The Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback is the latest publication from Duke Hawkins Books and is the twenty-ninth volume of a series of books that they have recently published highlighting modern aircraft. This series got its start with The Sepecat Jaguar in July 2017 and has been quite successful. There is also a special limited edition on the Belgian Air Force F-16 and on the Juan Carlos I Aircraft Carrier. This series of publications fall under the name of Duke Hawkins, but it is not clear exactly who Duke Hawkins is. If you check out other retail sites on this series, you can find Robert Pied and Nicolas Deboeck listed as authors, but there is not much additional information on them. One of the bylines goes like this:

Military Modelcraft International is a military modeling magazine produced by Guideline Publications and hails from Great Britain. According to the Military Modelcraft International Magazine website,

Military Modelcraft International is the UK’s leading military modelling magazine, with a truly global reach attracting the best modellers in the world to its pages. Each month MMI brings you a mixture of in-depth build articles, reviews of the latest kits and accessories, superb reference articles, and reports from model shows across the world. MMI’s focus is on providing you with the inspiration and knowledge to improve your own modelling skills and gain more from the hobby whether that be from archive photos and references or modelling tricks and tips.

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the Civil War era, as this is the period in history that my father taught at the university. ICM has really delivered in this area, offering no less than four different infantry figure sets, each with a superb sprue of associated equipment, making it very easy to convert these figures as you choose.

ICM has now taken this a step further in introducing a full set of all four kits along with their associated gear for a total of sixteen figures and four equipment sprues. As you might guess, this is a real boon for figure modelers and certainly guarantees a good number of modeling nights in the garage for this particular enthusiast.

I jumped at the chance to review the Value Gear M10-ACH as I am a huge fan of Value Gear, its amazing sets, and its owner (and producer, shipper, sales, customer service, and everything else to make a company work guy), Steve Munsell (also known as one of the nicest guys in our hobby).

To best set the stage for this review, here is Value Gear's Goal from their website:

The Value Gear idea is to give model builders (me included) a more useful spares box! Creating and casting sets of Generic/Universal stowage. No helmets no weapons and nothing to keep you from using it in a wooden cart, a chariot, a truck, or a panther tank. "Any Army Any Era!" is my motto. They won't work on everything but so far I have seen people use them on so many different trucks and tanks and even some War Hammer tanks and dioramas. Stowage are accents to help give your model some story or a lived in realistic look. Armies live under canvas...

About ICM Paints

Water-based acrylic paints by ICM. Paints are prepared for brush, for airbrush dilute it with water or ICM Thinner. The range includes 77 base colors, but colors can be mixed with each other to easily achieve a desired shade. The paint is stable after drying. A wide assortment of paint sets are also available.

The Set

ICM acrylic paint set “Item 3031: Fire Trucks” contains six basic colors for use on most any type of fire truck. The front of the box has artwork of the AR-2 (43105) Special Fire Hose Truck. A small square of the six colors provided in the set appears in the lower right. The top has a photo of the six bottles. The rear of the box shows color callouts for an AR-2 (43105) Special Fire Hose Truck. Instructions for use are printed on the bottom of the box.