Designed for the Italeri Ar-196, these new exhausts are molded in light grey resin and are absolutely beautiful. There are two exhausts that have thinned hollow ends which would be difficult to obtain on your own. Well at least difficult for me. Removal from the pour stub is simple enough and then it is just a matter of painting and installing. The exhausts will add to the look of your model.

While designed for the Italeri kit, I’m sure that with very little work you could use this on the MPM kit as well.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost for the review copy. You can obtain yours by contacting them at www.quickboost.net. Let them know IPMS/USA sent you.

The Kit

The Orange Box Series from Dragon are basically previously released models that have been repackaged. This particular kit is a combo of the Dragon 6069 Schwerer Plattformwagen Typ SSY railcar flat top and the Dragon Kit # 9018 Pz Bef Wg III Ausf K

The sprues for this kit are an assortment from different kits needed to piece together a Ausf J Pz III

• A Upper Hull
• B x 2 Drive Sprocket and idler wheel
• b Add on armor and upper hull detail
• C Lower Hull
• D x 2 Road Wheels and Return Rollers
• E Turret parts
• F Misc parts
• g Star Antenna
• H x 2 More misc pars
• J Only 5 pieces out of a complete sprue
• K Add on armor and front deck
• L Single Antenna
• M Antenna base
• O Turret
• Stainless Steel Wire for Antenna (see sprue M)

There is nothing provided for tow cables.

The Ship

The USS Independence (LCS-2) is the second Littoral Combat Ship commissioned by the U. S. Navy, and the leader of the Independence class. She is an aluminum high speed trimaran capable of speeds in excess of 44 knots (50mph), with a range of over 4300 nautical miles at 18 knots. Commissioned on 16 Jan 2010, she has a length of 418 feet and beam of 104 feet, with a large flight deck and mission bay located beneath the flight deck. Capable of handling many types of aircraft, including the CH-53 and the V-22 Osprey, she can be configured to accomplish many different missions through the use of “mission” modules. Very cool ship!

This is a Dutch product, dealing with some Dutch aircraft using the orange triangle marking during the early part of World War II. Two, the Dornier DO-215B-2 and the Brewster B340 Bermuda, were apparently ordered but never delivered, so they become part of the “What If?” category, much like Luft 46. The others, including the DeHavilland DH-85, Ryan STM, Martin B-10, Consolidated PBY-5, and Douglas DB-7, were actually delivered and used, at least at the beginning of World War II. Some of the Ryans, by the way, were evacuated to Australia in 1942, and I had the opportunity to fly in one of the survivors, then privately owned, while I was in Sydney in 1962. Therefore, I’ve got to build that one when I get another MPM kit.

The Kit

This is the Bronco Models kit of the Panzerkamfwagen MK IV, 744(E) (A13).

This kit represents a Cruiser Mk IV A13 captured from the British Army during the Battle for France in 1940. The Germans used the vehicles as gun tanks to support their flame tanks for the invasion of the Soviet Union. The box contains the following parts.

• 25 light grey sprues, including six for track.
• 1 sprue with clear parts.
• 2 P/E frets.
• 1 small decal sheet.
• 1 rope cable.
• 16 page instruction manual with warning page and color table, parts map, 21 construction steps with several exploded views, and full-color four view drawing for markings.

Bottom Line, Up Front

This kit is over-engineered and very 'fiddly", but the detail is outstanding and with patience will build into a nice little replica of the real thing!