Master Model produces some finely turned brass barrels for aircraft and ships in a variety of scales. One of their latest offerings is a barrel set for the Spitfire ‘e’ wing. There are a total of 6 parts – 2 cannon barrels, 2 fairings and 2 .50 caliber barrels. The .50 cal barrels are designed to fit snugly in their fairings, which they do exactly.

TSDS is a company that specializes in making decals and details for Science Fiction subjects such as Irwin Allen TV shows, Lost in Space, etc. I was given the opportunity to try out a set of their water slide decals for the “ Invaders’ UFO”, one of my all time favorite TV shows from the 1960s. I quickly went looking through my stash to see where I had put it. This is an old kit and hasn’t been re-released by anyone yet and to find that someone put out an improvement for it is just great. The idea to these sets is to make the model look a lot better and more detailed than you would ever be able to do with dry brushing and painting the details.

I like halftracks, especially German ones. I especially like the Sd. Kfz. 7, 8 and 9’s. I have plastic kits of the 7 and 9. I have none for an 8. A quick search of the internet shows no plastic versions and only one resin model in 1:72 scale. That makes this paper kit the only other choice at this time, and what a choice it is! The kit depicts a prototype version that sunk in a river in Poland. The 1:1 vehicle was recovered from the river in 1999 and restoration was completed in 2005. It is currently on display in Poland. Additional information can be found at www.skansenpilicy.pl where a more detailed history and restoration description are available.

I have a few Airfix and Hasegawa Marauders is my stash. I am always looking for eye-catching decal options in addition to the supplied kit options. Superscale have issued decal sheets featuring the B-26 in the past, many of which are no longer in available. Even with these decal sheets the Marauder has not been served well in 1/72 scale and the schemes are sometimes boring. Iliad design usually produce decals sheets for more exotic types in 1/48 scale, but recently they have been tapping into 1/72 scale market and one in their new range is a sheet featuring the B-26. Five options are included in the new decal sheet. They are:

History

With the German invasion of Russia in 1941, StuG.III crews experienced a very unnerving surprise when they discovered that their stubby KwK 37 L/24 75mm guns were no match for the numerous and heavily armored Soviet T-34 and KV tanks – except at uncomfortably short ranges.

The solution was to replace the short L/24 gun on the StuG.III Ausf.E platform with the longer barreled KwK 40 L/43 75mm gun. In doing so, the newly designated StuG.III Ausf.F became a truly effective dual-purpose infantry support and tank killing weapon.

First Look

Initially released in the early summer of 2009, this kit is the first in the Cyber-Hobby “Orange Box” series. The concept of this series is pretty simple: Package an older Dragon armor kit with a set of figures and one or two upgraded “add-on” items from their more recent releases and sell it at an affordable price, relative to the prices of new release kits.