Background

Of late there has been a plethora of new WW2 German Panther tank kits in 1/35th scale from multiple manufacturers, and where there are Panther kits, there almost certainly will soon be subvariants of the Panther. Sure enough, having recently released kits of the Panther Ausf A and Ausf D, together with a Bergepanther Ausf A, Meng has added to their Panther pride with a Jagdpanther Ausf G1.

The Jagdpanther was a devastatingly effective attempt to mount a more powerful 88mm anti-tank gun to the Panther tank chassis, as such a gun was too large to put into the turret of a Panther. Also, producing tracked mobile anti-tank vehicles without the complexity for the need of rotating turrets made such vehicles cheaper to produce both in terms of financial cost, and time/manpower resources.

The Kit

This is one in a series of architectural models that Italeri is producing. Kudos to them for doing some really different things in modeling, with their Leonardo Da Vinci line and now this architectural one.

No number of parts is given, but my guess is around 60 or so, most of those being the columns at the top. The parts are sharply molded in a light tan plastic with good detail. Included is a sheet of images of statues that are cut out and glued to the interior of the outer wall parts so that they show through the arches, which is a neat effect. You also get a few gladiators, a lion and what I think is a bear, but in 1/500 scale, they are pretty tiny and painting them is a challenge. You get a booklet about the colosseum with its history in Italian and English and the instructions are in this booklet. The history is pretty extensive and makes the model more interesting.

Thank you to the Eduard Company for sending this detail set for review, it is always a pleasure to see what your new products bring to the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us modeling products to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.

Last summer Eduard released its much anticipated MiG-21MF kit in 1/72 scale. The initial release represents aircraft manufactured at the Gorky factory. In conjunction with the release of this kit, Eduard also released a separate resin cockpit set for these late model MiG-21MFs.

The set includes nine resin parts, a color photo-etch fret and an acetate sheet with 2 heads-up screens and is intended as a complete replacement for the kit cockpit and ejection seat. As you would expect with Eduard, the resin parts are beautifully cast with exquisite detail and the detail on the photo-etch set is crisp and sharp.

The Saab 37 Viggen was an aircraft ahead of its time. Its designers used an unorthodox construction which enabled the plane to meet all requirements which had been laid on it and in some parameters even surpass them. The Swedish Air Force ordered several various versions of the Viggen jet fighter, its basic design formed a universal platform which, using specialized equipment, enabled the plane to be used for different roles. The first prototype machine took off for its maiden flight on 8 February 1967 with E. Dalström at the controls. The aircraft was powered by a Volvo RM8 turbofan, a license-built variant of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D with an afterburner and thrust reverser which, in addition to the double-delta wing design, enhanced the plane’s performance the takeoffs and landings on short airstrips. The avionics of the Viggen was state-of-the-art at the time, the Viggen was the first type to be equipped with a computer with integrated circuits.