kit contains two figures, a man and women in sporty attire. The figures are a nice companion to ICM’s Model T 1913 Speedster American Sport Car, kit no. 24015. For this review I posed them with ICM’s Model T Touring Car.

The kit comes in a 10 x 7 1/2 x 1 1/2 light cardboard box with a slip cover with box art. The box top includes a painted rendering of the two figures and artistic suggestion for painting of the figures. The instructions come on a single 8 1/4 x 11 1/4 sheet with the sprue layout and color list on one side and the assembly diagrams and painting instructions on the reverse side.