“How the heck did he do that?” A polite version of one of the most often-asked questions in the scale modeling culture. With the proliferation of modeling blogs and videos available on the internet, as well as generations of printed reference material, it seems a rare occurrence when a scale modeling reference in print form hits the market with such great impact and acclaim.

It’s déjà vu all over again – Michael Rinaldi’s TANKART Vol. 2 WWII Allied Armor is just such a work, following close on the heels of the amazing TANKART Vol. 1 WWII German Armor. Batting 2-for-2, the author seems to be on quite a roll, with TANKART Vol. 3 Modern Armor’s forthcoming release eagerly anticipated.

Motivation for Review

After taking a 1-year hiatus from modeling, I wanted to start back with a build that would be of strong interest for me. That is the Spitfire, and I decided to do 1/144, 1/72, and 1/48 builds in the Mk.IX series. At this time, the excellently reviewed: 1/48 Eduard Spitfire Mk.IXc late version was released. For me, one benefit of being in the IPMS Reviewer Corp is to request items in which I have a personal interest, and since I had acquired all of the prior-mentioned scaled Mk.IXc model kits I thought that the Reviewer List might be able to provide me with replacement detailed parts for my builds. I was right, and this review is the first of the few parts that I have been able to obtain. I remain on the lookout for other parts. (Note: the 1/32 Spitfire scares me right now, but I am hoping that once I finish the 3 scales I have now that I will be ready for it.)

The mind of Leonardo DaVinci must have been an interesting place. There's an entire museum in Milan full of his art work, architectural and biological drawings, and working models made from his original plans for a wide variety of machines, and Academy has released a series of spring-driven working models based on these. The subject of this review, his Flying Machine, contains a series of gears that drive two bird-like wings up and down. Of course, it doesn't actually fly, but it was an attempt to understand how birds do.

Much has been written in regard to the tank battles that happened on the eastern front with heavy emphasis on either the Germans or the Russians. This book looks into the smaller countries and the vehicles that were used during this campaign. By reading the book, you find out that some of these countries were not true allies to Germany. Many were forced to side with Germany and some tried to get out of this "alliance" but were drawn back in through kidnappings of their family members and other strong-arm tactics.

This book is clearly written and easy to follow. There are many black and white period photographs, color artwork, line drawings, cut-away drawings, and charts of the vehicles.

“How the heck did he do that?” A polite version of one of the most often-asked questions in the scale modeling culture. With the proliferation of modeling blogs and videos available on the internet, as well as generations of printed reference material, it seems a rare occurrence when a scale modeling reference in print form hits the market with such great impact and acclaim.

Michael Rinaldi’s TANKART Vol. 1 WWII German Armor is just such a work. For that matter, the book seems to be a work of art in and of itself. Yeah, that sounds a bit extreme, but seeing, reading, and re-reading is truly believing. So much for cliché, let’s get into the facts.