The Big Macks book is part of Ampersand Publishing Company’s Visual History Series - single-subject reference books featuring a historical introduction followed by extensive black-and-white period and walk-around photographs. The book is by renowned military author David Doyle, has 112 pages with two pages of text, and the remaining pages are all photographs. There are no ads.

The two pages of text is the Introduction, which provides a brief history of development of the various Mack truck models from the early NO-1, 2, 3, which were all prime movers. The introduction also describes the next two models, NO-4 and NO-5, which were wreckers rather than prime movers. The NO-4 trucks were used by the Army Air Forces as aircraft wreckers, whereas the NO-5 was intended for field artillery use. The NO-6 trucks were intended for Allied use through the Lend-Lease program, and the NO-7 was the final model of the wartime prime movers.

A new release in Dragon’s Black series of modern armor the M48A3 Mod.B is a welcome option over the aged Tamiya M48A3 kit from decades ago. Hopefully the drawbacks and challenges of the old Tamiya M48A3 have been corrected with this new release.

Build Notes

Before starting, the Dragon kit has modest cast hull texture; so if a rougher cast texture is desired, glue the hull top & bottom together first adding parts A3, A4, D1 & D3. The mounting pad for D17 & D18 bumper will need to be built up to support the extended double bumper. You may also want to assemble the F13 & F20 Turret upper & lower along with F10, F11, & E1before adding casting texture. Proceed to add cast texture before starting Step 1.

Fine Molds has recently released two new-tool versions of the WWII Japanese Army Type 41 75mm Artillery. This boxing differ only slightly, and this review represents the slightly modified gun with a smaller shield and a crew of 4 figures in poses transporting (pulling) the weapon kit # FM39 Imperial Japanese Army Artillery Type 41 Mountain Gun “Infantry Regiment”. The smaller shield meant a lighter and more easily transported weapon – for the more mountainous terrain.

This is an all new effort by the folks at Fine Molds and is not the old tooling of the gun, which was done is white metal. The kit contains four total sprues molded in tan plastic: two for the gun, one containing the crew figures, and the final sprue contains the personal gear and weapons of the crew. There are also four strings which represent the tow lines, and a rather large decal sheet.

Dragon’s latest release of the T-34 is a little bit of a different take. This kit represents a Beutepanzer (captured tank in German service) T-34/76 STZ Model 1942. The Germans captured hundreds of Russian tanks but the actual number of T-34s in service appears to be very low. The Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two has this figure listed as 50 prior to May 31, 1943. Of the 50, only 17 were noted as serviceable.

This kit is largely based on Dragon/Cyber Hobby’s 6388 T-34/76 STZ Model 1942. It has the chiseled shaped mantle, angled turret cheeks, interlocked welded upper hull, and cast steel wheels. It also includes a PzIII turret stowage box.

AK Interactive provides a set of three clear colors in this set. AK 267 Clear Orange, AK 265 Clear Red, and AK 266 Clear Green. These colors are perfect for navigation lights on aircraft, turn signals on cars, lighting on armor, lighting and windows on spacecraft, and even jewerly on figures.

In tests, all three colors did precisely what AK advertised they would do. When applied, the end product is a very realistic approximation of a color tinted bulb, or light cover. AK states that a new formula prevents the issue of a ring or rim of “Paint” around the area to which the colors are applied, and my tests verify this claim.

These tests consisted of the application of each color on an un-prepared plastic surface. In some tests I applied each color to the tip of a thread of stretched sprue. The Paint dried in a matter of minutes and has a smooth Surface and a transluscent appearance.