AFV Club is a Taiwan-based venture, founded by a hobby shop owner in the late 1980’s. With a growing catalogue of kits in various scales and genres (armor, aircraft, ships, figures and accessories), AFV have made a name for themselves as a niche supplier of subjects. This little gem is no exception.

The Sea King, entering service in 1961, was Sikorsky’s first truly amphibious helo and one of the first to use twin turboshaft engines. Originally intended as an ASW bird, the type has had a long and illustrious history doing SAR, transport, medevac and AEW duty. The USMC has operated Sea Kings under HMX-1 as presidential transports that serve as “Marine One” when the President is onboard. As recently as 2009, some 600 Sea Kings remained in service with multiple military and private operators.

So you bought the Weekend or the Overtree FW-190A-5 but you don’t really want to paint the instrument panel and you’d like to have some seatbelts. What do you do? Well Eduard has the answer. They provide you with the pre-painted photo etch brass fret that comes in the Profipack kit.

Personally I think that the ZOOM sets are what really makes it a Weekend or Overtree kit. This fret is typically released when the Overtree kit is released. I think that they are a bargain. You get one pre-painted photo etch with all the parts you need for the cockpit and a few other places. The key is you get the seatbelts and the instrument panel. Those two things alone are worth the price of admission. Also included are the side panels and some various other photo etch pieces for the outside of the model, but this set is primarily concerned with sprucing up the cockpit.

The T-34 series of tanks together with the M4 Sherman series are THE most important tanks of the Second World War from the Allied point of view. The Panther tank, perhaps the most influential tank of WW2 from the German perspective was a direct result of German forces running smack bang into the T-34/76 on the Eastern Front, and the demand for German industry to provide a counter to it. In turn the T-34 needed to be upgraded once the Germans introduced more thickly armored tanks such as the Panther and the Tiger, and thus was born the T-34/85, an upgrading of the T-34 series from its original 76mm main gun, to a more lethal 85mm gun.

Meng has done something comparatively new to accompany their outstanding Porsche-turreted King Tiger model in 1/35^th scale, offering a separately-available decal sheet for the zimmerit coating found on so many of these monsters at this stage of the Second World War.

The decal sheet is certainly comprehensive – providing 3-dimensionally printed decals for literally every surface that might have had this coating on the real beast. All parts show a remarkable fidelity to the surface they’re supposed to cover and have virtually no film to interfere with the edges. On complicated areas, such as the rear of the hull and turret, multiple decals simplify getting around surface detail. All tool attachment points and other such extrusions are also left free of film to facilitate gluing.

Master Models has released another great set, this I a barrel and muzzle set for the German Mk. 103 30mm cannon used in WWII. It was used primarily for “tank-busting” but could be used in air to air situation also. It was used on the following planes:

• Fw 190F-8 - Two, 1 in the gun pod under each wing
• Hs 129B-2 - One in the pod under the fuselage in the front part
• Me 410B-6/R3 - Pair in the nose
• Ho 229 V3 - Pair in the nose
• Do.335 A-1 - Single center-mounted cannon through the prop hub
• Do.335 A-0 - Single center-mounted cannon through the prop hub

The Henschel HS-129 was the primary user and already having the great Hasegawa kit, I jumped at the chance to review the set.