This aircraft need little introduction, being one of the two major fighters of the German air force in World War 2. The Bf-109E-1 was the first of the Emil versions and lead to the F through K versions. The Emil was also the basis for the ill-fated carrier fighter for the Graf Zeppelin.
Model builders of military vehicles and aircraft have come to rely on Kagero Publications for well-researched reference books. Their Topcolors series provides builders with a pairing of detailed color profiles of specific military vehicles or aircraft in a softcover book packaged with decals needed to reproduce the subjects covered within the publication. Topcolors 12 Eastern Front (Part 1) focuses on the camouflage and markings of (drum roll please…) forty-four different military vehicles that the Polish People’s Army used on the Eastern Front from 1943 to 1945. This 26-page all color book is presented in a larger (landscape) format than most previous Topcolors books and, because of the number of subjects that are covered, it comes with a clear sleeve containing two large-size decal sheets.
First off, I’d like to thank Osprey Publishing for offering this book up for review and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to do the review.
Many, many books have been written about the great warships of the two World Wars. The library shelves are full of stories about the great sailing ships as they traded and fought their way across the world’s oceans. However, not much has been written about the warships of the ancient world. That's simply because there's not much remaining in the way of artifacts to tell the story and very little remains of the written word of those times.
Adrian K. Wood, in his newly released book Warships of the Ancient World, tries to shed some light on this subject. He acknowledges the scarcity of verifiable resources and the confusion caused by sources that are thousands of years old. However, using what’s available, he makes an excellent case for the information he presents in his book.
This kit is pretty similar to my last review of the MiniArt buildings; most of the parts are the same injection molded plastics. However, the parts in this kit are molded in brick red, black, white, blaze orange, and gray. All parts are mostly free of flash, with the small exception of a minor piece of flash next to every one of the connecting blocks, which, if left untrimmed, will skew the walls during assembly. I approached this one with some trepidation, as it is much larger (233 parts). However, in the end it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
An ultimate and highly detailed modeler’s guide to building IJN Haruna in late 1944 fit. Targeted to 1/350 scale, but suitable for all other scales.
Kagero has produced over a dozen books on WW2 warships that use computer graphics in 3D to provide superb detail. This latest book on the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) battlecruiser/fast battleship Haruna is once again an ultimate resource for knowing what the ship looked like in late 1944. Other time periods are not depicted. This book is an ideal companion to 1/350 kits of the Haruna (Fujimi), but is also an ultimate guide to other scales.
I have always admired armored cars crews. I think their vehicles are fast enough to get themselves in trouble, but not armored enough to get themselves out of trouble.
The M8 started its life as a “tank destroyer” vehicle. Very quickly, it was realized that the 37mm cannon wasn’t enough to take out a tank, and the vehicle got re-assigned mainly to cavalry and reconnaissance units. The M20 is a spin-off of the M8, based on the same hull but with a different top and used, for the most part, as a command vehicle, fitted with different radios and a folding map board.
Airfix is releasing all sorts of interesting/strange subjects in their current burst of productivity and this is one of them. It's an old kit that originally dates from 1972, at one point was motorized, and is now billed as part of their Museum Collection. I selected it thinking it would be a fun diversion from my more "intense" projects. Wrong. This is not a simple build. You need to pay attention to what's going on and what goes where and, because it's a cutaway, what needs to be painted before you do anything. There are leftover parts when you're done that I can only assume were once part of the motorization, and some of the rest of the parts are similar to each other, so you need to pay attention to parts' numbers. Be careful during assembly, as some parts need to go together in a certain order and in particular orientations.
The model is made of injection molded plastic, gray in color. The instructions were made up in book form, printed on both sides. Other parts were clear plastic, such as windows and headlights; also included are two small sheets of photo etch details (brass).
Huge thanks as usual go to our friends at MMD Squadron for providing us these great kits and manufacturing the accessories to improve them. We at IPMS USA appreciate your support (and thanks, Dick and Steve, for trusting my questionable skills to execute a review!).
This kit brings yet another Corsair to the stable. In the box is, of course, an excellent F4U-4 kit with minute, delicate surface detail. Multiple options such as antennas, folded or extended wings, and an open canopy are offered. A decal sheet with two Korean War marking options is provided, and a full-color “here’s what it should look like” paint leaflet is also there. All parts are individually bagged and protected; the cowl and clear parts are separated from the main parts by a cardboard divider.
The T-34/85 is one of the most widely recognized tanks in the world. Over 18,000 were built before the end of WWII. Then, in 1951, Poland received marketing approval and continued production, re-manufacturing, and improving the T-34/85 series.
Kagero has done a great job on this book. Like most of their Top Shot series, this book is only 44 pages long and contains 180 color pictures. Also included, free of charge, is a four-page folded Top Shot catalogue. The pictures are great and definitely designed with the modeler in mind. The color pictures (180 of them), are nice, crisp, and provide a wealth of useful ideas. An example would be the one picture that shows a station-keeping light mounted at the rear deck where the electrical wires for the smoke cans exit the rear. I am not sure if this was a production modification or something required to have on a Museum runner.
