This is one of three photoetch sets provided by Eduard for the Meng 1/35 scale D9R Armored Bulldozer kit. The Meng D9R kit itself has previously been reviewed [Meng D9R Review]. The Eduard Cooling Slats set has also previously been reviewed [D9R Cooling Slats Review], as well as the Eduard Interior Photoetch set [D9R Interior Photoetch Review].
Bronco Models has released a kit of the Marder IID, so let’s take a look at what's in the box. This was my first Bronco kit, and I was pleased to find the box was completely full. Inside you will find:
While the P-51 B-, C-, and, certainly, D-models are well known and feature in plenty of references, that is not the case for the Allison-powered versions of the Mustang. SAM Publication’s new book The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang: Part 1 Allison Powered is meant to fill the void.
The first 74 pages of the book cover the history of the early versions, from inception and design, to early combat with the RAF, USAAF, and a few other minor operators. These sections pack an incredible amount of research and are paired with period black-and-white pictures illustrating the design, construction, and service of the early Mustangs. Reading these pages is very interesting, as they cover all sorts of details from armament philosophy, to the political situation within and between the US Army Corps and North American Aviation.
The next 12 pages are devoted to period pictures of the Mustang and the Apache A-36 in RAF/USAAF service. They also feature 25 color profiles.
First, thank you to the wonderful folks at KittyHawk Model for providing a welcome addition to early US Navy jet modelers, the TF-9J Cougar. This new release from KittyHawk fills a long-standing gap in 1/48 scale USN jets. KittyHawk subjects are starting to fill out my collection more and more!
Thanks very much to Ross at SAC for providing IPMS USA this review accessory, and to the IPMS Review corps leadership for entrusting me to use it.
Here is the latest in SAC’s line of gear to improve the kits we build. Consisting of two main gear, two retraction arms, two gear braces, and a replacement tail gear, it is a simple set with vastly improved strength.
How do I know this? During my marathon building session over the Columbus Day holiday weekend, I was able to build the Hobbyboss BV 141 kit. And dropped it twice after installing the SAC gear. It stayed on, bent, but was bent back into shape. Resilience personified.
Designed to fulfill a requirement by the United States Army and Marine Corps for a main battle tank to replace the M4 Shermans and M46 Pershings of the 1940’s, the M48 Patton tank found its place America’s armor hall of fame as the United States’ main battle tank from the early 1950’s through the early 1970’s. Originally fitted with gasoline engines, early M48’s were limited in range and were prone to erupt in flames when struck by hostile fire, thus necessitating the need for an improved version with increase range and less susceptible to secondary explosions and fire when impacted by enemy rounds. Enter the M48A3 variant, equipped with a new diesel engine and improved drive train and fire control system. In addition to production of new M48A3’s, earlier M48 variants were retrofitted to the M48A3 standard, and became the primary US tank during the Vietnam era.
This follow-up review of Eduard’s detail set covers pretty much “everything else” in the set since the cockpit was covered in Part One. I won’t summarize that section here, but have provided the link to it if you’re interested in reading and referencing that one to get the complete picture of this detail set.
A drawback of this entire build had nothing to do with the Eduard set---the Airfix A-4B kit I purchased was damaged---it came out of the box with three of the six tiny little slat tracks broken off, and worse yet, missing from the poly bag to boot. This further complicated the project and caused me lots more heartburn and delay than if I’d had a complete kit.
There have been several accounts of the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, including one by a former Navy seal, one by a Navy seal who participated in the raid, as well as the movie Zero Dark Thirty.
In this new book Killing bin Laden - Operation Neptune Spear 2011, author Peter F. Panzeri Jr. has developed another highly detailed account of the hunt leading up to the raid on the bin Laden's compound in Abottabad, Pakistan, and his ultimate death.
As stated in the book “The most dominant influences on this account are those of the 880+ page Pakistani Abottabad Commission Report for its inclusion of candid raw data, the personal account in interviews of former US Navy SEAL “Mark Owen,” and the abundance of detailed information on Operation Neptune Spear released in 2011 to the producers and screenwriters of the film Zero Dark Thirty.
Sections of the book include:
This is another finely sculpted resin figure from The Bodi. The figure is sculpted to be leaning against a motorcycle and has a recess on his butt for the motorcycle seat. The figures body is molded in a full-length leather greatcoat that is pulled back and buttoned around the legs. There is also a recess across the back for the rifle slung across the shoulder. A gas mask canister is strapped under the right arm, but there is no other equipment. The figure does have goggles around the collar.
The body has a pronounced mold seam running up the side of the legs and up the sides of each arm. There is also a seam in the figures jacket running up the arm so make sure to remove the mold seam, not the jacket seam. There is flash between the two legs that will need to be removed. The figures hands are not gloved and have good detail. Straps and the figure’s belt are crisply detailed.
After scratching my head for quite some time I’ve finally came up with a plan to paint and assemble the main parts of the passenger cabin and move forward on the whole plan to complete this model.
First paint and assemble the passenger benches (described in Part 2). Then dry fit and glue the cabin sides to the boarding area sides. That would create two main lateral sides. Mask and paint the sides to your desired color.
Then paint the cabin bulkheads/division from the boarding area, but don’t bother with the clear parts yet.
