The Panzerspahwagen Sd. Kfz. 232 was one of many various types of vehicles with eight-wheel drive and eight-wheel steering used by armored reconnaissance units of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. These armored vehicles were used in many campaigns in Africa and Europe during World War 2. The Sd. Kfz. 232 was noted for its medium range wireless set and frame antenna. This type of antenna was used until 1942 when it was replaced by a single pole antenna. Sd. Kfz. 232s were usually armed with a 2cm KwK 30 L/55 auto cannon capable of firing at a rate of 280 rounds a minute and a 7.92mm machine gun, both mounted in a single turret. A crew of four was typical. The commander and gunner sat in the turret, the driver sat at the front, and a secondary driver was emplaced in the rear of the hull. Powered by a 155 hp 8-cyl gasoline engine with a range of 186 miles and a top speed of 53 mph, it is easy to see why it was one of Rommel’s best long-range recon vehicles.

The August offering from Model Art Modeling Magazine starts off with 44 pages of photos and text (in Japanese, with an occasional English subtitle) dedicated to the F6F Hellcat, with reviews of Eduard, Hobby Boss, and Monogram kits, among others, from 1/144th scale up to 1/48th. A wealth of close-up photos showing trouble spots and finished kits is available for aficionados of this aircraft.

Next comes 5 pages of information about Japanese Navy destroyers, illustrating differences from 1933 through 1945 with photos of 1/700 kits for illustration. This is followed by several pages of walk-around detail shots of a JASDF H-21, very useful for modelers of this subject. This appears to be a monthly feature, the H-21 being August.

The J-20 is a prototype of the Chinese fifth-generation fighter. It is called a stealth fighter, and it has many of the characteristics of a truly stealthy aircraft, including occluded intakes, an internal armament store, and radar-absorbent outer skin. As it is now configured, most experts say it isn’t truly stealthy as the engine exhausts are not low-observable technology for either IR or radar. There is speculation that new engines and exhausts will be added after the airframe has moved further toward production.

The prototype flew in January of 2011. Dragon’s kit is now available 6 months later. That’s fast work.

The Kit

At first look, this is a simple kit, but the box art states that it’s for skilled modelers, age 14 and over. It’s nicely molded in flash-free gray plastic with 3 sprues of parts, the canopy, and a tiny decal sheet.

Two Bobs Aviation Graphics continues to release decals to celebrate the special paint schemes that the US Navy is using to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Flight (Centennial of Naval Aviation or CONA). Each decal sheet contains markings for these special aircraft, and a 3” sticker with the CONA official logo. Two Bobs actually has an official licensing agreement with the Navy to bring these decals to us in the hobby world! As always, this Two Bobs release features decals which are thin, crisp, and in perfect register.

This decal sheet covers two VFA-106 Gladiators Hornets from NAS Oceana seen in December 2010.

Pavla has come out with a cockpit and operators station set for the Hasegawa 1/72 S-3A Viking. The big difference between the Hasegawa cockpit and the Pavla one is that Pavla’s also includes the operators’ stations behind the pilots.

This offering is really a quality set of resin pieces – smooth, seamless, and bubble-free. The detail is also very nice and doesn’t need any extra work to bring out the detail; just a little bit of dry-brushing and it just pops out. As with most of the Pavla aftermarket parts, there is some cutting involved. There is a nice sheet included that shows where all the cutting is to be done. They also include the area from the entrance hatch to the cockpit, and that involves the removal of a pretty stout piece of plastic.