IPMS/USA Reviews

What's in the Box?

• 13 grey plastic sprues
• 1 plastic lower hull
• 1 Photo etch sheet
• 2 bags of magic tracks (one left and one right)
• 1 decal sheet
• 1 set of Instructions

Background

The SU76I was based on the German Panzer III and Stug III chassis. It was armed with a 76.2 mm gun. Approximately 200 of these captured vehicles were converted by the Russians. A new superstructure enclosing the 76.2 mm gun was added to the tank. The tank was issued to self-propelled gun units starting in autumn 1943, but it was withdrawn from the front in early 1944. Some SU-76i were recaptured by the Germans who added a Panzer III commander's copula fixed on the roof. I found this to be very interesting in that the original vehicles had been re-purposed twice.

The Jeep

The original Jeep was built by Bantam, but Ford and Willys also bid on the original contract. Due to financial problems at Bantam, the other two companies were given contracts to build Jeeps. Bantam called theirs BRC-40 Willys was the MB, the Ford was called GPW. The Jeep was a 1/4 ton all-wheel drive vehicle, with a wheelbase of 80 inches and a track of 47 inches.

Willys produced 363,000 Jeeps, Ford made 280,000. We gave 51,000 to the Russians. They were used in every theater of WW2.

The Kit

The base kit is one very nicely cast piece of resin, which is almost the entire Jeep. There is a PE fret, of which 3 parts are used. There's a decal sheet with all the markings you need. You get enough in the envelope to build two Jeeps, with PE and decals for both.

David Doyle's latest book continues to expand on Squadron Signal's long standing In Action series that initiated back in 1971. This is a completely updated and expanded edition over Squadron's earlier Armor in Action 34, M3 Half-Track by Jim Mesko that was published in 1996 with 50 pages.

The Kit

Joining Trumpeter's growing fleet of prime movers, this kit is their latest addition. The AT-T is a tracked vehicle, sharing the same components as a T-54. The kit and markings are for one vehicle. The color call out sheet shows this as a parade vehicle, white rims and markings of the Soviet flag. I chose to make it a grubbier vehicle with the Soviet red star (ironically enough, left over from another Trumpeter kit). Molded in the now customary grey Trumpeter plastic, there are ten sprues in the kit of which three are the tracks and two are the rubber road wheels. It includes one fret of PE, clear parts and one sheet of decals. The parts are nicely molded, but there are some prominent mold lines on some of the smaller parts that must be taken care of.