The Churchill tank had one of the largest production runs of any British WWII tank and was built in more variants than any vehicle except perhaps the Sherman. However, until very recently, it has been woefully under-serviced by the modeling manufacturers. The first kit was the old Airfix one from the 50's, which had many limitations. Then came the Aurora 1/48 one in the 60's which was almost toy-like. In the 70's came the 1/72/76 scale kits; the Hasagawa Mk I/II, ESCI Mk. III, Matchbox Mk IV bridge layer, and finally the 1/35 Tamiya Mk VII Crocodile. Since then, nothing has been released. However, Dragon has now released several small-scale models of this historic vehicle. The subject of this review is their kit of the Mk III version with the welded turret and 6 pdr. main gun.

History

The type 73 light truck is one of a series of light utility vehicles used in the Japanese self-defense forces. JSDF deployed these vehicles from 1973. Almost all of them were phased out by 2010.

Items in the box

The model is made of injection molded plastic, olive drab in color. The instructions were made up of a foldout form, printed on both sides. Clear molded plastic window and headlight lenses were supplied.

Cyber-Hobby has recently entered the model aircraft community, and their latest offering is that of a 1/72 scale F6F-3 Hellcat. The kit builds up reasonably well, with good fit for most of the parts, and options such as extended or retracted landing gear, open or closed canopy, and extended or retracted wings. Cyber-Hobby also does a nice job of including the markings for six different squadrons, and in the case of VF-27, there are markings for three different planes with the legendary “cat mouth” motif. The kit itself contains 124 light gray parts spread across seven sprues, as well as 5 clear parts on a single sprue and 4 photoetch pieces on a single fret. The directions are on eight pages (a single sheet of paper with three folds), and are printed in black and blue. The kit will make a great addition to the collection of any modeler who is interested in the venerable Hellcat in this scale.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

This countdown started each episodes of the British Supermarionation show Thunderbirds. I remember watching this and other Gerry Anderson shows when I was a wee lad. I, of course, watched them for the very cool models.

Thunderbird 1 was always first on the scene to check out what rescue equipment Thunderbird 2 would need to haul in. It was piloted by Scott Tracy. The launch sequence for TB 1 was my favorite, blasting off from its underground hanger through the pool area.

Aoshima has rereleased their 1/144th scale kit and it is probably the best rendition of this machine on the market. It is not one of the many “toy” versions with the pull back wheels but an actual scale model consisting of 50 silver plastic parts and 6 plastic bars which the instructions have you glue 4 of in the bottom of the rocket, probably to help it sit when on its spindly landing gear.

Many decades ago when I became initially fascinated with early aviation and the adventure of WWI fliers in particular, the aircraft that symbolized that era and fascination was, and still is for me, the Fokker Eindecker. Like most modelers interested in WWI aviation, I considered the Eindecker a favorite kit. Unfortunately, until Eduard began producing quality plastic injection kits, a good, accurate, and relatively easy to build Eindecker was hard to find – and one in the larger scales, almost impossible. Accurate information was equally difficult to come by. Most information in depth was to be found on a few enthusiast WWI aviation sites, and even then, contention was rife and misinformation common. This led to the occasional and mainly entertaining flame wars which would flare up, burn brightly for a time, then die down only to lie smoldering until the next ‘expert’ pronouncement was made.