IPMS/USA Reviews

When Tamiya announced they were entering the Phantom market in 1/48 scale, the Internet buzzed. And now the kit is out, a 1/48^th scale F-4B Phantom. Let's start by taking a looking the box. For starters, there are 14 sprues of perfect Tamiya grey and clear plastic. There is also a set of instructions, a set of Tamiya Tech tips and a background information booklet about the plane. There are two large double-sided four-color pages with markings for the three planes and a drawing for stencil locations. Also included is a set of masks (not precut). Lastly, there are two decals sheets with markings for the weapons, planes and stencils.

Markings are included for the following:

• VF-51 "Screaming Eagles", CAG Plane, May 6, 1972, USS Coral Sea
• VF-111 "Sundowners", Squadron Leaders Aircraft, NAS Miramar, August 1972
• VF-161 "Chargers), CAG Plane, May 1972, USS Midway

Options included for the modeler to use are:

History

Using the hull from a Sho't (itself a modified Centurion), the Puma CEV is a heavily armored combat engineering vehicle and armored personnel carrier used by the IDF since the 1990's. With a top speed of 45 km/h, the Puma can carry a crew of up to eight people. It has a variety of uses including mine clearing equipment (including the Carpet system) and bridging capabilities. It is armed with three 7.62mm FN MAG machine guns, smoke grenade launchers, and a 60mm mortar.

The Kit

Inside the durable cardboard box are seventeen olive green sprues, four brown sprues with individual track links, an upper and lower hull, two clear sprues, 24 vinyl tires, a PE fret, and a nicely detailed decal sheet. The kit only features one scheme that uses only two of the decals, so good references are a must to get the most out of the kit.

Toward the end of World War 2, the Germans were coming up with more and more desperate attempts to halt the U.S. and British aerial juggernaut that was daily pummeling their cities and the remnants of their industrial capacity. Cheap, easily assembled point defense weapons became the order of the day, resulting in such oddities as the Me163 Komet rocket fighter and the He162 Salamander, both of which were as much a threat to their pilots as to any Allied airmen. The Junkers EF-126 and its rocket-powered alternative, the EF-127, were supposed to be the logical descendants of the Komet, and although none were built by German industry, the Soviets made prototypes of both aircraft after the war. Apparently the sole unpowered version of the craft crashed on its maiden flight. I couldn't find where powered versions were ever run.

History

The BR 20 "Cicogna" low wing medium bomber was developed by the Italian aircraft manufacturer Fiat during the 1930's. It entered service in 1936 and was characterized by its metal frame and retractable landing gear. Modern and fast for the period, it was deployed by the "Aviazione Legionaria" and had its baptism of fire in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. In September 1940, the "Corpo Aereo Italiano", consisting of the 13th and 43rd "Stormo da Bombardamento" were similarly equipped with the BR-20. The "Stormi" were stationed in Belgium and supported the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Despite operational comparisons with modern R.A.F. fighters that exposed the BR-20's limits, it was used for the duration of WW2 on various fronts by several Regia Aeronautica bomber squadrons.

This is a re-boxing of the very good Dragon kit with addition parts and new decals for five different markings. Included in the kit is a very nice instruction manual by Das Werk. The kit can be built in to one of two different versions - the 10.5cm StuH42 or the 7.5cm StuG III Ausf.G.

The kit contains

• 13 sprues molded in light grey styrene
• 1 Lower hull in light grey
• 1 clear sprue
• 1 Photo Etch sheets
• 2 metal cables
• 1 decal sheet
• 1 instruction booklet.

Construction

The kit is includes a lot of unrequired parts as these are for the other StuG versions that Dragon does. The instruction booklet is great and very detailed to assist in the build. There were a couple of minor errors that I list below that I found during the build.

You should decide at this point which version you are going to build, I decided on the StuH of Abteilung 261 (third version shown at the back of the instructuons)

Step 1, 2 & 3 assembles the road wheels, drive wheel, lower hull and suspension. There were no issues found and it went together very well.