IPMS/USA

A sincere “THANK YOU” goes to our friends at MMD for providing this most excellent combination for IPMS to review… This was the build of the year for me.

This was a truly pleasurable effort on many levels.  First, the size is agreeable… I’m getting older and if a kit is larger it’s easier to work with.  The only drawback is where to put it!  (The office wins again; most of my IPMS builds are given to the folks there…  Most are VERY appreciative, as they can’t do it themselves).  Second, I have not built a 1/32 kit like this in quite a while.  I never worried about breaking the basic kit because of my ham-fists… Engineering is first rate!

The kit has over 400 parts; if the number excites you like a jigsaw puzzle, buy the kit, because you’ll be busy.  If you want a 1/32 spider, buy the kit!  Judging by the “out of stock” level, many have… Let us go over the highlights…

Quickboost has issued this set of 12 Compressed Air Cylinders for the Great Wall Hobby P-61A/B. There are 12 cylinders perfectly case in grey resin and attached to a single carrier at the bottom. Cast guards are in place to make sure no damage is done. Removal is simple in just cutting the cylinders from there base with a sprue cutter and removing a few faint seam lines.

As a bit of background, and from Wikipedia,  the Maschinen Krieger universe is a science fiction universe created by Japanese artist and sculptor Kow Yokoyama in the 1980s. The franchise originally began as the science fiction series SF3D which ran as monthly installments in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan from 1982 to 1985. To develop the storyline, Kow Yokoyama collaborated with Hiroshi Ichimura as story editor and Kunitaka Imai as graphic designer.

The title of this one says it all.  This book is dedicated completely to covering the markings and colors of Spitfire Mk Vs on Malta in 1942.  Not all aircraft on Malta, not all 1942 Spitfires, and not anything else – JUST Spitfire Vs, JUST in 1942 and JUST those based on Malta!

The author is a modeler himself, and the introduction to the book briefly describes how he came about researching and writing about this topic.  In brief, he had been corresponding with WC ‘Laddie’ Lucas (leader of 249 Squadron on Malta during much of 1942).  The author had decided to build a Spitfire model for WC Lucas, and the subject of markings came up.  The author had planned on painting a standard desert camouflage scheme on the Spitfire, and Lucas responded by saying none of the aircraft he remembered were painted in this manner.  This evolved into several years of discussion and correspondence over just how exactly the Spitfires on Malta were marked.  From that beginning, a full-blown research campaign was conducted and this book is the product thereof.  As a modeler, I found this little section particularly interesting.

The Product

The kit arrived in Dragon’s standard smaller box common for a kit of this size. All the parts were well protected in the typical Dragon poly bags. Also included was the standard  instruction sheet, a photo-etch fret and a small decal sheet. The kit features 2 crew figures, newly tooled condenser w/modified engine grille, Vickers K machine guns, jerrycans w/photo-etch details and photo-etch sand channels.

The Build

Starting at step one; Building up optional tires. Steps two and three; Chassis, suspension, drive-train and exhaust system. Steps four, five and six included building up the engine and radiator along with adding a lot of the major body part items. Steps seven and eight cover more parts for the interior of the jeep. The last steps, nine thru twelve, finish up by building then adding the jerrycans and machine guns followed by mating the chassis,engine and body. Last were the crew figures as optional items. I encountered no problems in the construction or fit of the model and it only required minimal clean up using a sanding stick.

Normally I don’t build 1/72 scale. The armor is too small and my eyes are too old. There is a guy in our club named Scott who only builds 1/72 and because I thought how funny it would be to enter something into our upcoming contest in 1/72 scale to surprise him, I picked this kit to review.

It is a Village House, which is molded in color (although it still will need to be painted), and it is awesome. I’ll admit that building this kit was a lot of fun, my son helped me because it went together so easily, and it is going to look cool once I add in the extras.

You get a few extra pieces, and have two choices for the front door. There are full gutters and rain spouts, which I left off so I can take the roof off to finish the interior. The roof and bricks are well done, and mine had no flash at all. Crisp, clean plastic that went together very well. re are full gutters and rain spouts. The roof and bricks are well done, and mine had no flash at all. Crisp, clean plastic th

In less than two months, France lost 290,000 men killed or wounded and 1,900,000 taken prisoner in its massive defeat that heavily relied upon a strategy based on solid defensive fortifications.  Germany’s leaders were not going to fight the First World War again, in spite of all appearances.  After their successful Blitzkrieg through Poland in September 1939, they seemed to have run out of steam, settling down to wage a “Sitzkrieg” or “Phoney War” (dôle de guerre).  While the world waited through that first bitter, particularly severe winter of World War II, France began calling up reservists.  Confident that their investment in the Maginot Line stopped the Germans in their tracks, and in their superior quantity and quality of French armor, French generals became overconfident while morale in their conscript army wore thin as time ticked by.  “Observers, including the British general Brooke, were shaken by (the French army’s) insubordination and slovenly appearance.”¹  Soldiers, especially citizen soldiers, hate to “hurry up and wait.”  Finally, on 10 May 1940, Germany launched its lightening war of combined arms driving through Belgium, Nethe

The Fokker D.XXI single seat fighter was developed in the late thirties to replace the Fokker biplane fighters serving with the  Dutch Army Aviation Branch.  Although used in relatively small numbers by the Dutch, and quickly overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe during the German invasion,  the type was also adopted by the Danes, but its major operational use was with the Finnish Air Force in the Winter War and afterwards .  Faced with shortages of Bristol Mercury engines, the Finns also produced a variant powered by American Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior engines.  These aircraft had some additional modifications, and were operated on both wheels and skis, quite successfully against the Russians, who didn’t fare too well against the highly trained and experienced Finnish pilots.  Later replaced by more modern equipment, including Hurricanes, Brewster Buffaloes, and Curtiss Hawks, and later Bf-109G’s, the D.XXI’s continued on until the 1944 Armistice, being used primarily for reconnaissance and  ground attack.  A few survived postwar, and were used for training, operating with the blue and white roundels replacing the light blue swast

MMPBooks (Mushroom Models Publishing) has a proven track record of offering some of the best publications on the market and this latest addition to the collection is no exception. Written by Robert Peczkowski and illsustrated by Artur Juszczak, this book is another example of the excellent publications coming from MMPBooks There are 33 books in the “Yellow Series”, featuring a wide range of aircraft from before WW II through the end of that conflict, and this book, featuring the Lockheed P-38J-L is a welcome addition becoming the 34^th book in the series.

MMPBooks offers a “preview” of the book online. Point your browser to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0FCm6RlzkA and watch the preview, featuring images of some of the content. The preview runs just over 4 minutes and gives the viewer a comprehensive look at the contents of the book. While on the MMPBooks website, take the opportunity to download the Stratus Catalogue. It is 28 MB but is well worth the short download time.

Volume 111 in Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces series presents the interesting story of Russian Aces of World War I.  The 96-page soft cover book is the result of author Victor Kulikov’s lifelong interest in Imperial Russian aviation in WWI.  He is a recognized expert, having written articles on the subject for Windsock International, Cross & Cockade, Avions, Aero Journal and Over the Front, and co-authored Flying Machine Press’ massive hard cover book Imperial Russian Air Forces.  In Osprey’s Russian Aces of World War I, Kulikov draws from recently sourced Russian military and private archives to detail the exploits of each of the aces in a thoroughly researched and well-written narrative combined with a number of previously unpublished period photos.