ICM has released a plethora of German medium bombers in the He-111, Ju-88s and Do-17 family. It is only natural to include bombs for them! What do you do if you don’t necessarily want the big kit? Or you want to add to your diorama? Well, ICM helps you out with sets like this one. It comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a cover bearing a nice photo of the contents.

Unusual for me is the inclusion of torpedoes. The instructions are on two separate sheets: one for the bombs and one for the torpedoes. They are printed on high-quality paper with full color painting instructions/decal placement. A sheet of decals is included. They look and work perfectly. There are six sprues of light grey plastic that is flash free. The grey is a little soft. That is a good/bad thing. Good when gluing but a bit of a challenge when cleaning up small and thin pieces.More on that later.

This new kit from Academy depicts the K311A1 1¼ -ton truck currently in service with the Armed forces of South Korea (R.O.K.) and exported to many other countries around the world. A detailed history of the vehicle is available on Wikipedia, so I won’t repeat it here. The kit provides marking options for two R.O.K. army trucks, one R.O.K. Marines, one R.O.K. Air Force, one Philippines, and two Chilean Marines trucks. The last Chilean option is a single color, providing an option for modelers who aren’t in the mood to paint complex camouflage.

The kit comes in a sturdy and surprisingly large box with the entire top covered by artwork of the vehicle. The kit includes separately molded cargo bed, bed canopy, and cab floor, four trees of tan parts, one tree of clear parts, a tree of poly-caps, five tires in soft black plastic, a fret of photo-etch, a sheet of masks, decals, and instructions. Everything is well packaged to prevent damage or loss of parts.

This is the second volume of Into the Endless Mist, The Aleutian Campaign. The first volume, Into the Endless Mist Volume 1: The Aleutian Campaign, June-August 1942, was reviewed previously. This book picks up right where the first volume left off. While good, a map of the Aleutians theater of operations present in Volume 1, would have benefitted from being included in this volume. A good introduction to this book is summarized by a letter from General Marshall to Private Allen, dated 17 December 1942, stated...

Another P-51 Mustang joins the continuing parade of new releases of this subject. This one from KP is advertised as a “new tool” for 2024 on the box top. I’ve had my share of challenges building KP kits, so I went into this build with high hopes. They get high marks for presentation.

Instructions

The 20-page instruction manual is presented in Eduard’s usual manner, on heavy gauge glossy paper, and begins with a thorough history of this aircraft. Care must be taken to ensure all the different options, based on the scheme you choose, are completed. The steps are often very “busy”, and it would behoove the modeler to read things three or four times before committing to cement.

Decals

The decal sheet, covering options for seven aircraft, is generous, to say the least. All markings are in perfect register. A separate, smaller decal sheet is provided for the myriad of data stenciling. The carrier film disappears under a coat of Micro-Sol, but as is now widely known, this film can be carefully peeled off once dried. I have not had much success with that technique, and I do not recommend it. Having said that, even the “Red Tulip” decal on the nose responded well to Micro-Sol.