History

The Macchi M.5 was a flying-boat fighter developed by the Nieuport Macchi company of Varese in early 1917 and introduced in service in autumn 1917. Initially armed with a single Fiat machine-gun, and featuring a tail structure held on struts, the production M.5 had an armament of two Vickers guns and a tail structure resting on the fuselage. It was an extremely fast and maneuverable airplane, that managed to gain an ascendancy over the enemy seaplane fighters and even claimed victories against the Phönix land fighters.

In the introduction to one of David Doyle's latest offerings, he writes: The M551 Sheridan is often referred to as a light tank, but in actuality it was an armored reconnaissance/airborne assault vehicle. The M551 was designed to be a lightweight, amphibious, air-dropable vehicle armed with a massive 152 mm gun that doubled as a rocket launcher. The gun launcher was designed to fire the MGM-51 Shillelagh antitank missile, or 152 mm conventional rounds with a combustible cartridge case. The vehicles saw extensive use in Vietnam, Operation Just Cause in Panama (where they saw their only combat air drop), and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Sheridan ended its service with the US Army masquerading as Soviet Bloc vehicles at the National Training Center.

This is another book in the Tank Craft series which details tanks and also covers model kits and accessories to build the tanks covered in the book. This book covers the Chieftain a British Cold War main battle tank. The Chieftain was designed in the late 1950’s as the replacement for the successful Centurion tank. It was believed to be the best tank in service with the NATO allies during the 1960’s and 70’s.

I found this book contains so much detailed information and pictures of the Chieftain and its variants. The Profile pictures are a particular favorite and has given me a few great ideas of the color schemes for when I build my Takom and Tamiya Kits.

It covers the use of the tank during the Iran- Iraq war and the Gulf war.

The chapters on the different model builds and kits are of great interest and will provide a good resource when modelling this tank.

When you click the 'About Us' tab on Masterpiece Models website this is what you'll read...

'Masterpiece Models manufactures and sells the highest quality resin assembly kits on the market today. Featuring kits for a variety of interests including WWII, Vietnam, Sci-fi, and aircraft bases. We have acquired the rights to a large selection of the Custom Dioramics line that are now available through us as resin assembly kits. Our kits are manufactured at our Vancouver, Washington, USA fabrication and casting shop.”

What they have left out is that this company also has a line of dinosaur stuff: a T-Rex tooth in one to one scale, several different dinosaur skulls (Velociraptor/Triceratops in 1:9th scale), and a superb, 31” Nautilus submarine of Jules Verne fame, to name a few.

In the Box

Instructions

The instruction booklet was divided into four pages of clearly marked parts and their construction sequence. Illustrations for the parts and their construction sequence were very clear and crisp. The instructions contained 10 separate steps to complete the model. My instruction book was missing step seven but that appeared to be the step when the wing is attached to the fuselage.

Included with the instructions is a drawing for paint and decal applications for either of two aircraft. One version was in natural metal finish and the other was in German camo markings.

Clear Plastic

Supplied was one piece of vacuum formed plastic with two canopies molded into it.

Canopy Mask

For painting the canopy I used my own masks cut from Tamiya tape.