Following on from their superb yet diminutive FT-17 WW1 French tank, Meng Models of China provides the modeling public with a colossus of a tank model, the French Char 2C. Like the FT-17, the Char 2C was born during the years of battle in World War One, but came too late in the piece to see combat. Before the prototype was even completed, an order was placed for 300 of these gargantuan beasts, but due to the war coming to an end, this order was subsequently cancelled, and only 10 Char 2C’s were eventually delivered in 1921, becoming the largest tank ever to enter service in any of the world’s armies. The 10 vehicles went on to become mainly propaganda vehicles, “staring” in various cinematic productions to show the strength of the French military machine. Each of the ten tanks was named after the ancient regions of France: Poitou, Provence, Picardie, Alsace, Bretagne, Touraine, Anjou, Normandie, Berry and Champagne. Normandie was renamed Lorraine in 1939.

With the recent releases (and re-releases) of a few Me 410 kits, MMP’s book on the aircraft is quite timely.

The first 10 (out of 120) pages of this book describe the rather convoluted developmental history of the Messerschmitt Me 410, actually starting with the Me 210. The blurred lines between what constitutes a late Me 210 and an early Me 410 are well described. In fact, as the lineage is so confusing, MMP provides a good flowchart to clear it all up. At the end of this section are a brief few paragraphs describing the remaining two surviving examples of the aircraft (photos of these appear later).

Introduction

By 1999, a human colony had been built on the Moon (you remember, right?). Moonbase Alpha safeguarded all the nuclear waste shipped from Earth, and carried out research. Then, on September 13, 1999, disaster struck when the nuclear waste exploded in a chain reaction, and the Moon was blasted out of Earth's orbit, into deep space. Thus began the adventures of Space:1999. Space:1999 was a British produced science fiction television series that aired from late 1975 to early 1977, and for us science fiction fans, there was nothing else like it on TV at the time. The workhorse of Moonbase Alpha was the Eagle spacecraft. Eagle spacecraft were cleverly designed, modular utility ships (like the Huey helicopters of the day), and were used for work tasks and in various configurations to transport personnel and cargo around the Moon and the planets the Moonbase Alpha crew came across in their travels.

Retired from active service in 2006, The F-1 was the JASDF’s first Japanese-designed and -manufactured supersonic fighter, and was essentially the same airframe as the two-seat Mitsubishi T-2 trainer, but had a solid “hood” in place of the second canopy, along with assorted weapons capabilities and internal differences. The similarity in appearance to the SEPECAT Jaguar has some merit, though Mitsubishi’s official position states that the only items it has in common with the Jag are its engines.

Platz continues its line of JASDF and JMSDF subjects with this new release. I’ve never built a Platz kit which hasn’t been excellent with beautiful engraved detail and great fit, and this one’s recessed panel lines and thorough detailing throughout was no exception.

Having a few of these kits on the shelf and recently reviewing the kits most recent release I thought I could provide a good perspective on this offering from SAC.

Scale Aircraft Conversions continues to release high quality aftermarket gear sets and this one is no exception. The 4 piece white metal kit is supplied in the standard blister pack and one can immediately see it is far superior to the kit supplied gear in detail. Upon removal, the gear is has some weight to it so it will be sturdy.

The kit supplied gear was adequate, but required considerable work as the halves are not properly aligned to one another. Additionally there are a number of sink holes and ejector pin marks that are quite time consuming to fix. The SAC gear kit is soooooooooo much better in quality and will require much less effort to present an accurate presentation.