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P-47D-28RA Thunderbolt Pacific Theatre of Operations (48022) 1:48 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The Thunderbolt developed from a series of less-than-successful earlier designs that saw Seversky aviation change to Republic, and the project designation from P-35, to P-43 and P-44, each with its own aggressive sounding name. After a realisation that their work so far wasn't going to cut it in the skies over war-torn Europe, they went back to the drawing board and produced the P-47A that was larger, heavier and sported the new Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cylinder radial that would also power the B-26 Marauder, P-61 Black Widow and F4U Corsair. With it they added eight .50cal Browning machine guns aligned along the axis of flight in the wing leading edge. The P-47A was still a small aircraft, and was initially ordered without military equipment to allow faster completion, but it was considered inferior to the competition then available, so an extensive re-design was ordered that resulted in the much larger P-47B, firing up to 100 rounds per second from the eight .50cal wing guns, and with a maximum speed of over 400mph, leaving just the fuel load slightly short of requirements. It first flew mid-1941, and despite being a heavy-weight, its performance was still excellent, and the crash of the prototype didn’t affect the order for over 700 airframes, which were fitted with a more powerful version of the R-2800 and a sliding canopy that made ingress and egress more streamlined, particularly when bailing out of a doomed aircraft. Minor re-designs to early production airframes resulted in a change to the P-47C, which meant that fewer than 200 Bs were made, the C benefitting from improved radio, oxygen systems, and a metal rudder to prevent flutter that had been affecting control at certain points in the performance envelope. A quick way to spot a B is the forward raked aerial mast behind the cockpit, as this was changed to vertical on the C and beyond. The production from a new factory that had been opened to keep up with demand led to the use of the D suffix, although they were initially identical to the C, but the cowling flaps were amended later, making it easier to differentiate. Of course, the later bubble-canopy P-47s were far easier to tell apart from earlier marks, and constant improvement in reliability, performance and fuel load was added along the way. The P-47D-25 carried more fuel for extended range, including piping for jettisonable tanks on the bomb racks for even more fuel. Taking a cue from the British designers, the bubble-top was developed and that improved all-round visibility markedly, although like the bubble-top Spitfires, later models incorporated a fin extension to counter the yaw issues that resulted. TheP-47D-28RA was the same as the -28RE, just built at the Evansville plant, technically identical to Farmingdale production. Its weight, firepower and seemingly unstoppable character led to the nickname ‘Juggernaut’, which was inevitably shortened to ‘Jug’ and led to many, many off-colour jokes during and after the war. Jokes that are still soldiering on to this day, despite being eligible for a pensioner’s bus pass. The Jug was used extensively in the European theatre (ETO) and Pacific Theatre of Operation (PTO), as an escort fighter, where it performed well in its ideal high-altitude environment. Later in the war when the enemy was a spent force, it also went on to become a highly successful ground attack fighter, strafing and bombing targets of opportunity, and eschewing camouflaged paintwork to add some extra speed with a smooth (and shiny) bare metal finish, with a light coat of clear gloss to keep the airflow smooth. As well as flying with the US forces, many P-47s were flown by the other Allies, including the British, Russians, and after the war many other countries as the remainder were sold off as war surplus. The Kit This is another reboxing of a brand-new tooling from MiniArt, and is labelled a Basic Kit because it doesn’t include Photo-Etch (PE) brass parts and gun bay parts in styrene to increase the level of detail of the kit, but it is far from basic. The kit arrives in one of MiniArt’s sturdy top-opening boxes with a dramatic painting of the subject on the front, and profiles of the decal options on one side, reserving the other side for practical details and text. Inside the box are nineteen sprues in grey styrene, although in our sample many of the sprues were handily still connected by their runners, which simplified photography. There are two sheets of decals, and the instruction booklet, which is printed on glossy paper in colour, with profiles for the decal options on the front and rear pages, plus detailed painting and decaling information for the weapons and tanks around the profiles. Detail is beyond excellent, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt in the last several years, with fine engraved panel lines, recessed rivets, plus raised and recessed features where appropriate, as well as fine detail in the cockpit, wheel bays, and engine, as visible from the front. If you’ve seen their AFV kits you’ll know what to expect, but their nascent line of aircraft kits is special in this reviewer’s humble opinion. Construction begins with the highly detailed cockpit, starting by putting the seat together from base, back and two side parts, which have elements of the seatbelts moulded-in, and are finished off by putting the remainder of the lap belts on the seat pan. A pair of supports are inserted into recesses in the back of the seat, then it is installed on the ribbed floor, which has control column, plus seat-adjuster, and two other levers inserted, after which the rear bulkhead, one of the cockpit sidewalls and the front bulkhead are added, trapping the rudder bar with moulded-in pedals between them. The starboard sidewall has a hose added, and a scrap diagram shows the detail painting as well as the location of the decals that need to be applied. The head cushion is applied to the head armour, then the other sidewall is detailed with four controls, numerous decals and more detail painting, so that it can be inserted along with the instrument and auxiliary panel, both of which have decals for the dials, with a choice of three styles for the main panel. The tail wheel is made up in preparation for closing the fuselage, building a four-part strut that holds the wheel on a one-sided yoke, then adding a small curved bulkhead with sprung bumper at the front, or an alternative assembly can be made from four different parts plus wheel, which is less detailed as the mechanism is hidden by a canvas cover. The fuselage halves are prepared by adding two extra detail parts to the short sill panels that have ribbing and other details moulded-in, and should be painted to match the cockpit. At the rear on the underside, the supercharger fairing is slotted into the starboard fuselage along with the tail gear bay, and at the front, a cooling vent and a belly insert are added to the underside, fitting another vent to the port fuselage half in the same place. The fuselage can then be closed around the cockpit, adding the aerial mast into a slot in the starboard spine, although whether that will remain intact until the end of the building and painting is a moot point, and I’d be tempted to nip it off at the base, gluing the base in to act as a socket for the aerial after most of the handling is over. There is a fuselage insert in front of the cockpit, and that has the two-part gunsight with clear lens added to the centre, and another equipment box on the port side before it is inserted and joined by a firewall that closes the front of the fuselage, and in the same step, the rudder is completed by adding an insert at its widest point (the bottom), to avoid sink marks, and it is mated to the fin on three hinges, allowing deflection if you wish. The engine is created by joining the two highly-detailed banks of pistons together by a keyed peg, adding the push-rod assembly to the front, the ends of which mate with a circular support that is the frame onto which the cowling panels are added later. The reduction-housing bell is detailed with magnetos and other parts, plus a collet at the centre where the prop-shaft would be. This is joined to the front of the engine as it is mounted to a bulkhead at the rear, again on a keyed ring. The intake trunking at the bottom of the nose cowling is made from five parts and is installed in the lower panel, and you have a choice of open or closed vents on the sides of the fuselage by using the appropriate parts. The finished assembly is enclosed by four segments of cowling, and at the rear you have a choice of open or closed cooling gills, using different parts to achieve the look you want. Under the tail, your choice of wheel assembly is inserted in the bay, with doors on each side, or if you are building your model in flight, a closed pair of doors is supplied as a single part, adding a small outlet lip further forward under the fuselage. The upper wing halves have well-defined ribbing detail moulded into the inside, which is augmented by fitting an insert, two rib sections, front and rear walls, and an additional structure that has a retraction jack pushed through a hole in one of the wall segments. The flaps are made from two sides, plus a pair of hinges and these are glued into the trailing edge of the wing with the ailerons, the remaining details of the gear bay, which includes another retraction jack, the gun barrels on a carrier to achieve the correct stepped installation, plus a pitot probe, and the wingtip light, which can be fitted now because the complete tip is moulded into the upper wing so that it can be portrayed as a more scale thickness. A scrap diagram of the lower wing shows the location of the flashed-over holes that you can drill out for pylons, then it can be glued to the upper, along with two inserts at the tip and to the rear of the gear bay, which includes a flush landing light. The same process is then carried out in mirror-image for the other wing, with only one insert, omitting the pitot and landing light, after which the wheels and their struts are made up, each wheel made from two halves plus a choice of three hub types, and two styles of wheels are also provided, one without a flat-spot, the other under load on the ground, leaving it to your taste which you prefer. The struts are detailed with separate oleo scissor-links and stencil decals, then are mated with their wheels, plus the captive gear bay doors, the lower door made from two layers, again to avoid sink-marks. The wings are glued to the fuselage with a stepped joint making for a stronger bond, and the elevator panels are each slotted into the tail, and have separate flying surfaces that can be posed deflected, each one a single part. If you are building your model with the gear down, the inner gear bay doors are fitted to the fuselage, which contains the inner edge of the main gear bays, so remember to paint that while you are doing the bays. The engine assembly is also mated to the firewall, locating on a pair of alignment pins. If you plan on making an in-flight model, there are two single parts that depict the closed main bays, or you can insert the two struts with their wheels for the grounded aircraft. Four centreline sway-braces are fitted between the main bays for some decal options, then the model can be flipped over to stand on its own wheels so that the canopy can be installed, gluing the windscreen at the front, and deciding whether to pose the blown canopy open or closed after fitting a guide across the rear frame. The prop is also fitted, and this is made up from two parts, each carrying two blades in opposition, and the spinner is glued onto the centre. The Jug could carry quite a load, whether it was extra fuel, rockets or bombs, and all these are included in the box, starting with the two-part pylons, which can be depicted as empty by inserting a cover over the business end. You have a choice of four styles of tank, a 108gal compressed paper tank with a ribbed nose and tail, a 200gal wide and flat tank, the third is a 150gal streamlined tank with flat mating surface, and the last one is slightly smaller at 75gal. All but the third option has a pair of sway-braces between them and the pylon, which fit into slots in the pylons. They are built in pairs to fit under the wings, but the first two options can also be used solo on the centreline support. The bombs use the same pylons, and can be built in 1,000lb, 500lb or 250lb variants, each one made from two halves for the body and two parts for the square tail fins, mated to the pylon by a pair of sway-braces that vary depending on bomb size. There is also a smoke generator that looks like a drop-tank with a two-part spout on the rear, which would be used to lay smoke for the Allied troops below to cover their actions, at least temporarily. A large diagram shows the correct location for all the pylons and their loads, but checking your references won’t hurt either. Markings There are three natural metal decal options on the sheet, and the first page shows the location of all the many stencils on a set of grey-scale profiles to avoid cluttering the main profiles. From the box you can build one of the following: 41st Fighter Sqn., 35th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force, Philippines, Luzon 1945 40th Fighter Sqn., 35th Fighter Group, 5th Air Force, Philippines, Luzon 1945 310th Fighter Sqn., 58th Fighter group, 5th Air Force, Philippines, Okinawa 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion There are a few other kits of this rugged fighter on the market in this scale, but this one is rapidly becoming the de facto standard, and we’re waiting (im)patiently for the razorback to arrive. The detail is exceptional, and the moniker “BasicKit” seems unfair given the level on display. VERY highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Barrels of Various Sizes & Eras (Four Sets) 1:24 MiniArt via Creative Models lTd Barrels have been in use by humanity for a very long time, initially starting as heat curved wooden planks held in place by iron rings that were shrunk into place, then as pressed metal cylinders, and finally (so far) plastic barrels that are pretty useful, as they're comparatively light when empty, recyclable, can hold liquids that metal barrels can't cope with long-term, and are often more resistant to impact without permanent damage. In addition, they don't use up much in the way of strategic materials and don't rust, so you're onto a winner. Civilians and military have used them extensively in all forms over the years, and wherever there is engineering or storage of large quantities of liquids of any form going on, you'll usually find barrels dotted around. Each of the four sets arrives in a figure-sized end-opening box that has a painting on the front, with instructions, painting guide and a colour chart given in Vallejo, Mr.Color, AK RealColor, Mission Models, AMMO, Tamiya, plus swatches and colour names to assist with choosing your colours. These refer to the numbers in coloured boxes around the paintings above the chart. Plastic Barrels 100L (24004) This set contains six sprues in grey styrene, plus a small decal sheet. The back of the box shows brief instructions of how to assemble the two halves of the barrels, adding the lid and two lifting handles to the top to complete them. Each sprue contains parts to make one complete barrel, making six in all, and there are colour profiles below the instructions to assist with painting and applications of the decals as you wish. Modern Oil Drums 200L (24008) This set comprises six sprues of grey styrene, with parts to make one barrel on each sprue, totalling six. There are two types of barrel, one with two prominent rings around the centre, and another with those and more smaller ribs around the top and bottom segments. You can make three of each type from separate halves, topping and tailing them with circular lids to complete the task, and painting is shown on the back of the box along with suggested decal placement for those on the included sheet. Fuel & Oil Drums 1930-50s Set 1 German Type (24009) Inside the box are six long sprues in grey styrene plus a small decal sheet. Each sprue contains parts to make one barrel, with two ribs in halves provided to apply to the grooves moulded into the centre section, which also accepts the horizontal filler cap between them. The end caps/lids are featureless, and can be decaled using the drawings below the instructions on the back of the box, along with some suggested colour options, bearing in mind that metal barrels had a hard life, so were often scratched and rusty by the end of it. Plastic Barrels 200L (24011) This set of larger plastic barrels are similar to the ones above, but don’t have handles, so the instructions are even simpler, fitting the two halves of the barrel, plus the lids to finish them off. This type also has a pair of raised ‘this way up’ arrows and a triangular symbol with a 3 in the centre that informs us that they’re made from PVC. In reality they’re polystyrene of course, but that’s beside the point. The painting instructions are on the rear of the box again, and show colour options and locations for the decals included on the sheet. Conclusion 1:24 vehicle kits are no strangers to dioramas, and these four sets will be useful as background dressing or loads for larger vehicles. Detail is excellent, and the inclusion of decals in all four sets adds extra authenticity. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Junkers F13 Early Prod. (48002) 1:48 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The design process that led to the Junkers F13 was begun while WWI was still raging, and it was an unconventional and advanced design for the time, when most aircraft were still wood and canvas biplanes that were strengthened by the use of copious rigging wires that created excess drag, making them slow and delicate. The J13 as it was initially called first flew in 1919, and reached maturity during a time that Germany was prevented from having an air-force, and the market was flooded with military surplus aircraft that could be quickly and cheaply converted into rudimentary airliners or transports. It had a few cards up its sleeve however, such as its all-metal monoplane construction that was far easier to protect from the deleterious effects of weather, especially in humid or damp climates. Through careful design and extensive testing, it had a clean aerodynamic profile that meant a lower power output engine could be utilised to achieve desired speeds, meaning that it could be fitted with different engines from many manufacturers, rather than being saddled with a single high-output and therefore temperamental power-plant. It was crewed by one pilot with a spare seat to his side with a control column, and a further four passenger seats in the rear compartment, utilising the cockpit seat for an extra passenger should the need arise. Its stressed, corrugated duralumin skin and internal bracing made it both light and strong, with the fuselage attached to the top of the wing, which gave the crew and passengers an extra layer of protection in the event of a rough landing that compromised the gear legs. It also had an unusual trimming system that utilised fuel that was pumped between header tanks in the fore and aft of the fuselage to adjust for centre of gravity changes of the aircraft, and its fixed gear was simple to replace with skis or floats if the need arose. Germany was prevented from building any aircraft until 1921, which resulted in initial sales going overseas, even selling to England and America, Germany’s former enemies. It became so popular thanks to its many appealing qualities that within a few years it constituted around 40% of the world’s civilian air-traffic, and was a familiar sight in the skies of many countries around the world. Production continued until 1932, and included license-built examples that were manufactured in Russia and America, with airframes around the world continuing commercial service until the early 50s, whilst civilian operators were less inclined to give up flying them. The type’s development was mostly centred on the engine type that was mounted in the nose, having several options during its life-time, but there was also a stretched-fuselage variant that could carry more load, and the afore-mentioned float or ski options. More unusual variants were created by users, including a light bomber in China, a bizarre ground-attack aircraft in the US that mounted thirty downward-firing machine guns to pepper enemy troops below, and Soviet forces pressed some of their aircraft into military service with the Red Army. The aircraft remained popular despite its age, and in the new millennium, a Swiss-German company decided to create a series of replica airframes in the noughties, utilising as much of the original design as possible, but substituting a more modern Pratt & Whitney engine and modern precision instruments where the improvement would be worth the change. The design was based upon original blueprints and a laser-scan of an original airframe to confirm their accuracy, but at $2.5m per example, there won’t be too many gracing the skies any time soon. The Kit A brand-new tooling from MiniArt of this grandfather of the Ju.52 that utilised many of the same technologies and engineering techniques that were pioneered in this small aircraft. The kit arrives in a standard MiniArt top-opening box with a painting of the subject-matter on the top, and the decal option profiles on one of the sides. Inside the box are twelve sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a large decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that has a cover printed in colour, with a full set of profiles on the front and rear pages, also in colour. Detail is up to MiniArt’s current standards, and examining the sprues reveals a huge quantity of detail that extends across the entire exterior, covering the model with finely rendered corrugations, and where appropriate, these corrugations also extend to the interior. The cockpit is well-rendered, and sits behind a replica of the BMW IIIa six-cylinder engine, with a radiator at the front, while the passenger compartment has a humped floor just like the real thing to accommodate the wing spars under the floor. Construction begins with the starboard rear fuselage, which has a window and two bulkheads fitted, setting it aside whilst building the cockpit on its faceted floor. The two control columns are detailed with a lamination of two PE layers that represent the cables, fitting a bow-tie wheel at the top of each one, and setting them in place through rectangular holes in the floor, mounting rudder pedals in front, and making up two seats from two styrene parts and PE lap-belts, setting those aside while the unusually-shaped instrument panel is further detailed with levers and controls, plus a few PE parts, adding another PE lever between the columns along with a styrene part. The panel is decaled extensively after painting, and is fitted to a bulkhead via a C-shaped stand-off bracket that locates on two recesses. This too is put aside, mounting the starboard fuselage half to the cruciform fuselage floor after drilling out a few holes, and fitting two optional boxes in place if you plan on building your model with the wings mounted for flight. The forward section of the fuselage has three window panes added and is fixed to the rear part, using raised guides in the floor to ensure the assembly is straight and true. The cockpit is fitted next, and will be useful to help align the side, fixing the two seats in place, then adding the instrument panel on its bulkhead. Another bulkhead is made to completely separate the cockpit from the passengers, adding a window and two tied-back curtains, plus a pair of wedge-shaped strengtheners into slots at the sides. Two more individual seats with lap-belts are made and inserted in the floor as the front row, building a four-part bench seat/sofa that also has PE seatbelts added, gluing it to a stylised Z-shaped bulkhead, and fitting that into the rear of the passenger compartment, using the guides to ensure it is correctly aligned. A handle is inserted into a hole in the side door, fixing another to the opening door on the opposite side later. The six-cylinder in-line BMW engine is based upon a two-part block, into which the individual cylinders are slotted, adding a prop-axle and generator, then completing the tops of the cylinder heads, cooling tubing, wiring loom, air-intake and exhaust manifold to the sides, ending the manifold with a vertical horn if you plan on leaving the cowling open. Engine mounts are installed on both sides of the bay, lowering the completed engine into position between them, fitting the radiator after gluing the rear and a PE cross-brace to it, and a choice of two fixed aft cowling panels that have differing features, depending on which decal option you have chosen. The opposite side of the fuselage is made from two almost identical (but handed) parts, although a separate door is included, fitting the windows, a door handle and rail, and drilling a small hole in the rear section close to the wing root. The completed parts are then brought in and glued to the floor, creating a cowling for the engine bay from a choice of two styles of top parts, and common side cowlings, with a further option of a PE strap around the cowling if you wish. The cowling open option isn’t discussed any further in the instructions, which is odd. A folded PE part is available to replace a styrene grab-handle part if you prefer, mounting it on the forward section of the cowling, fitting the roof on the fuselage after adding a circular light to the inside and drilling a small hole nearby. Another styrene or PE grab-handle is fixed to the side cowling, and a pair of clear windscreens are installed in front of the cockpit, as this early production variant didn’t have an enclosed cockpit. At the rear, the elevator is made from upper and lower halves, the upper half having the entire flying surfaces moulded-in to achieve a slim trailing edge, mounting it on the open rear of the fuselage behind the roof panel. The combined tail fin and rudder is slotted into the top of the elevator to complete the empennage. There are two short C-beams provided for the inner wing upper panels, which are only utilised if the wings are to be built ready for flight, fitting into a recess under the short inner wing panels, then gluing them into place either side of the fuselage. At this stage the decision must be made whether to mount the wings, or leave them off for transport, using either three parts to create the joint for the mounted option, or an open rib with a socket glued behind it that will be seen in the wingless option, depending on your choice. You preferred insert is glued into the ends of the inner panels, adding a pair of intakes under the belly, fitting a PE crew step under the port trailing-edge, the tail-skid under the rear, and a PE actuator tab in a recess on the rudder. More PE or styrene grab-handles are fitted to the rear fuselage for ground-handling, and around the square back windows to ease access to the door over the wing. The outer wing panels are stiffened by adding two ribs to the grooves moulded into the inner surfaces, and slotting a full-span spar lengthways into the grooves in the ribs, cutting the inner ends off if you are leaving the wings off the airframe. The wing underside is glued over the spar, and once the glue is cured, the two-part ailerons can be built and fitted into the cut-outs in the trailing edges. They are put to the side for a while so that the landing gear can be made, which is based upon a K-shaped axle, which has a pair of V-shaped supports glued near the ends, finishing the assembly with a pair of two-part wheels, and mounting it in the recesses under the belly between the wings. The supports are handed, so be careful when putting them together to ensure the correct parts are used. The wings are completed by fitting PE actuators at the inner ends of the ailerons, after which they can either be slipped into their slots in the inner wing panels and glued, or depicted stowed nearby in whatever fashion you choose. An aerial mast is slotted into the roof behind the cockpit, and a choice of two propellers is supplied for you to complete the build. Markings There are three decal options on the large sheet, all of which are in different colours that are a change from the usual camouflage or grey shades worn by military aircraft. From the box you can build one of the following: Dz-33/D-154 ‘Reiher’ Aero-Targ Poznan, Chartered from Danziger Luftpost GmbH, 1921 D-188 ‘Dohle’, Junker-Flugzeugwerke AG, 1922 Dz-41 ‘Gustaw’ Danziger Luftpost GmbH, 1923 Note that MiniArt’s instruction design folks forgot to re-title the third decal option on the instruction sheet for our example, so please refer to the details above or their website instead. Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion It’s a stunning model of this unusual, yet popular aircraft, and I hope we get a float-plane version in due course. Detail is superb, and the construction process should be straight forward. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

M3A5 Medium Tank (63519) 1:35 I Love Kit via Creative Models Ltd The US Army had been remarkably complacent with regard to tank development in the lead-up to WWII, and approached war with precious few tanks that were hopelessly outclassed. This realisation resulted in a frantic clamour to produce a modern tank that could hold its own in combat, with the M3 Lee coming into service as a stop-gap measure within a year of its first design while the M4 Sherman was in development. As a consequence of its rather rushed introduction, it was known to have a number of fairly serious flaws, but it also had some strengths that (at least in part) made up for them. Its high profile and sponson mounted main gun gave the enemy a large target, but when the 75mm main gun was brought to bear on a target, it was surprisingly powerful and effective, gaining a reputation in North Africa. The Lee was originally fitted with a petrol engine and had a riveted hull, but went through several iterations where the construction method varied between cast and welded, then back to riveted again, and with a diesel engine to remove reliance of petrol, which was more flammable than diesel, an aspect that became critical on penetration by an enemy shell of the engine component. The A3 used twin diesels coupled together to make the GM6046, and the superfluous and vulnerable side doors were welded closed, and later removed entirely, using a welded hull. The A4 was a petrol-engined variant that was used for training in the US, followed by the A5, which reverted to riveted hulls that could become lethal projectiles inside the hull when hit by an enemy round. Fewer than 600 were built, and although they saw service, they were only used by US forces once in active combat, with some vehicles supplied to other countries for their use. It was the last variant of the Grant/Lee to be fielded other than specials, 105mm howitzer equipped Priests, and ARV derivatives. The Kit I Love Kit have created their own line of newly tooled kits of the M3 Grant, starting in 2021 and carrying on with various new boxings in the following two years, plus this new one that is based upon the later M3A5. The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of the vehicle on the front, and a cardboard divider in the lower tray to keep the hull parts and other sprues from rattling around during transit. Inside the box are eleven sprues and three individual parts in sand-coloured styrene, eight brown sprues, a clear sprue, a small Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret, decal sheet, an instruction booklet printed in black and white, and a sheet of painting and decaling profiles printed in colour on glossy paper. Detail is good for this exterior kit, although there is no rolled steel armour texture moulded into any of the plates, but there is a very fine sand-cast texture present on the turret parts, which could be improved by using liquid cement and a rough brush to stipple the sand-cast texture a little deeper, and texture could also be added to the main armour panels if you feel the urge, using simple techniques that you can look up on the internet or YouTube. Construction begins with the running gear for a change, making up the bogies from two wheels on a pair of swing-arms each, being careful to orient the Vertical Volute Spring Suspension (VVSS) parts correctly, using the scrap diagram to assist you. Six bogies are made in total, with return-rollers in the top of the units, held in place by the front panel that also holds the swing-arms in position. The curved lower glacis is next, adding two bolted flanges to the centre, and inserting a pair of towing eyes with shackles in slots at the sides of the final drive housings. The rear bulkhead has no access doors for this variant, adding horizontal exhausts and more towing eyes with shackles, plus idler wheel axles before it is mated to the rear of the lower hull part, mounting the glacis assembly to the other end. The bogies are fixed three per side on raised plates moulded into the hull, then making the drive sprocket from two parts, and the idler wheels from four parts each so that the tracks can be installed. The track links are made from four parts each that have a total of six sprue-gates to remove, with 77 links per side, and no ejector-pin marks to deal with, thankfully. Once the tracks are in place, the fenders are detailed with PE shackles and light cages, adding the lights with clear lenses, and the rounded-down ends to the rear of each one, locating them on the sides of the hull on two lugs per side. This variant has a machine gun turret on top of the turret, which was a negative aspect that raised its profile and made it an easier target on the battlefield. The turret walls are moulded as one part, sliding a .303 machine gun through a cylindrical mount that is locked in place by a pair of pegs that are slid in from the outside, allowing the gun to elevate if you are careful with the glue. The hatch is a two-part assembly that is glued in place over the top, adding a pair of brackets to the shallow vertical face above the machine gun, and covering the two side-mounted viewing ports with hinge-down covers. The vertical step behind the turret has a viewport with clear slot inserted, fixing two C-shaped PE parts in a small recess on the opposite side, an aerial base on the diagonal, then putting it aside while the turret is built. The mantlet has the barrel and recuperator inserted, pushing a .30cal machine gun through from the inside, clipping it inside the upper turret, then closing it in by gluing in the turret ring, which acts as the trunnions for the pivot point of the main gun. The turret roof has a simple mushroom vent fitted, and the machine gun turret is inserted into the top ring, adding a vision port into the armoured cut-out in the side, dropping it into the hole in the roof later. The engine deck is detailed with pioneer tools, filler caps, PE mesh, grab-handles, and rear light clusters on small vertical panels at the rear that are fixed to the sides of a tapering cooling grille with armour panel protecting the rear. Two hull side panels have hatches with vision ports inserted where the vestigial doors are, drilling a few holes in the upper hull part, then installing the vertical step made earlier, a T-shaped stiffener to the roof, and adding the side panels over the blank sides of the upper hull, then fitting more filler caps, lugs, vents, more hatches and vision ports with clear slots, plus two stowage boxes to be fitted on the sloped sides of the engine deck, which is slotted into position and snugged up against the vertical step behind the turret ring, and another shallow box that sits low on the glacis plate. The turret can be twisted into position at this stage, but it is probably best to install the 75mm gun first. A semi-cylindrical mantlet is clipped vertically into the surround, gluing a plate horizontally across the back to prevent it popping out again, slotting the barrel into the hole in the mantlet, clamping a two-part counter-weight to the muzzle, and adding a small part to the top of the surround, which includes a pivot peg that is locked in position in the starboard hull without glue, the top peg held in place by the two-part roof section, which has a periscope added to one side of the pivot. The completed upper hull is then glued into place on the lower, completing the model. Markings There are two decal options on the sheet, but as usual with Trumpeter/HobbyBoss/I Love Kit there is no information offered on the location, period or regiments of the decal options, but the vehicle codes should allow the intrepid modeller to find out the back-story if they feel the need. From the box you can build one of the following: Most of the sheet is printed in white, with just the codes in blue. Registration is therefore not an issue, while colour density and sharpness are perfectly adequate for most modellers, but if you’re a stickler, you could do worse than check your references before proceeding to paint. Conclusion A well detailed exterior kit of the M3A5 that should satisfy many, with a simple build save for the tracks that are perhaps a little over-complicated for some, and will take some time to do justice to. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Modern Café Visitors Set 1 & Set 2 (38085 & 38090) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd Cafés are a staple of modern western civilisation, offering tourists and locals alike an opportunity to take a break, drink some coffee or tea that’s probably a bit fancier and certainly more expensive than they make at home, and maybe also indulge in some food that’s equally fancy. If you’re not addicted to Costa or Starbucks, it’s nice to visit an independent café for a little ambience, something out of the ordinary, and hopefully cheerful service at your table. These two figure sets are new from MiniArt, and follow on from their recent WWII themed sets, utilising a few of the furniture sprues and those of the waiters, who appear to be timeless, or ageless. You choose. Each set arrives in a figure-sized end-opening box, and contains two customers, a wrought iron table with a wooden top, matching traditional style chairs, and an attentive waiter, both of whom appear to have auditioned for ‘Allo ‘Allo just prior to posing for the sculpting and painting of the box art. Set 1 also includes some crockery, including mugs, cups and saucers in white styrene. The parts for each figure are found on separate sprues for ease of identification, and parts breakdown is sensibly placed along clothing seams or natural breaks to minimise clean-up of the figures once they are built up. The sculpting is typically excellent, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt’s artists and tool-makers, with natural poses, drape of clothing and textures appropriate to the parts of the model. Modern café Visitors Set 1 (38085) This set consists of five sprues in grey styrene, plus one in white, with two sprues dedicated to creating four chairs and two tables, one set spare that gives the café’s external seating a little more capacity. The waiter is proffering a dessert on a tray, with an apron around his waist, and a cloth over his free forearm. The customers are relaxing on their chairs, the lady smiling at something on her phone with her legs crossed, while the gentleman is leaning back in his chair eyeing someone or something while he holds his coffee cup near his mouth, and the other hand is slipped inside his jeans pocket. He’s a triple-threat when it comes to his clothing, as he appears to be wearing jeans, jean jacket, and a jean shirt, although that could be painted another colour for a little variety. Three mugs and three cups and saucers complete the package. Modern café Visitors Set 2 (38090) Provided on four sprues of grey styrene, supplying one pair of chairs and a table, a waiter taking a moment to sample his own beverage whilst resting on a stool, and a couple that are both seated with mugs from their sprue in-hand, sharing a joke together, and jeans make an appearance again, this time the lady is wearing a jean jacket and skirt, plus a pair of sneakers. Markings The figure paintings on the boxes have been sectioned up on the back and given colour and part numbers with arrows to locate them on the sprues, the colour codes cross-referring with a table that gives Vallejo, Mr.Color, AK RealColor, Mission Models, AMMO, Tamiya, plus swatches and colour names to assist with choosing your colours. These refer to the blue colour numbers on the paintings above the chart, and the instructions for building the furniture can also be found on the back of the box. Conclusion Not every diorama has to take place during past wars, and modern subject matters are just as valid as those from yesteryear. These well-detailed figures will give your work some life, and that human scale I’m always harping on about. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Jerrycans 20L German Type (24002) 1:24 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd There’s no such thing as too much fuel on the battlefield unless the enemy is firing incendiaries. This is especially true if you’re planning a long journey through hostile territory. Driving around with a bowser playing tag isn’t always practical or safe, so canned fuel has been the go-to option since the internal combustion engine and war first met. In civilian usage, a spare can of fuel in the boot, or in the garage is likely to be useful at some point, providing you don’t leave it so long that the fuel goes ‘off’. A particularly efficient fuel can design was of German origin, and became known by the Allies as the Jerry Can, with the design extensively copied, tweaked and propagated around the world over the years. The Kit This set arrives in a figure-sized end-opening box with a painting of the subject matter on the front, and short instructions on the rear. Inside are six identical sprues of grey styrene, a Photo-Etch (PE) fret of brass in a card envelope, and a decal sheet. If you’ve seen MiniArt’s 1:35 Jerry cans, you’ll know what to expect in terms of detail and the build process, but with them being in 1:24, everything is larger, and the detail is crisper. Each can is made from two halves that trap a PE weld-seam between them, mounting a triple-handle and cap on top, and the closure mechanism in brass that allows the cap to flip up and down firmly without losing it, and preventing leakage. There are two designs, one with a simple cross-shaped strengthener stamped into it, the other with a square with diagonal corner lines, both having 20L engraved in one side. Each sprue can make one of each style, so you will have six cans of each type once complete, totalling a dozen. Markings The small sheet of decals provides stencils and branding for the cans in suitably Germanic wording, and a set of profiles gives some suggestions for painting and weathering, cross-referring with a colour chart on the rear of the box that gives codes for Vallejo, Mr.Color, AK RealColor, Mission Models, AMMO, Tamiya, plus swatches and colour names to assist with choosing your paint. These refer to the green colour numbers on the paintings above the chart. Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion Whether military or civilian, there are many good reasons why you’d find one or more Jerry can in or near a vehicle, and with 1:24 being the de facto scale for vehicles, they are likely to be useful, especially now that some military subjects are being kitted in 1:24. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Sd.Kfz.234/2 Puma (35414) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd Armoured cars and their derivatives were a dominant part of German military thinking after WWI, as they were prevented from having tanks or other types of heavy weaponry by the Versailles Treaty, at least until they unilaterally set its terms aside once Mr Hitler was firmly ensconced as the country’s mad dictator. Although it closely resembles the earlier Sd.Kfz.231, the 234 was based upon a more modern ARK chassis, while the 231 was built on the GS chassis. The 232 Schwerer Panzerspähwagen was available in 6- or 8-wheeled formats, with the number of wheels appended to the designation, and it was the 8-Rad that the basis for the 234, following on later in 1940 and learning from issues encountered with earlier designs. The new turret was designed by Daimler Benz, while the engine was a Tatra air-cooled diesel unit, powering all eight wheels that were also all steerable. To add to the ease with which the vehicle could be driven, there was an additional driver’s station at the rear of the crew cab, complete with a steering wheel that gave it the capability of reversing out of trouble with similar speed and dexterity as driving forward – a facility that came in very useful in the event of an ambush or stumbling into an enemy position. The 234/2 was the initial variant and the most prevalent, as well as being the best known, probably because of the (comparatively) large 50mm gun in the turret. Oddly, it was replaced less than a year later with an open-turreted /1 variant that mounted a smaller 20mm cannon, and concurrently another variant with a short-barrelled 75mm K51 gun under the /3 designation. This variant was also short-lived, increasing the fire-power substantially with an installation of the powerful Pak 40, although the extra weight caused extreme stress to the 234’s chassis and running gear. All the variants after the /2 were open-topped, leaving the crew exposed to the elements, incoming plunging fire and explosive charges or grenades lobbed in by the enemy. To keep the enemy out of range however, a single MG42 was coaxially mounted with the main gun - a very capable machine gun against troops and lightly armoured targets. The armour built into the vehicle could deflect light-arms and smaller cannon rounds, with 30mm of sloped armour on the turret, and up to 100mm thickness on the mantlet, but at the rear the protection was only 10mm, as was the roof of the /2. Over 100 /2 vehicles were made before it was superseded, and despite being the most well-known, there were around 200 of the later /1 produced, with roughly 90 of each of the other two made before the war ended. The Kit This is a new boxing of a very recent tooling from those dynamos at MiniArt, the first Interior Kit boxing, and doubtless we’ll soon be seeing the other variants that we’ve spoken about above, some of which we already know are on the way. We’ve had other kits of the type in this scale previously, but not for some considerable time, and it’s fair to say that armour modellers with an interest in this genre are very pleased. The kit arrives in a standard-sized top-opening box with a painting of a 234/2 parked on a street with the engine exposed, following the theme of the kit. Inside the box are twenty-five sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour on the outer pages on glossy paper, with profiles of the decal options on the inner and outer covers. The detail is excellent, extending to the full interior for this boxing, following on from the exterior-only version we reviewed recently. The full gamut of hatches can be posed open or closed to expose the details, PE parts, and the surface is fully realised with weld seams and exterior structure well defined. New Interior Sprues Construction begins with the lower hull, starting with the narrow bottom section where the drive-shafts and suspensions are located, which is made from three faces, two internal bulkheads, and two steering actuators, one at each end. The hull floor has tread-plate moulded-in and a cut-out ready for the interior, sandwiching it between the two outward sloping sides, drilling out holes in the parts before assembling them, adding a rear bulkhead behind the engine compartment. The two assemblies are mated, fitting the first parts for the suspension to the sides, and a U-shaped stiffener in the centre of the lower portion. The interior starts with the two drivers’ positions, fitting the floor section after drilling out holes for the pedals, three for the rear driver and four for the main driver at the front, adding linkages down both sides of the engine compartment, and fairings on the left side of the hull, plus a battery compartment and fairing on the right that is built from five parts, fitting a shallow frame in front. The drivers have their steering columns and wheels attached in recesses, the main driver’s being a more comprehensive installation. A two-part seat is fixed to the rails moulded into the floor, with a linkage and gas mask canister to his left, and a five-part shell stowage box fitted to the wall behind his left shoulder. The battery rack is wired into a distribution box on the right wall, using wire from your own stock, then inserting the two levers to the driver’s right, noting that the scrap diagram shows that the wires to the battery are braided and thick to cope with the level of current. The rear driver’s station has the same pair of levers fitted, mounting a seven-part two-box radio rack, another small equipment box to his right, and another six-part ammo stowage box behind his left shoulder, or the front driver’s right shoulder. The rear driver also gets a two-part seat, and an additional lever that’s probably related to taking control from the main driver. A skeletal bulkhead is inserted into a groove on the inside of the hull, fixing a seven-part bulkhead for the engine compartment behind it, which has a circular seat projecting out into the fighting compartment under the turret ring. A folded MP40 on a bracket is fitted above the right-hand side door within easy reach of the rear driver. The engine is a substantial block, weighing in at 14,825cc, and is a V12 diesel manufactured by Czech manufacturer Tatra, and it is supplied in its entirety in this boxing. The piston banks are each made from four parts, held together by the end-caps, adding extra parts around the underside, and at both ends, utilising a lot of parts that includes the ancillaries, twin cooling fans, fan belt, dynamo, and if you feel brave enough, you can wire up the engine using the extra steps that are labelled for “advanced modellers” that run side-by-side with the main steps. The completed engine is an impressive size, and covered with detail, especially if you continue with the wiring that helps to integrate it with the chassis. A pair of four-part tanks are inserted to the sides of the engine, and another shell stowage box is made from six parts, with two extra parts for the doors either in the open or closed position, as you see fit. It is fixed in place at an angle over an area of tread-plate between the other two shell boxes, and the side doors and their locking mechanisms are installed in either open or closed position if you want to show off your work. The upper hull interior has several appliqué panels, gas mask canister, the driver’s instrument panel, another radio box and other inner structural parts, plus the vision ports applied, adding hinge-points for the driver’s hatch and building two vision ports for later installation, and an optional stowage box for some decal options. The upper hull has the engine deck filled with cooling vents that can be posed open or closed by using different parts, with two solid doors at the sides that can also be posed open, locating it in the cut-out in the back of the deck, then adding the rear bulkhead with hatch that has four “milk bottles” on the inner face if posing it open, mating the upper and lower hull assemblies, fitting the vision ports and a hatch with separate hinges and handles in the square cut-out in the glacis plate, again in either open or closed position, as you might have guessed. Suspension and steering parts are assembled on the underside of the hull, making up four axles and leaf-springs on each side, replacing left with right-handed hubs on the relevant side. Either four or six triple-handled Jerry cans with PE central weld-flares and filler cap are made and wrapped in PE straps that secure them to the vehicle later, making up both sides of the sponsons and installing the rear carcasses of the flush stowage boxes, adding the external parts such as the jack, two mufflers and another stowage box, finishing the sponsons and their ends with additional parts. The doors can be fitted open or closed by using different parts, with a selection of stowage boxes made up and used for different decal options. The spare wheel is the first to be made, making it from either four centre laminations and two exterior faces to create a detailed tread pattern, or using a simpler two-part wheel structure if you prefer, fitting it to the bracket on the rear of the vehicle, in between the mufflers on either side of the sloped rear of the sponsons. More stowage boxes and the requisite number of Jerry cans are mounted on the engine deck, again for the decal options, plus pioneer tools and a fire extinguisher on the left sponson. More detail parts are dotted around the hull, including width-marker lollipops, headlight(s) depending on your chosen decal option, an antenna with PE star-shaped tip for some decal options, then crushing it all while you fit the tyres (I hope I’m joking here), which are made from four laminations and exterior faces, one of the inner parts a tapering hub that will be seen once the wheels are installed on the four axles. The turret is started with the breech of the 50mm gun, fitting the breech halves and twin recuperators on top, the protective cage around the breech, adding sighting gear and the four-part MG42 that slots into the rear of the mantlet, passing through the turret front and held in place by the circular inner mantlet. The turret shell is detailed with equipment, extractor-cage, stowage and other small parts over three steps, the turret floor taking the same number of steps to detail with shallow-backed seats, more radio gear, headset and aiming equipment, fitting the mantlet, turret outer shell and floor together. A two-part periscope is applied to either side of a roof cut-out, with an aerial on the rear edge of the roof, extending the breech with a short peg that supports the cast outer mantlet, which has the muzzle of the MG42 inserted into a small hole to the right. The two circular hatches on the roof are made up with vision blocks, handles and latches, and can be posed opened or closed, showing off the detail or to accommodate any figures you might wish to use. The main gun is moulded as a solid tapering tube with pegs at either end, and a three-part flash-hider fitted to the noisy end, the thick end inserting into the mantlet, all of which are keyed to ensure correct alignment. A pair of triple-barrel smoke grenade launchers are each glued to a PE bracket, and these are mounted on the sides of the turret after adding a styrene L-shaped base to the sides, and some optional PE parts. A circular shell-ejection hatch is fixed to the rear of the turret along with a lifting hook, with another hook on the forward edge of each side, plus a brass-catching bag added under the breech to finish the build, dropping the turret into the ring, which doesn’t have a bayonet lock, so you’ll need to be careful when inverting the model. Markings There are six decal options included on the sheet, all wearing a base coat of dunkelgelb (dark yellow) with a variety of camouflage schemes that expose more or less of the base coat. One option has a patchy coat of winter white distemper, and another has an almost complete overcoat of green. From the box you can build one of the following: Pz.Aufkl.Abt.4, Pz.Gren.Lehr-btl., Pz.Tr.Schule Krampnitz, Germany, Summer 1944 Pz.Aufkl.Abt.2, 2. Panzer-Division, Normandy, Summer 1944 Pz.Aufkl.Abt.130, 130. Panzer-Lehr-Division, France, Summer, 1944 Pz.Aufkl.Abt.20, 20. Panzer-Division, Eastern Front, Summer 1944 Pz.Aufkl.Abt.7, 7. Panzer-Division, Poland, Winter 1945 Stabskp.IPz.Aufkl.Abt.20, 20. Panzer-Division, Czechoslovakia, Spring 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion A comprehensive kit of this eight-wheeler armoured car that goes forward just as well as in reverse, complete with an entire interior, and a hull full of detail that extends into the engine compartment. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

3T Cargo Truck 3.6-36S Pritsche-Normal-Type (38079) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd Opel was Germany’s largest truck producer during the 1930s, and their Blitz line of trucks played a large part in transporting Germany and their military around Europe, with over 130,000 of all variants made before the end of WWII. The name Blitz was given to the vehicle after a competition to find its new name, with a stylised S logo that resembled half of the SS badge, but also became the Opel logo that remains today. By the mid-30s there was a growing range of body-styles and load capacities available, replacing the locally produced engines with General Motors units nearer the outbreak of war, after GM bought Opel. This led to a 3.6T load-carrying option, which became almost ubiquitous in Wehrmacht service, but the new engines made it easier for the Allies to press captured Blitzes into service with a few tweaks, thanks to some familiarity with the motor. Unfortunately, due to its common usage, the Opel brand and its trucks were somewhat tainted by the War Crimes carried out by the Nazis and the SS, building them at the factories using forced labour, transporting prisoners to death camps, and even as a ‘gas van’ to carry out the heinous act itself. The rest of the Wehrmacht used the type for more typical roles of transport and carriage of men and matériel to, around and from the battlefield. Before and during WWII, many trucks were to be found in civilian hands, performing tasks important to the war effort during the war. Following WWII production restarted for the civilian market, and it wasn’t until 1952 that a complete new design was used instead of the old pre-war Blitz. The Kit This is a new boxing of a brand-new tooling from MiniArt, and the second of a line of variants that will hopefully steer clear of certain subjects. The kit arrives in a standard top-opening MiniArt box, and inside are eighteen sprues in grey styrene of differing sizes, a clear sprue, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass in a card envelope, a large decal sheet, and an A4 instruction booklet that is printed on glossy paper in colour, with profiles for the decal options on the front and rearmost pages. MiniArt have a habit of creating highly detailed kits that include interiors to the cab, engine and under the chassis, that are augmented by the sensible addition of PE parts where scale thickness will benefit. This is common practice for them now, and there’s no reason to expect anything else. Construction begins with the ladder chassis, which has some small raised marks removed from the main rails, spacing them apart by adding four cross-braces between them, with another three and a fuel tank in the second fit, applying a spare tyre that is made of six layers to achieve the tread pattern, sited on the top of the H-shaped brace, and fitting a towing shackle at the rear. Flipping the chassis over, a protective cowling is fixed between the moulded-in front leaf-springs, adding two L-shaped brackets on the chassis sides, a pair of leaf-springs in the rear, and two hooks at the ends of the chassis rails. An interlude sees the engine built from a four-part block, festooning it with ancillaries, intake and exhaust manifold, the transmission housing that is built from seven parts and mated to the rear of the block, serpentine belt and fan to the front, dropping it into the front of the chassis, and mounting a stowage box on the left rail near the spare tyre. Two more hooks are fixed to the front of the chassis, with a horn between them, and a two-part exhaust that stretches from the end of the manifold to the rear of the vehicle, turning left and exiting to the side, with a long muffler with a circumferential strap that hides the joint between the two parts. A scrap diagram shows where the downpipe should fit in relation to the engine manifold and chassis. A substantial beam axle is mounted under the front leaf-springs, extending a drive-shaft between the rear of the transmission and the rear axle with moulded-in differential bulge, making it from two halves. A couple of small parts are added to the sides of the chassis near the front, and the radiator is built from three layers plus feeder hoses, mounting it in the front on two pegs, a small PE bracket in the centre, and noting the location of both feeder hoses that supply hot water to and cooled water from the radiator. Building the cab starts with the dash, adding instrument backs and other small parts to the rear, plus a dash-pot, an oil-can, and the steering column, flipping it over to install the steering-wheel and a lever, applying four dial decals after detail painting. The floor has eight small pips cut away around the sides, turning it over the apply the foot pedals, handbrake and gear levers into position arranged around the left seat, then making two engine cowling side panels that have the lowest end of the A-pillar moulded-in, using alternate parts for some decal options, then gluing them to the floor, trapping the dash and the radiator cowling with separate logos between them, and placing a bench cushion over the hole in the floor. The cab rear has the back cushion glued to it along with a pair of vents, and a small rear window in the centre, mating it to the growing cab assembly along with the roof panel that has the windscreen frame moulded into it, slipping a clear screen in from outside. One decal option has a warning triangle mounted on a PE bracket in the centre front of the roof, removing two raised rivets from further back. Turning the assembly over, the front arches with moulded-in running boards are fitted after removing raised location marks on the curved top-sides. PE brackets are attached within the engine bay, and windscreen wipers are created either from PE parts, or styrene alternatives if you prefer, making a pair of headlamps from styrene backs and clear lenses, attaching them to the arches using the remaining small raised markers to locate the PE brackets. The cab doors have open or closed window options plus a choice of open or closed quarter-lights installed in the frame, adding a door card, handle, winder and lever to the insides, plus handle, drip-guard from PE, and a long-stemmed wing mirror for the driver’s side, and of course they can be posed in open, closed or any position in between. The bonnet can be posed open or closed too, starting with the tapering fixed centre section, leaving the rest until later in the build. The cab is dropped into place over the engine, adding rabbit-ear indicators to the rear pillar on PE brackets, and mounting a pair of rising supports in the rear of the chassis. The closed engine cowling is made from two L-shaped segments with louvres moulded-in, plus clasps at the bottom edge, or the same cowling parts can be used tilted up along the centreline, utilising different open versions of the clasps, and supplying a support rod from wire of your own stock on either or both sides, depending on whether you decide to prop both sides open. A framework is created from three parts that is placed within the outer frame of the load bed under the floor panel, which has planking and wood texture detail moulded-in, as does the header board that can be made from a single layer for the “basic modellers”, or two for the advanced modeller, which requires a little adjustment of the parts, trimming some details off with a sharp knife, and adding PE tie-downs that differ between open and closed options. The rear arches have short supports inserted into recesses that lock them in position under the bed, making the sides in either Basic or Advanced manner for later installation. A PE bracket and number plate holder are fitted under the rear of the bed, adding a light further up, with another bracket on the opposite corner that has just a styrene light glued to it. Two pairs of wheels are required next, making the single front pair from five tyre layers around the hub, and the rear tyres are each made from five tyre layers each, but have different hub parts, and a three-part jointing lamination between them. The bed is mated with the chassis, the wheels are installed on their axles, and front bumper with number plate is fixed to the front of the chassis, returning to the front axle to add a steering linkage and bar with the aid of a scrap diagram. Completing the model involves choosing whether to fix the sides and tail-gate up or down, attaching locking toggles to the corners, removing the lugs for the open option. Markings There are six decal options in a choice of various bright or subdued colours, with extensive decals on a large sheet. From the box you can build one of the following: Coal Trade Truck, Provinz Schlesien, Late 1930s Regierungs Bezirk Zwickau, Late 1930s The General Inspector of German Road System, Germany, Early 1940s Construction Service, Berlin, 1940s Technical Assistance Truck, Berlin, 1940s Technical Assistance Truck, Hamburg, 1940s Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion The Open Blitz played an important role in transporting the German Reich and their civilian counterparts around, and this kit is of excellent quality and detail that should be an out-of-the-box build for most modellers due to the high standard. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

StuG III Ausf.G May/June 1943 Prod. (72107) 1:72 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The StuG is a popular German WWII AFV, and the more you learn about it, the more obvious it becomes why. The SturmGeschütz III was based upon the chassis of the Panzer III, but removed the turret and front deck, replacing it with an armoured casemate with a lower profile that mounted a fixed gun with limited traverse. It was originally intended to be used as infantry support, using its (then) superior armour to advance on the enemy as a mobile blockhouse, but it soon found other uses as an ambush predator, and was employed as a tank destroyer, lurking in wait for Allied forces to stumble haplessly into its path, where it could be deadly. With the advances in sloped armour employed by the Soviets, the original low velocity 75mm StuK 37 L/24 cannon was replaced by a higher velocity unit that was also used in the Panzer IV for tank-on-tank combat, extending the type’s viable career to the end of WWII. The earliest prototypes were made of mild steel and based on Panzer III Ausf.B chassis, and whilst they were equipped with guns, they were unsuitable for combat due to the relative softness of the steel that would have led to a swift demise on the battlefield, being withdrawn in '41-42. By this time the StuG III had progressed to the Ausf.G, which was based on the later Panzer III Ausf.M, with a widened upper hull and improvements in armour to increase survivability prospects for the crew. Many of the complicated aspects of the earlier models that made them time-consuming and expensive to produce were removed and simplified by that time, which led to several specific differences in some of the external fitments around the gun, such as the Saukopf mantlet protector. The Ausf.G was the last and most numerous version, and was used until the end of the war with additional armour plates often welded or bolted to the surface to give it enhanced protection from Allied tanks and artillery. The Kit This is a new boxing of the StuG.III from MiniArt in their nascent 1:72 armour line, which is bringing high levels of detail to this smaller scale, with MiniArt’s engineers and tool designers applying their skills to a scale that has been neglected to an extent for many years. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box, and inside are ten sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a small clear sprue with decals in a separate bag, a Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret in a card envelope, and the instruction booklet in full colour in portrait A5 format. Detail is excellent, including weld-lines and tread-plate moulded into the exterior of the hull, with plenty of options for personalisation, and link-and-length tracks to provide good detail without making the building of the tracks too time consuming. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is put together with five parts creating the ‘tub’, then adding the glacis plate at the front, and the exhaust assembly at the rear, accompanied by duct-work and overhanging vents with a PE mesh panel underneath. Various suspension parts are applied to the sides that have the swing arms and axles already moulded-in with excellent detail evident. Six paired return rollers are made up, along with twelve pairs of road wheels, plus two-part idler wheels and drive sprockets, the latter having an alternative front sprocket face for you to choose from. Once all the wheels are installed on their axles, the tracks can be built, utilising the long lengths on the top and bottom, adding shorter lengths to the diagonal risers, and individual links around the sharper curved sections toward the ends of the runs. There are eight individual links at the rear, and seven at the front, each link having three sprue gates in sensibly placed locations. The upper run has sag engineered into its length that was typical of all Panzer III, and Panzer IV variants. The gun shroud is built from four parts and mounted on a carrier between a pair of trunnions, which is then fitted to a pivot plate and set aside while the casemate front is made from two sections. First however, the fenders are glued to the sides of the hull, locating on three lugs moulded into the sides, with small PE parts fitted to the rear. The gun shroud is slotted into the casemate front, with a mantlet slid over the front, after which the lower heavily armoured and bolted lower casemate front has a vision slot and armour cover applied before it is glued to the bottom of the casemate, along with the sides and rear bulkhead, attaching it to the lower hull while the glue cures to ensure everything lines up. A convoy light is glued into the left fender, then the engine deck is made, fitting two-part sides, and a choice of two styles of single rear panel that is aligned when the deck is installed on the rear of the hull. Two PE grilles are glued over the outer cooling intakes, and a length of spare track is fitted over the rear bulkhead of the casemate, adding armoured covers over the five vents on the engine deck, with a choice of cast or bolted vents on those at the rear of the deck. A choice of three styles of cupola can be made, each one made from a differing set of parts, based around the commander’s common vision blocks and central hatch, adding wire grab handles from your own stock where indicated, then inserting the completed assembly in the cut-out on the roof, adding a periscope forward of the cupola from within the roof. The barrel is moulded as a single tubular section with a hollow muzzle glued to the business end, and a sleeve moulded into the front of the saukopf, which is an inverted trapezoid. PE brackets are added around the vehicle, with pioneer tools built up and fitted where there is space as the build progresses. The gunner’s hatch can be posed closed, or replaced by two separate parts in the open position, adding another scratch-built grab handle from wire, then fitting a drum magazine to the supplied MG34, sliding it through the frontal bullet shield with PE support and another DIY grab handle before putting it in place in front of the gunner’s hatch. Towing eyes are supplied for the tow cable, but you must provide the 2 x 57mm of braided thread or wire to make the cable itself, attaching one to each fender, fixing fire extinguisher, jack block, jack, barrel cleaning rods etc. to various places, and two stacks of wheels are mounted on long pins on the rear bulkhead, making the pins from more of your own wire. Two decals options have stacks of road wheels stowed on the sides of the casemate in PE racks, whilst another two options have similar PE racks to stash lengths of track instead. One option has an addition short rack of track links fitted to the right side of the armoured casemate front, while another has lengths of link draped over the sloped front of the casemate, and optional four-part PE schürzen with four-part supports can be added, using a two-part second layer at crucial points. Two aerials of 30mm each are also needed to complete the model. Markings There are five decal options on the small sheet, with a range of camouflage schemes over the base coat of Dunkelgelb (dark yellow). From the box you can build one of the following: 10th Panzer Division ‘Frundsberg’, 2/StuG.Abt.10 StuG Abt.276, Eastern Front, Autumn, 1943 StuG Abt.277, Eastern Front, Ukraine, Autumn, 1943 10th Panzer Division, ‘Frundsberg’, 8/Pz.Rgt.10, Eastern Front, Ukraine, Spring, 1944 StuG Brig.322, Eastern Front, 1944 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion Another excellent, well-detailed 1:72 Stug.III variant from MiniArt, with a wide choice of decal options adding to the appeal. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

German 3T Cargo Truck 3.6-36S Pritsche-Normal-Type Military Service (35442) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd Opel was Germany’s largest truck producer during the 1930s, and their Blitz line of trucks played a large part in transporting Germany and their military around Europe, with over 130,000 of all variants made before the end of WWII. The name Blitz was given to the vehicle after a competition to find its new name, with a stylised S logo that resembled half of the SS badge, but also became the Opel logo that remains today. By the mid-30s there was a growing range of body-styles and load capacities available, replacing the locally produced engines with General Motors units nearer the outbreak of war, after GM bought Opel. This led to a 3.6T load-carrying option, which became almost ubiquitous in Wehrmacht service, but the new engines made it easier for the Allies to press captured Blitzes into service with a few tweaks, thanks to some familiarity with the motor. Unfortunately, due to its common usage, the Opel brand and its trucks were somewhat tainted by the War Crimes carried out by the Nazis and the SS, building them at the factories using forced labour, transporting prisoners to death camps, and even as a ‘gas van’ to carry out the heinous act itself. The rest of the Wehrmacht used the type for more typical roles of transport and carriage of men and matériel to, around and from the battlefield. They were typically painted in the colours of their operators, but the wooden load bed was sometimes seen in green. Following WWII production restarted, and it wasn’t until 1952 that a complete new design was used instead of the old pre-war Blitz. The Kit This is a new tool from MiniArt, and the start of a line of variants that will hopefully steer clear of certain subjects. The kit arrives in a standard top-opening MiniArt box, and inside are twenty-one sprues in grey styrene of differing sizes, a clear sprue, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass in a card envelope, a decal sheet, and instruction booklet that is printed on glossy paper in colour, with profiles for the decal options on the front and rearmost pages. MiniArt have a habit of creating highly detailed kits that include interiors to the cab, engine and under the chassis, that are augmented by the sensible addition of PE parts where scale thickness will benefit. This is common practice for them now, and there’s no reason to expect anything else. Construction begins with the ladder chassis, which has some small raised marks removed from the main rails, spacing them apart by adding four cross-braces between them, with another three and a fuel tank in the second fit, applying a spare tyre that is made of six layers to achieve the tread pattern, sited on the top of the twin brace, and a fitting a towing shackle at the rear. Flipping the chassis over, a protective cowling is fixed between the moulded-in front leaf-springs, adding two L-shaped brackets on the chassis sides, a pair of leaf-springs on the rear, and two hooks at the ends of the chassis rails. An interlude sees the engine built from a four-part block, festooning it with ancillaries, intake and exhaust manifold, the transmission housing that is built from seven parts and mated to the rear of the block, serpentine belt and fan to the front, dropping it into the front of the chassis, and mounting a stowage box on the left rail near the spare tyre. On the opposite side, a Jerry can is made from two halves with a PE seamline trapped in the centre, adding triple handles and a filler cap on top, then securing it in a three-part frame, held in place by two PE straps. Two more hooks are fixed to the front of the chassis, with a horn between them, and a two-part exhaust that stretches from the end of the manifold to the rear of the vehicle, turning left and exiting to the side, with a long muffler that hides the joint between the two parts. A scrap diagram shows where the downpipe should fit in relation to the engine and chassis. A substantial axle is mounted under the front leaf-springs, stretching a drive-shaft between the rear of the transmission and the rear axle with differential bulge, making it from two halves. A couple of small parts are added to the sides of the chassis near the front, and the radiator is built from three layers, plus feeder hoses, mounting it in the front on two pegs, a small PE bracket in the centre, and noting the location of both feeder hoses that supply hot water to and colder water from the radiator. Building the cab starts with the dash, adding instrument backs and other small parts to the rear, plus a dash-pot, an oil-can, and the steering column, flipping it over to install the steering-wheel and a lever, applying four dial decals after detail painting. The floor has eight small notches cut around the sides, turning it over the apply the foot pedals, handbrake and gear levers into position arranged around the left seat, then making two engine cowling side panels that have the lowest end of the A-pillar moulded-in, using alternate parts for one decal option, then gluing them to the floor, trapping the dash and the radiator cowling with separate logos between them, and placing a bench cushion over the hole in the floor. The cab rear has the back cushion glued to it along with a pair of vents, and a small rear window in the centre, mating it to the growing cab assembly along with the roof panel that has the windscreen frame moulded into it, slipping a clear screen in from outside. Two decal options have a warning triangle mounted on a PE bracket in the centre front of the roof, removing two small rivet marks from further back. Turning the assembly over, the front arches with moulded-in running boards are fitted after drilling out some holes and removing raised location marks on the curved top-sides. PE brackets are attached within the engine bay, and windscreen wipers are created either from PE parts, or styrene alternatives if you prefer, making a pair of headlamps from styrene backs and clear lenses, plus optional slit covers for wartime use, attaching to the arches using small raised markers to locate the PE brackets. The cab doors have open or closed window options plus a choice of open or closed quarter-lights installed in the frame, adding a door card, handle, winder and lever to the insides, plus handle, drip-guard from PE, and a long-stemmed wing mirror for the driver’s side. Before they are put in position, a three-part jack is fixed to the co-driver’s step, and of course they can be posed in open, closed or any position in between. The bonnet can be posed open or closed too, starting with the tapering fixed centre section, leaving the rest until later in the build, but adding a convoy light on a PE bracket at the front of the left wheel arch. The cab is dropped into place over the engine, adding rabbit-ear indicators to the rear on PE brackets, and mounting a pair of supports in the rear of the chassis. The closed engine cowling is made from two L-shaped segments with louvres moulded-in, plus clasps at the bottom edge, or the same cowling parts can be used tilted up along the centreline, utilising different open versions of the clasps, and supplying a support rod from wire of your own stock on either or both sides, depending on whether you decide to prop both sides open. A framework is created from three parts that is placed within the outer frame of the load bed under the floor panel, which has copious planking and wood texture detail moulded-in, as does the header board that can be made from a single layer for the “basic” modellers”, or two for the advanced modeller, which requires a little adjustment of the parts, trimming some details off with a sharp knife, and adding PE tie-downs. The rear arches have short supports inserted into recesses that lock them in position under the bed, making the sides in either Basic or Advanced manner for later installation. A pair of stowage boxes are made and glued under the rear of the bed, mounting a PE bracket and number plate holder upon it, and fixing a light further up. A Notek convoy light is fitted to the rear lip of the bed, with another bracket on the opposite corner that has just a styrene light glued to it. Two pairs of wheels are required next, making the single front pair from five tyre layers around the hub, and the rear tyres are each made from five tyre layers each, but have different hub parts, and a three-part jointing lamination between them. The bed is mated with the chassis, the wheels are installed on their axles, and front bumper with number plate is fixed to the front of the chassis, returning to the front axle to add a steering linkage and bar with the aid of a scrap diagram. Completing the model involves choosing whether to fix the sides and tail-gate up or down, attaching locks to the corners, removing the lugs for the open option. Markings There are six decal options included on the small sheet, with a variety of schemes, some of which are two-tone. From the box you can build one of the following: Unidentified Luftwaffe Unit, Poland, 1939 Unidentified Wehrmacht Unit, Poland, 1939 267. Infanterie-Division, France, 1940 Organisation ‘Todt’, 1939-40 31. Infanterie-Division, Rifle Company, Eastern Front, 1940 62nd Separate Motorcycle Battalion, 2nd Ukrainian Front, Red Army, Czechoslovakia, Spring 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion The Open Blitz played an important role in transporting the German Reich around, and this kit is of excellent quality and detail that should be an out-of-the-box build for most modellers due to the high standard. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Thunderbolt Mk.II Royal Air Force Advanced Kit (48012) 1:48 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The Thunderbolt developed from a series of less-than-successful earlier designs that saw Seversky aviation changing its name to Republic, and the project designation from P-35, to P-43 and P-44, each with its own jingoistic sounding name. After a realisation that their work so far wasn't going to cut it in the skies over war-torn Europe, they went back to the drawing board and produced the P-47A that was larger, heavier and sported the new Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cylinder radial that would also power the B-26 Marauder, P-61 Black Widow and F4U Corsair. For firepower they added eight .50cal Browning machine guns aligned along the axis of flight in the wing leading edge, four per wing. The P-47A was still a small aircraft, and was initially ordered without military equipment to allow faster completion, but it was considered inferior to the competition then available, so an extensive re-design was ordered that resulted in the much larger P-47B, firing up to 100 rounds per second from the eight .50cal wing guns, and with a maximum speed of over 400mph, leaving just the fuel load slightly short of requirements. It first flew mid-1941, and despite being a heavy-weight, its performance was excellent, and the unfortunate crash of the prototype didn’t affect the order for over 700 airframes, which were fitted with a more powerful version of the R-2800 and a sliding canopy that made ingress and egress more streamlined, particularly when bailing out of a doomed aircraft. Minor re-designs to early production airframes resulted in a change to the P-47C, which meant that fewer than 200 Bs were made, the C benefitting from improved radio, oxygen systems, and a metal rudder to prevent flutter that had been affecting control at certain points in the performance envelope. A quick way to spot a B is the forward raked aerial mast behind the cockpit, as this was changed to vertical on the C and beyond. Production from a new factory that had been brought on-stream to keep up with demand led to the use of the D suffix, although they were initially identical to the C, but the cowling flaps were amended later, making it easier to differentiate. Of course, the later bubble-canopy P-47s were far easier to tell apart from earlier marks, and constant improvement in reliability, performance and fuel load was added along the way. The P-47D-25 carried more fuel for extended range, including piping for jettisonable tanks on the bomb racks for even more fuel. Taking a cue from the British designers, the bubble-top was developed and that improved all-round visibility markedly, although like the later mark Spitfires, later models incorporated a fin extension to counter the yaw issues that resulted. Its weight, firepower and seemingly unstoppable character led to the nickname ‘Juggernaut’, which was inevitably shortened to ‘Jug’ and led to many, many off-colour jokes during and after the war. Jokes that are still soldiering on to this day, despite being eligible for a pensioner’s bus pass. The Jug was used extensively in the European theatre as an escort fighter, where it performed well in its ideal high-altitude environment. Later in the war when the Luftwaffe was a spent force, it also went on to become a highly successful ground attack fighter, strafing and bombing targets of opportunity, and eschewing camouflaged paintwork to add some extra speed with a smooth (and shiny) bare metal finish. As well as flying with the US forces, many P-47s were flown by the other Allies, including the British, Russians, and after the war many other countries as the remainder were sold off as war surplus. The Thunderbolt Mk.II was the RAF designation applied to a group of sub-variants from two factories, comprising -25/-30-REs from Farmingdale, and -30/-40-RAs built at Evansville. The Kit This is another reboxing of a brand-new tooling from MiniArt, and is labelled an Advanced Kit because it includes an additional sprue of plastic parts, and a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass to increase the level of detail of the kit, including the gun bays, fins for the bombs, and the ability to open the engine cowlings to display the excellent detail that is mostly hidden away on the Basic Kit. The kit arrives in one of MiniArt’s sturdy top-opening boxes with a dramatic painting of the subject on the front, and profiles of the decal options on one side, reserving the other side for practical details and text. Inside the box are twenty-one sprues in grey styrene, although in our sample many of the sprues were handily still connected by their runners, which simplified photography. There is also a clear sprue, a sheet of PE in a cardboard envelope, two sheets of decals, and the instruction booklet, which is printed on glossy paper in colour, with profiles for the decal options on the front and rear pages, plus detailed painting and decaling information for the weapons and tanks on the next page. Detail is beyond excellent, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt in the last several years, with fine engraved panel lines, recessed rivets, plus raised and recessed features where appropriate, as well as fine detail in the cockpit, wheel bays, plus gun bays in the wings and the engine of course. If you’ve seen their AFV kits you’ll know what to expect, but this is special in this reviewer’s humble opinion. Construction begins with the highly detailed cockpit, starting with a choice of seat style. One option has the seat put together from base, back and two side parts, which have elements of the seatbelts moulded-in, and are finished off by putting the remainder of the lap belts on the seat pan. The other option uses new parts to build the seat without belts, adding the parts from the PE sheet separately. A pair of supports are inserted into recesses in the back of the seat, then it is installed on the ribbed floor, which has control column, seat-adjuster, and two other levers inserted, after which the rear bulkhead, one of the cockpit sidewalls and the front bulkhead are fitted, trapping the rudder bar with moulded-in pedals between them. The starboard sidewall has an oxygen hose added, and a scrap diagram shows the detail painting as well as the location of the decals that need to be applied. A cushion is fixed to the head armour, then the other sidewall is detailed with four controls and a PE wiring loom, numerous decals and more detail painting, so that it can be inserted along with the instrument panel and auxiliary panel, both of which have decals for the dials, with a choice of styles for the main panel. The tail wheel is made up in preparation for closing the fuselage, building a four-part strut that holds the wheel on a one-sided yoke, then adding a small curved bulkhead with sprung bumper at the front, or a more simplified three-part assembly that depicts a canvas cover over the mechanism. The fuselage halves are further prepared by adding two extra detail parts to the short sill panels that have ribbing moulded-in, and should be painted to match the cockpit. At the rear on the underside, the supercharger fairing is slotted into the starboard fuselage along with the tail gear bay, and at the front, a cooling vent and an insert are added to the underside, fitting another vent to the port fuselage half in the same place. The fuselage can then be closed around the cockpit, adding the aerial mast into a slot in the starboard spine, although whether that will remain intact until the end of the building and painting is a moot point, and I’d be tempted to nip it off at the base, gluing the base in to act as a socket for the aerial to be pinned after the heavy work is over. The engine is created by joining the two highly-detailed banks of pistons together by a keyed peg, adding exhaust collectors at the rear, the push-rod assembly to the front, the ends of which mate with a circular support that is the frame onto which the cowling panels are added later. The reduction-housing bell is detailed with magnetos and other parts, plus a collet at the centre where the prop-shaft would be. This is joined to the front of the engine as it is mounted to a bulkhead at the rear, again on a keyed ring. The convex firewall at the front of the fuselage is detailed with a ring of fasteners on a PE strip that curves around the edge, and the cylindrical intakes with PE mesh grilles. There is a fuselage insert in front of the cockpit, and that has the two-part gunsight with clear lens, PE backup sight and link-plate added to its mating point, adding more equipment and a PE lip to the coaming before it is inserted under the coaming and joined by your choice of complex or simple firewall that closes the front of the fuselage, the former applicable if you intend to display the contents of the engine bay later. The intake trunking at the bottom of the nose cowling is made from five parts and installed in the lower panel, and you have a choice of open or closed top cowling panels by using additional parts. To leave the cowling open, the engine is fitted to the detailed firewall along with the lower cowling and the three sections of cooling gills. the closed option is surrounded by all four cowling segments, and at the rear you have a choice of installing open or closed cooling gills, using different parts to achieve the look you want, sliding the assembly over the completed engine, to which you can add the wiring loom if you are feeling adventurous, using the helpful diagrams near the back of the booklet, which also includes diagrams for extra wiring in the gear bays. The rudder is completed by adding an insert at its widest point (the bottom) to avoid sink marks, and it is mated to the fin on three hinges, allowing deflection if you wish. Under the tail, your choice of bare or canvas-covered wheel assembly is inserted in the bay, with doors on each side, or if you are building your model in flight, a closed pair of doors is supplied as a single part, adding a small outlet further forward under the fuselage. Note that the closed bay doors can be used effectively as masks by gluing them in place with a relatively weak adhesive for later removal. The upper wing halves have well-defined ribbing detail for the gear bays moulded-in, which is augmented by fitting two rib sections, front and rear walls, and an additional structure that has a retraction jack pushed through a hole in one of the wall segments. The gun bays and their extensive ammunition stores are supplied in this boxing, using different upper wing panels with the bays opened. The gun bays themselves are built from a mixture of styrene and PE surfaces, making up a four-compartment box into which the gun breeches are inserted, linking them to the outer wall with ammo feed chutes, and placing the ammunition boxes with open tops into the upper wing from within. The closed bay option is shown with just the barrel stubs projecting from the leading edge, while both options install the wingtip lights and a pitot probe in the starboard wing. A scrap diagram of the lower wing shows the location of the flashed-over holes that you can drill out for rocket tubes or pylons, then the flaps are made from two sides, plus a pair of hinges, and these are glued into the trailing edge of the wing with the ailerons, then the lower wing can be glued to the upper, along with two inserts at the tip and to the rear of the gear bay, which includes a flush landing light. Three PE edging strips are inserted over the open gun bays, adding a PE indicator and PE prop to hold the styrene panels at the correct angle, the gun bay hinging forward, the ammo bay hinging aft. The same process is then carried out in mirror-image for the other wing, omitting the pitot probe and landing light, after which the wheels and their struts are made up, each wheel made from two halves plus a choice of three hub types, and two styles of tyres are also provided, one without a flat-spot, the other under load on the ground, leaving it to your taste. The struts are detailed with separate compressed or relaxed oleo scissor-links plus stencil decals, and they are mated with their wheels, plus the captive gear bay doors, the lower portion of the door made from two layers, again to avoid sink-marks. The wings are glued to the fuselage with an offset joint making for a stronger bond, and the elevator panels are each slotted into the tail, and have separate flying surfaces that can be posed deflected, each one a single part. If you are building your model with the gear down, the inner gear bay doors are fitted to the fuselage, which contains the inner edge of the main gear bays, so remember to paint that while you are doing the bays. If you plan on making an in-flight model, there are two single parts that depict the closed main bays, or you can insert the two struts with their wheels for the grounded aircraft. The four centreline supports are fitted between the main bays for some decal options, then the model can be flipped over to stand on its own wheels so that the canopy can be installed, gluing the windscreen at the front, and deciding whether to pose the blown canopy open or closed. The prop is also fitted, and this is made up from two parts glued perpendicular to each other, each holding two blades in opposition, and the spinner with PE washer is glued into the front section, using alternative parts with a moulded-in spinner for one decal option. The Jug could carry quite a load, whether it was extra fuel or bombs, and all these are included in the box, starting with the two-part pylons, which can be depicted as empty by inserting a cover over the business end. You have a choice of four styles of tank, a 108gal compressed paper tank with a ribbed nose and tail, a 200gal wide and flat tank, the third 150gal streamlined tank with flat mating surface, and the last one slightly smaller at 75gal. All but the third option has a pair of sway-braces between them and the pylon, which fit into slots in the pylons. They are built in pairs to fit under the wings, but the first two options can also be used solo on the centreline support. The bombs use the same pylons, and can be built in 1,000lb, 500lb or 250lb variants, each one made from two halves for the body and two parts for the square tails or thinner PE fins if you prefer, and mated to the pylon by a pair of sway-braces that varies depending on size. There is also a smoke generator that looks like a drop-tank with a spout on the rear, which would be used to lay smoke for the Allied troops below to cover their actions, at least temporarily. Markings There are three decal options on the main sheet, covering two main schemes, all of which were stationed overseas. From the box you can build one of the following: 30th Sqn., RAF South East Asia Command, India, Jumchar, Autumn 1944 No.73 OTU, RAF Egypt, Spring 1945 79th Sqn., RAF South East Asia Command, India, Wangjing, Spring 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion MiniArt aren’t the only choice in this scale for a Thunderbolt, but I have a feeling that this kit is rapidly becoming the de facto standard, as their selection of variants and detail level widens with each release. The detail is exceptional and even better than the alleged ‘Basic Kit’ that preceded it. VERY highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Generator PE-95 with Fuel Tanks (35662) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The PE-95 generator housed a Willys (of Jeep fame) petrol engine that could produce up to 10kw of power for use away from any wired source of power. It was used extensively during WWII, often towed around behind a truck in a Ben Hur trailer, or in the load bed of a truck. Wherever it went, a copious source of fuel would be required to keep the generator running, either in cans or drums, depending on the likely use case, or whatever was available to the operators at the time. The Kit This kit has been seen before as part of a previous boxing of a G503 truck with trailer, and is now available separately for those that want to depict a generator on-site, or in the back of another type of truck. It arrives in a shallow top-opening box, and inside are nine sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, plus a decal sheet, Photo-Etch (PE) fret in a cardboard envelope, and an A5 instruction sheet, printed on both sides. Detail is up to MiniArt’s usual standards, and the inclusion of PE parts goes a long way to enhance the model further. The generator is made from four sides, adding support rods internally, one end having the control panel, the other a recess where the radiator will fit, while both sides are moulded with columns of louvres along their length. The control panel can be posed open or closed, using several dial and stencil decals if they will be seen. The open option involves two PE door sections, the largest of which is the door that pivots up and slides into the housing with a styrene handle that is also found on the closed door option, which uses a styrene door part. PE handles are glued between the columns of louvres on the sides, plus a pair of styrene tie-down loops, and at the opposite end a radiator core is mounted in the centre, and the top cowling has curved edges, and four more PE grab handles, a lifting eye, and a filler cap on the rolled edge. There are two fuel drums included, one with two stiffening ribs moulded around its middle, the other with more ribs on the top and bottom sections, fitting top and bottom end caps, remembering to pose them with the raised writing on the inside, as it’s not appropriate for this situation. A manual pump with dipstick and nozzle is included, making a hose out of wire from your own supplies, drilling a hole in the drum cap to facilitate its use. Four small oil/petrol cans are made from halves with a PE handle and filler cap, plus another pair of rectangular cans made from four parts and a moulded-in wire handle next to the filler cap. Two more similar cans are made from simpler parts that have no framing moulded-in, creating two simple Jerry cans from two halves plus triple handles and filler caps, with another two that have a PE seam insert trapped between the halves, and a choice of a fully styrene filler cap, or one with a PE retainer clip. Four more Jerry cans have stowage rack bases moulded-in, and have PE straps threaded through their triple-handles, and a castellated filler cap to finish them off. A tapering funnel is included in the set to assist with topping up the generator from the fuel containers, which can be left lying around nearby for effect. The final accessory is a large rectangular stowage box made from two parts for the carcass, a small divider that slots in a groove inside, and a separate lid, which has a PE hasp & staple fixture, with a padlock included. Markings There are no colour profiles, but the instructions have colour call-outs in a number code format throughout, which corresponds to a paint chart that gives codes for Vallejo, Mr Color, AK RealColor, Mission Models, AMMO, Tamiya, plus generic names for completeness. The predominant colour of the generator is olive green, as you could probably guess. The decals are used throughout the build, consisting of stencils, dial, logos and warning notifications. Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion MiniArt put the same level of effort into what most companies would consider “accessories” as they do with their full kits. If you have the urge to include a ‘Jenny’ in one of your projects, the detail will help to enhance it. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

M3 Grant Medium Tank (63520) 1:35 I Love Kit via Creative Models Ltd The US Army had been remarkably complacent with regard to tank development in the lead-up to WWII, and approached war with precious few tanks that were hopelessly outclassed. This realisation resulted in a frantic clamour to produce a modern tank that could hold its own in combat, with the M3 Lee coming into service as a stop-gap measure within a year of its first design while the M4 Sherman was in development. As a consequence of its rather rushed introduction, it was known to have a number of fairly serious flaws, but it also had some strengths that (at least in part) made up for them. Its high profile and sponson mounted main gun gave the enemy a large target, but when the 75mm main gun was brought to bear on a target, it was surprisingly powerful and effective, gaining a reputation in North Africa. A great many examples were exported to the British and Russian forces in the early stages of WWII, and after a great proportion of British armour was left on the beaches of Dunkerque, the need became even greater. The British stipulated some adaptations to improve the vehicle's performance, which most visibly included a new larger turret with a bustle to accommodate radio gear, and a cupola instead of the sub-turret with machine gun mount, which was named the Grant after general Lee's opponent. Due to the pressing need for suitable numbers however, the British did take some unadapted Lees, and the Soviet Union also took delivery of a substantial number of Lee variants, although some ended up at the bottom of the sea thanks to U-Boat action. The Soviets disliked the Lee intensely and gave it a wide berth wherever they could in favour of the more modern and capable T-34, the production of their own tanks ramping up substantially after the initial shock of Operation Barbarossa, which led to the Lee/Grant's retirement from front-line service with them by 1943, while the other Allies continued to use them (mainly in Africa) until the end of the war. The Kit I Love Kit have created their own line of newly tooled kits of the M3 Grant, starting in 2021 and carrying on with various new boxings in the following two years, plus this new one that is based upon the British specification, evidenced by the lack of cupola and machine gun turret on the main turret, the majority of Grant Mk.Is were based upon the M3 design, with a small number on the later M3A2. The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of the vehicle on the front, and a cardboard divider in the lower tray to keep the hull parts and other sprues from rattling around during transit. Inside the box are ten sprues and three individual parts in sand-coloured styrene, eight brown sprues, a clear sprue, a small Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret, an instruction booklet printed in black and white, and a sheet of painting and decaling profiles printed in colour on glossy paper. Detail is good for this exterior kit, although there is no rolled steel armour texture moulded into any of the plates, and a very fine sand-cast texture is present on the turret parts, which could be improved by using liquid cement and a rough brush to stipple the sand-cast texture a little deeper, and texture could also be added to the main armour panels if you feel the urge. Construction begins with the running gear for a change, making up the bogies from two wheels on a pair of swing-arms each, being careful to orient the Vertical Volute Spring Suspension (VVSS) parts correctly, using the scrap diagram to assist you. Six bogies are made in total, with return-rollers in the top of the units, held in place by the front panel that also holds the swing-arms in position. The curved lower glacis is next, adding two bolted flanges to the centre, and inserting a pair of towing eyes with shackles in slots at the sides of the final drive housings. The rear bulkhead has a pair of access doors with PE hinges fitted into the hatch, adding exhausts and more towing eyes with shackles, plus idler wheel axles before it is mated to the rear of the lower hull part, mounting the glacis assembly to the other end. The bogies are fixed three per side on raised plates moulded into the hull, then making the drive sprocket from two parts, and the idler wheels from four parts each so that the tracks can be installed. The track links are made from four parts each that have a total of six sprue-gates to remove, with 77 links per side, and no ejector-pin marks to deal with, thankfully. Once the tracks are in place, the fenders are detailed with PE shackles and light cages, adding the lights with clear lenses, and the round ends to the rear of each one, locating them on the sides of the hull on two lugs per side. The vertical step behind the turret has a viewport with clear slot inserted, fixing two C-shaped PE parts in a small recess on the opposite side, putting it aside while the turret is built. The mantlet has the barrel inserted, pushing a .30cal machine gun through from the inside, clipping it inside the upper turret, then closing it in by gluing in the lower turret, which acts as the trunnions for the pivot point of the main gun. The turret roof has a simple two-part hatch fitted in a ring, adding two small parts, then dropping it into the hole in the roof, fixing two aerial bases and a rolled PE part into the roof, and two more hatches with clear slots in the cheeks of the turret front. This too is put to the side, while the engine deck is detailed with pioneer tools, a towing cable, PE mesh, and rear light clusters on small vertical panels at the rear, which are linked by a shallow armour panel. Two hull side panels have hatches with vision ports, handles and latches inserted, drilling a few holes in the upper hull part, then installing the vertical step made earlier, a T-shaped stiffener to the roof, and adding the side panels over the blank sides of the upper hull, then fitting filler caps, lugs and more hatches with clear slots, plus two stowage boxes to be fitted on the sloped sides of the engine deck, which is slotted into position and snugged up against the vertical step behind the turret ring. The turret can be twisted into position at this stage, but it is probably best to install the 75mm gun first. A semi-cylindrical mantlet is clipped vertically into the surround, gluing a plate across the back to prevent it popping out again, slotting the barrel into the hole in the mantlet, and adding a small part to the top of the surround, which includes a pivot peg that is locked in position in the starboard hull without glue, the top peg held in place by the two-part roof section, which has a periscope added to one side of the pivot. The completed upper hull is then glued into place on the lower, completing the model. Markings There are two decal options on the sheet, but as usual with Trumpeter/HobbyBoss/I Love Kit there is no information offered on the location, period or regiments of the decal options, but the vehicle codes should allow the intrepid modeller to find out the back-story if they feel the need. From the box you can build one of the following: The majority of the sheet is printed in red, with just a few that have two or more colours. Registration, colour density and sharpness are perfectly adequate for most modellers, but if you’re a stickler, you could do worse than check your references before proceeding to paint. Conclusion A well detailed exterior kit of the M3 Grant that should satisfy many, although there are cheaper options. The camouflaged option should be fun to paint, and might benefit from using the new acrylic paint markers that have recently come to market. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

StuG III Ausf.G Feb 1943 Alkett Prod. (72101) 1:72 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The StuG is a popular German WWII AFV, and the more you learn about it, the more obvious it becomes why. The SturmGeschütz III was based upon the chassis of the Panzer III, but removed the turret and front deck, replacing it with an armoured casemate with a lower profile that mounted a fixed gun with limited traverse. It was originally intended to be used as infantry support, using its (then) superior armour to advance on the enemy as a mobile blockhouse, but it soon found other uses as an ambush predator, and was employed as a tank destroyer, lurking in wait for Allied forces to stumble haplessly into its path, where it could be deadly. With the advances in sloped armour employed by the Soviets, the original low velocity 75mm StuK 37 L/24 cannon was replaced by a higher velocity unit that was also used in the Panzer IV for tank-on-tank combat, extending the type’s viable career to the end of WWII. The earliest prototypes were made of mild steel and based on Panzer III Ausf.B chassis, and whilst they were equipped with guns, they were unsuitable for combat due to the relative softness of the steel that would have led to a swift demise on the battlefield, being withdrawn in '41-42. By this time the StuG III had progressed to the Ausf.G, which was based on the later Panzer III Ausf.M, with a widened upper hull and improvements in armour to increase survivability prospects for the crew. Many of the complicated aspects of the earlier models that made them time-consuming and expensive to produce were removed and simplified by that time, which led to several specific differences in some of the external fitments around the gun, such as the Saukopf mantlet protector. The Ausf.G was the last and most numerous version, and was used until the end of the war with additional armour plates often welded or bolted to the surface to give it enhanced protection from Allied tanks and artillery. The Kit This is a new tooling from MiniArt in their nascent 1:72 armour line, which is bringing high levels of detail to this smaller scale, with MiniArt’s engineers and tool designers applying their skills to a scale that has been neglected to an extent for many years. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box, and inside are nine sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a small clear sprue with decals in a Ziploc bag, a Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret in a card envelope, and the instruction booklet in full colour in portrait A5 format. Detail is excellent, including weld-lines and tread-plate moulded into the exterior of the hull, with plenty of options for personalisation, and link-and-length tracks to provide good detail without making the building of the tracks too time consuming. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is put together with five parts creating the ‘tub’, then adding the three-part glacis plate at the front, and the exhaust assembly at the rear, accompanied by duct-work and overhanging vents with a PE mesh panel underneath. One decal option has a few holes drilled into the rear overhang before installation for use later, then various suspension parts are applied to the sides that have the swing arms and axles already moulded-in. Six paired return rollers are made up, along with twelve pairs of road wheels, plus two-part idler wheels and drive sprockets, which have an alternative front sprocket face for you to choose from. Once all the wheels are installed on their axles, the tracks can be built, utilising the long lengths on the top and bottom, adding shorter lengths to the diagonal risers, and individual links around the sharper curved sections toward the ends of the runs. There are eight individual links at the rear, and six at the front, plus another between the lower and its diagonal, each link having three sprue gates in sensibly placed locations. The gun shroud is built from four parts and mounted on a carrier between a pair of trunnions, which is then fitted to a pivot plate and set aside while the casemate front is made from two sections. First however, the fenders are glued to the sides of the hull, locating on three lugs moulded into the sides. The gun shroud is slotted into the casemate, with a mantlet slid over the front, after which the lower heavily armoured and bolted lower casemate front has a vision slot and armour cover applied before it is glued to the bottom of the casemate, along with the sides and rear bulkhead, attaching it to the lower hull while the glue cures to ensure everything lines up. A convoy light is glued into the centre of the glacis, then the engine deck is made, fitting two-part sides, and a single rear panel that is aligned when the deck is installed on the rear of the hull. Two PE grilles are glued over the outer cooling intakes, and a length of spare track is fitted over the rear bulkhead of the casemate, adding armoured covers over the five vents on the engine deck, with a choice of cast or bolted vents on those at the rear of the deck. A choice of three styles of cupola can be made, each one made from a differing set of parts, based around the commander’s vision blocks and central hatch, adding wire grab handles from your own stock where indicated, then inserting the completed assembly in the cut-out on the roof, adding a periscope forward of the cupola from within the roof. The barrel is moulded as a single tubular section with a hollow muzzle glued to the business end, and sleeve moulded into the front of the saukopf, which is an inverted trapezoid with an optional stowage box on top for one option, and an alternative site on the engine deck for the other decal options. PE brackets are added around the vehicle, with pioneer tools built up and fitted where there is space as the build progresses. The gunner’s hatch can be posed closed, or replaced by two separate parts in the open position, adding another scratch-built grab handle from wire, then fitting a drum magazine to the supplied MG34, sliding it through the frontal bullet shield with PE support and another DIY grab handle before putting it in place in front of the gunner’s hatch. Towing eyes are supplied for the tow cable, but you must provide the braided thread or wire to make the cable itself, attaching one to each fender, fixing fire extinguisher, jack block, jack, barrel cleaning rods etc. to various places, and for one decal variant, two stacks of wheels are mounted on long pins on the rear bulkhead, making the pins from more of your own wire. Option four also has a PE railing around the engine deck, which has a basket to hold two jerry cans, each one made from three parts, and slotted into position at the rear of the deck. Two scrap diagrams show how the forward ends of the railings attach to the back of the casemate, and the other four decal options can have stacks of road wheels stowed on the back of the engine deck on the aft vents, again on pins made from your own wire stocks. Two aerials of 30mm each are also needed to complete the model. Markings There are five decal options on the small sheet, with various schemes ranging from pure panzer grey to dunkelgeb, with camouflage or distemper over the top. From the box you can build one of the following: Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 189, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 21 Luftwaffen-Feld-Division ‘Adler Division’, Staraya Russa Region, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 21 Luftwaffen-Feld-Division ‘Adler Division’, Staraya Russa Region, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung ‘Grossdeutschland’ Okhtryka, Ukraine, Eastern Front, Spring 1943 Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 210, Eastern Front, 1943 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion MiniArt bring their talents to bear on 1:72 scale, releasing a subject they have already researched for their 1:35 scale range, resulting in a highly detailed model with plenty of options for personalisation. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Dune – Paul Atreides Deluxe Edition (AFS-002s) 1:12 MENG via Creative Models Ltd Dune began life in the 1960s as the first book in a long-running series by Frank Herbert, and several attempts have been made to realise the initial book in movie form, with varying levels of success. David Lynch made a decent, if simplified attempt at it in the 1980s, although it was a flawed movie with irritating voice-overs (from my point of view, at least), while a three-part TV movie in 2000 was considered a reasonable adaptation, but I haven’t seen that one. This latest expedition into the deserts of Arrakis benefits from the availability of realistic Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) that can be used to enhance the scope and scale of the saga as it deserves, without it looking false, for the most part. It also benefitted from a massive budget and an acclaimed director, not to mention a cast of many famous actors, although David Lynch’s version also had some famous faces, including a young Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck before his Star Trek days. The new film has been split into two episodes to portray as much of the book’s content as possible in an effort to retain as much of the important plot subtleties of the original story as possible, and part 2 has been out now for several months, rounding off the original story, allegedly, with the possibility of more to come if it has made enough money for the studio, which I expect it has by now. I still haven’t seen the second part yet, so no spoilers please! I really must resolve that soon. Paul Atreides is the hero of the piece, and he’s played by a young gentleman by the name of Timothée Chalamet, his first name apparently pronounced the same way as a famous shampoo in the UK, but he prefers the less pretentious Anglicised version. He starts the film as a callow youth, but after the demise of his father at the hands of Doc Yueh/Baron Harkonnen (take your pick, really), he is spirited away from certain death by his mother where he meets up with the local Fremen, and soon is adopted as their leader, where he gets the name Muad'Dib, which is Arakeen for a desert mouse, and the name of one of their moons, which has a mouse-like shape on its face. The Kit This is a new tooling from MENG, and part of the second wave of kits that many people have been waiting for. The initial box-scale kits, whilst well-detailed, were a little on the small size for some of us. This figure kit arrives in a comparatively large satin-finished black-themed box with a painting of Mr Chalamet on the front, looking off into the distance as heroes are wont to do, while his cape flutters in the breeze, although his hair doesn’t. The box is oriented in portrait form thanks to the artwork, and is of a similar size to those of the Ornithopters we’ve reviewed recently. Inside are thirteen sprues in various colours and sizes, two separate face inserts for masked and unmasked options, a four-part stand, and in the Deluxe Edition there is a cloth cape in dark brown material that has been pre-sewn to shape so that all you need to do is slip it over the figure’s shoulders. Detail is excellent as we expect from MENG, and if you are familiar with the Bandai Star Wars figures, the method of construction should be familiar, but if you aren’t, it goes together like an action-figure, with movable joints that mimic the range of motion of a human body. The kit is also push-fit, so you don’t have to use glue unless you want to, or feel it will hold up to more posing (Read: playing) over time. The kit is available in two versions, one without a cape that is coded AFS-002, and the Deluxe Edition with a cloth cape that is coded AFS-002s, with a price differential between them. The work involved in the cape is intricate, including sewing and patterning of the cloth, in addition to the distressing of the material, especially at the lower edges where it is extensively frayed. It’s well worth the extra, as it adds more drama and realism to the model. Construction begins with the head, which offers a choice of two faces, one with a dished lower to accommodate the mask of his Stillsuit when it is pulled up to conserve moisture in the desert, and also shows his eyes with the distinctive blue tint acquired from spending a long time in the deserts of Arrakis. Both face parts have the eyebrows and eyes pre-painted for your ease, to assist you with creating a realistic impression of the actor without too much effort. Strangely, our example was missing one eyebrow on the unmasked option, but it shouldn’t be too hard to replicate with a fine brush or Sharpie. You don’t have to choose one face or the other, as there are sufficient parts to create two full heads, so you can swap and change at will, simply by popping one off and replacing it with the other. The face is mated to the back of the head, which is also moulded in a flesh tone, then the hair is made up from three sections, one part to each side, and another at the back. The masked head has its four-part assembly added into the recess at this stage, while the unmasked option is added around his neck later. The upper torso is made first, with internal structure that holds the various sockets later, and a dog-bone pivot that joins the upper and lower torso, closing the front ‘cod-piece’ after adding the two main pivots for the hips. The torso is topped with a flesh-coloured neck that has ball-pivots at both ends to give the head full mobility. The legs have internal sockets hidden inside the Stillsuit outer surface, with extra panels inserted into recesses on the thighs, adding a knee with joints at the top and bottom, which connects the upper leg to the lower, with another socket that takes the ankle-joint to give the four-part foot a range of mobility, all of which snaps into place with a dull click. The arms are made using a similar process on a smaller scale, adding armour inserts on the shoulders and upper arm in a contrasting styrene. The figure is put together, clicking each limb into position, including the head, with a four-part mask to be used with the unmasked face, which is slipped over the neck before clicking the head into position. Several hand options and props are included on the sprues, including a Crysknife in whitish styrene, a Sand Compactor or thumper that attracts worms, FremKit, Paracompass and Maula Pistol. Different hand positions are included for each of the hand-held extras, using separate thumbs or fingers to allow them to grip the prop convincingly, and these can be swapped and changed thanks to the click-fit nature of assembly. An asymmetrical backpack is also provided, consisting of a prism-shaped toolkit, cylindrical bedroll, main pack and a small covered top section, all stacked on top of each other, and applied to the figure’s back with or without the cape, if your boxing has it. A shoulder strap is provided to give the backpack a realistic reason for staying put, which is made from three parts, and either wrapped around the figure’s shoulder, or threaded through the cape if fitted, using the last diagram as a guide. A vignette stand is included in the box, forming a triangular segment of a rocky part of the desert, which Paul can be placed upon looking wistfully into the far distance with a heroic 1,000 yard stare. The lower base is moulded in black, with a sand-coloured insert slotted over the top, which should simplify painting, inserting an Atreides shield in the flattened front of the raised area. There is also a small slide-out drawer in the opposite side for you to keep the accessories such as hands, weapons etc., while they are not in use. A very thoughtful inclusion. Markings Other than the shield on the base, there aren’t any paint call-outs given, as the kit is intended to be built without it. There’s nothing to stop you breaking out the paints though, adding extra realism to the figure however, and you could also freeze his position and hide the joints with some putty and a little sculpting if you are so minded. For most of us however, it will be a quick build. Conclusion Detail, texture and a likeness to the actor that played Paul Atreides is excellent thanks to LIDAR scanning, and using the same 1:12 scale as Bandai’s Star Wars kits was a sensible idea to provide enough detail without taking up too much space in the cabinet. It’s well-worth the extra for the cape IMHO, but it’s your choice of course. Highly recommended. Standard Boxing without Cape (AFS-002) Deluxe Boxing with Cape (AFS-002s) Review sample courtesy of

TBD-1 Devastator (81783) 1:48 HobbyBoss via Creative Models Ltd The TBD-1 Devastator was an interwar design for a torpedo bomber that first flew in 1935 and entered service two years later during the “Yellow wing” phase of American Naval aviation, and although a capable aircraft when it first arrived, it was outclassed almost as soon as the Americans entered WWII with only around 130 being procured for use by the US Navy. It was a slow-moving target, and not the most manoeuvrable, which although it performed quite well in its first uses against the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea, subsequent attacks during the Battle of Midway suffered heavy losses with no torpedo hits, reducing a force of forty-one aircraft to only six that landed back on deck after the attack, and after that sad but heroic sacrifice of squadron VT-8 during Midway, the Devastator was soon withdrawn from active duty with fewer than 40 airframes still left in existence by that time, none of which survive today. The design was modern at a time when most of its competitors were biplanes, and it won its competition against several such designs that look incredibly archaic by comparison. The Devastator had an all-metal construction using corrugated sheets to add strength whilst keeping weight down, with monoplane wings that could be folded to save stowage space below deck. It also had retractable landing gear to reduce drag, and was crewed by three – the pilot, radio operator/rear gunner, and the bombardier in the centre, his seat allowing him to slide into the prone position under the pilot’s location that allowed him to aim via a window in the floor. Crew protection was poor for the time, which was magnified by its low speed and lack of agility to evade incoming fire, thanks in part to the low power output of the Twin Wasp engine and its high all-up weight. Their successors, the TBF Avenger suffered similar high-levels of attrition until air superiority was achieved, by which time the remaining crews had gained sufficient experience to properly coordinate their attacks against a weakened enemy. The Kit This is a new tooling from HobbyBoss, and is the newest kit of the type by a decade or more at time of writing. It arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of a yellow-wing era Devastator on the lid, and inside are six sprues of differing sizes in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE), a sheet of masking material, decal sheet, instruction booklet in grey-scale, with a glossy sheet of colour printed profiles for the decal options slipped between the pages. Detail is good, with finely engraved panel lines and riveting, plus raised and recessed features where appropriate, a well-detailed cockpit, full depiction of the Twin Wasp engine, open or closed wings, and open or closed canopy elements, with a monolithic canopy part for the closed option. Construction begins with the cockpit, the floor of which is a long part that has a lower tier with ribbed floor, supports and control panel added underneath. The pilot’s position is detailed with rudder pedals and a bulkhead with various details added that separate him from the bombardier, who also has a bulkhead fitted to the rear of his section. Another shorter bulkhead with radio gear and a D/F loop is slotted into the floor behind the two forward stations, turning the assembly around to fit crew seats to the front compartments that both have PE lap-belts applied to them, and a frame glued to the rear of the pilot’s seat before it is installed. A stack of equipment is built from two parts and placed at the very rear of the cockpit floor, acting as the aft support for the frame that is fixed over the rear two seats, fitting a control column into the pilot’s floor along with a cylindrical part, and a roll-over A-frame with PE side skins just behind his bulkhead, plus a V-shaped brace, a square panel in the very front, a fire extinguisher behind the bombardier’s seat, and two small ribs to the sides of the machine gun recess at the rear. The gunner’s position is finally made, starting with a recessed seat-pan with PE lap-belts and a back-rest on vertical struts, fixing a two-layer pivot to the front of the crewman, completing the circular frame around the gunner’s position. The gun with separate twin grips is mounted to the front of the operator on a triangular fitting, setting it to one side while the starboard fuselage half is detailed. There is substantial ribbing and other detail inside the extensive cockpit, adding a small window in the side, a hose that rises out to the sill, a small tapering wall panel under the engine cowling, then drilling two holes under the rear of the fuselage for the arrestor hook. The port fuselage is detailed in the same manner, adding a quadrant in the pilot’s area, then creating a pair of instrument panel sections that have eight decals applied after painting, mounting them in the starboard fuselage half along with two panels (one clear window) that are fitted into the nose to create the lower view cut-out. As the fuselage halves are brought together, a tiny tail-wheel is trapped between two pins in a fairing under the tail, taking time to wait for the glue to cure before dealing with the seams in your preferred manner. The lower inner wing panels are presented as a single part that has two bays inserted before the upper inner wing halves are glued over them, both upper and lower halves partially ribbed on the outer portions. Flipping the assembly over, an intake is made by trapping a PE mesh insert between two barrel-shaped halves, before embedding it into a recess under the starboard wing. The main gear is made at this stage too, although most will probably leave them off until later, as this is simple to do, because they are single struts with one retraction jack moulded-in, adding another at an angle, and mounting the two-part wheels on the axles at the bottom ends. These assemblies plug directly into sockets in the lower wing. The inner wing is then detailed with a set of flaps that can be posed deployed or retracted by using different parts, ribs on the outer ends of the assemblies, with a choice of a two-part option for folded wings, or a simple flat part with holes in it for the in-flight option, installing the completed inner wing assembly into the underside of the fuselage. The Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp has both banks of pistons depicted, each row made from front and rear halves, fitting a two-part intake spider at the rear, plus a cylindrical spacer at the very rear. The exhausts have a hollow lip thanks to an insert at the tip, slotting the forward ends into holes in the back of the cylinders, attaching it to the front of the fuselage on a pair of pins, ensuring that the exhausts correspond with cut-outs in the nose bulkhead. You then have a choice of two cowlings, one with the cooling gills open, the other closed, both moulded as single parts by using sliding moulds, so watch out for almost invisible seam-lines where the moulds join, usually on or around panel lines. The model is inverted to add an arrestor hook under the tail on the two holes drilled out earlier, a small antenna under the trailing edge of the wing, and two doors for the bombardier’s aiming window, the two parts having lightening holes moulded into their inner faces. The prop is moulded as one, consisting of three blades and a hole in the centre that accepts the boss to finish off the assembly, which can be slotted into a hole in the bell-housing at the front of the engine. Righting the model to finish off the cockpit by installing the canopy and other detail parts has you deciding whether to open the canopy’s segments or portraying them closed. The simplest option is the closed version, which consists of just one clear part that you insert a tubular gunsight through a hole in the windscreen, adding an eye-cup to the inside once it is in position. The instructions are a little confused here, as it shows the forward aerial mast mounted on the nose, two PE parts added to the coaming in front of the pilot, two layers of glazing between the bombardier and gunner’s positions, and the gun compartment doors either closed, or open using two parts. It doesn’t mention that if you opt for a closed cockpit, those two glazing panels will interfere with the fit of the canopy and the open gun doors, so bear that in mind and test-fit everything before you apply glue. For the open option, the separate windscreen has the tubular sight inserted before it is glued to the front of the cockpit opening, fitting another four sections over the front two seats, but you’ll need to check your references if you aren’t sure how they should look. The rear canopy part is slid forward over the two sections glued earlier, so you’ll probably want to have the gun compartment doors open to make your model ready for action. HobbyBoss have included a sheet of pre-cut masks that are numbered on the sheet, and there is a diagram showing their locations on the instructions at this point, which will help you paint the canopy frames neatly with less effort. I’ve not yet used these masks myself, but other than appearing a little thick, they should do the job. Choices keep coming, deciding whether to deploy the wings for flight, or folded for storage. The outer wing panels are each made from top and bottom halves, adding an aileron to the trailing edge of each one, then either fitting a simple rib with pins to the inner ends for un-folded wings, or a detailed rib with lightening holes plus two wing-fold armatures that hook into the inner wings to hold them at the correct angle. The elevators are made from two halves, the undersides including the complete flying surface to achieve a thin trailing edge, creating a ribbed surface for the panel without the risk of sink marks that would ruin the ribbed surfaces. Laying the model on its back again, the first option is to fit an insert in the belly that conforms to the curvature of the torpedo that is included with the model. The torpedo is made from two halves with a two-part screw at the rear, and additional fins perpendicular to those that are moulded-in. A box-tail is made from four PE panels that slot into each other, and fit on the rear to retard the speed of entry into the water, which could pre-detonate or destroy the Mk.13 torpedo, which was already experiencing problems that proved difficult to remedy. The torp is lashed into the fixture by two PE straps, but it is also held in place by a pair of pins that insert into corresponding holes in the fairing. The last part is a PE tip to the styrene pitot probe in the leading edge of the starboard wing, which gives it a three-pronged tip, with an enlarged diagram showing how it should be bent to shape. To load your Devastator with bombs, a flat insert is installed in the belly instead, slinging three-part bombs on either side of the insert on short shackles. The diagram for this option shows the model with folded wings, in case you needed extra information on how the folded wings should look. Markings There are two decal options on the sheet, but as usual with HobbyBoss there is no information offered on the location, period or pilots of the options, but the fuselage codes should allow the intrepid modeller to find out the back-story if you feel the need. From the box you can build one of the following: Decals aren’t always the strongest part of HobbyBoss’s kits, but here the register, sharpness and colour density seem to be of good quality, although there aren’t many stencils. There are however multi-coloured tip decals for the prop blades to make that task easier if you opt for the yellow-wing decal choice. Conclusion From the box this looks to be a good-looking model of the type, and the detail is certainly present, as are the options for open or closed canopy and wings that should show off your work. The open bombardier’s window is a nice option that isn’t always present on models of this aircraft. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

StuH 42 Ausf.G Early Prod May-June 1943 (72114) 1:72 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd Following WWI the German military had identified a weakness in their forces, in that their advancing troops often left behind the support of their artillery as they moved forward, leading to a call for the creation of Sturmartillerie, which was effectively a mobile artillery piece that could travel alongside their forces, providing valuable protection. By the time the Nazis were gearing up their economy and military for war more openly, a requirement for just such a vehicle was made official, mating the chassis of the then current Panzer III with a short-barrelled 75mm gun in a fixed armoured casemate with limited traverse, which gave the type a distinctive howitzer-style look. In the later variants a longer high-velocity gun, the 7.5 cm StuK 40 L/48 replaced the shorter gun to give it an improved penetrating power that was more in alignment with the Tank Killer job that it had become used for. These vehicles were designated Ausf.F or G, and were amongst the most produced version of this almost ubiquitous WWII German tank. A project to up-gun the StuG was instigated using an Ausf.F chassis and a 10.5cm leFH 18 howitzer, taking the name Sturmhaubitze 42 or StuH 42 for short. The rounds were electrically fired, and it was to be fitted with a muzzle-brake to bleed off some of the recoil, and a dozen of this type were made from repaired Ausf.F examples, then almost 1,300 were built as infantry support that were based on the Ausf.G, some without their muzzle-brakes due to the limited availability of certain metals as the war continued to turn against the Nazis, thanks to the Allied bomber force bombing their industrial base into rubble on a 24/7 schedule. The Kit This is a re-boxing with new parts of a recent tooling from MiniArt in their new 1:72 armour line, which is bringing high levels of detail to this smaller scale, with MiniArt’s engineers and tool designers applying their skills to a scale that has been neglected to a certain extent for many years, certainly at this level of detail. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box, and inside are ten sprues of various sizes in grey styrene, a small clear sprue with decals in a shared bag, a Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret in a card envelope, and the instruction booklet in full colour in portrait A5 format. Detail is excellent, including weld-lines and tread-plate moulded into the exterior of the hull, with plenty of options for personalisation, and link-and-length tracks to provide good detail without making the building of the tracks too time consuming or complex. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is put together with five parts creating the ‘tub’, then adding the three-part glacis plate at the front, and the exhaust assembly at the rear, accompanied by duct-work and overhanging vents with a PE mesh panel underneath. Various suspension parts are applied to the hull sides that have the highly detailed swing arms and axles already moulded-in. Six paired return rollers are made up, along with twelve pairs of road wheels, plus two-part idler wheels and drive sprockets, the latter having an alternative front sprocket face for you to choose from. Once all the wheels are installed on their axles, the tracks can be built, utilising the long lengths on the top and bottom, adding shorter lengths to the diagonal risers, and individual links around the sharper curved sections toward the ends of the runs. There are eight individual links at the rear, and six at the front, plus another between the lower and its diagonal, each link having three sprue gates in sensibly placed locations. The gun mounting block (it’s not a detailed breech) is built from four parts and mounted on a carrier between a pair of trunnions, which is then fitted to a pivot plate and set aside while the casemate front is made from two sections. First however, the fenders are glued to the sides of the hull, locating on three lugs moulded into the sides, with a couple of PE vertical plates on the rear. The gun mounting block is slotted into the front of the casemate, with a mantlet slid over the front, after which the lower heavily armoured and bolted lower front has a vision slot and armour cover applied before it is glued to the bottom of the casemate, along with the sides and rear bulkhead, attaching it to the lower hull while the glue cures to ensure everything lines up. A convoy light is glued onto the left fender, then the engine deck is made, fitting two-part sides with separate baffles, and a single rear panel that is aligned when the deck is installed on the rear of the hull, choosing one of two narrow rear facets on the rear round-down. Two PE grilles are glued over the outer cooling intakes, and a length of spare track is fitted over the rear bulkhead of the casemate, adding armoured covers over the five vents on the engine deck, with a choice of cast or bolted vents on the two at the very rear of the deck. A choice of three styles of cupola can be made, each one made from a differing set of parts, based around the commander’s vision blocks and central hatch, adding wire grab handles from your own stock where indicated, then inserting the completed assembly in the cut-out on the roof, adding a periscope to the front of the cupola for one option. Triple-barrelled smoke dischargers are formed at the front for some decal options, adding a pair of aerial mounts on the casemate rear, and a shallow stowage box in the middle of the engine deck. The barrel is moulded as a single tubular section with a hollow muzzle with brake moulded into the business end, and its sleeve is moulded into the front of the saukopf, which is an inverted trapezoid that is made from another two parts, plus small PE tie-downs on the rear corners of the casemate. Pioneer tools are built up and fitted wherever there is space as the build progresses, including muzzle cleaning rods, jack, fire extinguisher, and track tools. The gunner’s hatch can be posed closed, or replaced by two separate parts in the open position, adding another scratch-built grab handle from wire, then fitting a drum magazine to the supplied MG34, sliding it through the frontal splinter shield with PE support and another DIY grab handle before putting it in place in front of the gunner’s hatch. Towing eyes are supplied for the tow cables, but you must provide the braided thread or wire to make the cables themselves, attaching one to each fender, and two stacks of wheels that are mounted on long pins on the rear of the engine deck on the aft vents, the pins made from your own wire stock. Two decal options have a section of extra armour around the forward curve of the commander’s cupola. Some decal options have schürzen skirts to protect the vehicle from incoming shaped charge warheads, pre-detonating them to disperse the energy of the weapon. Two mounts are made from angle-iron with three stand-off supports, which fit against the side of the hull, and once the glue is fully cured, the four PE main panels are hung individually from the hooks, with two smaller supplementary panels added to the centre section. Bear in mind that these panels were often lost or damage during combat and manoeuvring in the field, so think about adding some wear if you want to achieve a more realistic look, annealing the brass first to enable easier bending. Three decal options have another run of spare tracks across the back of the vehicle, attached to the top of the rear bulkhead. Markings There are four decal options on the small sheet, with various schemes all with a base coat of dunkelgeb, and various camouflage styles over the top – or not. From the box you can build one of the following: StuG Abt.245, Eastern Front, Summer 1943 StuG Abt.912, Eastern Front, Summer 1943 (with Schürzen) StuG Abt.245, Eastern Front, Summer 1943 StuG Abt.912, Jüterborg, May 1943 (with Schürzen) Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion MiniArt have only recently brought their prodigious talents to bear on 1:72 scale armour, releasing a subject they have already researched for their extensive 1:35 scale StuG and StuH ranges, resulting in a highly detailed series of models with plenty of options for personalisation, and further expansion of the range to come. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

German Panzerträgerwagen (82936) 1:72 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd During WWII German forces used armoured trains in large numbers, with over 20 locomotives in use, many of which were based upon the BR57 Dampflok, with a double-layer of armour applied, spaced apart by a wooden layer. Various cars were part of the train, all armoured in a similar manner to the locomotive, with different functions that could include control wagons, anti-aircraft, emplaced tank turrets, radio cars, infantry wagons and so forth. The initial designation for the standardised layout of carriages and wagons was BP42, which made use of extra flat-cars at the ends of the train to detonate booby-traps, although a Panhard 178 with specialised wheels would be sent up to 1km ahead of the train on the rails to reconnoitre the upcoming track. The revised BP44 arrangement eschewed the kick-off cars for Panzerjägerwagens that had turrets built-in, with a Panzerträgerwagen tank-carrier next in line front and rear. The Panzerträgerwagen was a well-wagon that had been adapted and armoured with side-skirts, with a pair of drop-down loading/unloading ramps to access the well-bed. These wagons carried a medium tank due to the weight limits, but the car had to be uncoupled for the tank to load or unload for action or at the end of the journey. The tank was usually a Panzer 38(t), manufactured by Skoda, and the intention was to provide covering fire from its position within the carriage well, or offload down the ramp that was generally left ready for action to counter-attack a ground-based ambush, using an automatic coupling to speed the process and minimise the danger to the train crew. The bogies were armoured with side-skirts to protect them from incoming fire, whilst retaining the ability to corner with the rest of the train, as the wagon would be a bullet magnet when it began firing, so it was crucial that the wheels remained intact. As the situation deteriorated further for the Third Reich toward the end of the war, even armoured trains would use the cover of darkness to protect their cargo from air attacks, which were becoming more frequent every day. The Kit This is a partial new tooling that is based upon the existing Hobby Boss range of armoured train kits, and includes a Panzer 38(t) tank to populate the wagon. The kit arrives in a standard top-opening box with a painting of the subject matter on the front, and inside are five sprues and five loose parts in sand-coloured styrene, a decal sheet, instruction booklet in black and white, plus a colour painting and decaling guide that is printed on glossy paper on both sides. Detail is good, including rolling bogies, a separate tank that can be posed wherever you like on the model, and there are two sprues that provide a length of track with ballast that are common across the whole range of kits, plus two end-caps if this is either your last wagon, or you are building it in isolation. Construction begins with the bogies, cutting 1.15mm from the brake shoes that project from the sides of the wheels, fitting a leaf-spring and bearing cover to each wheel before they are fitted to the ends of the axles, making four wheels that become two bogies that clip into position in the roof of the wells that are found inside the body of the wagon. Buffers are fixed to the opposite end to the ramp, adding hooks, shackles and coupling parts, plus vacuum tubes to the sides, and a manual wheel on the side near the bogie. The surface of the well is covered with ribs on the sloped areas, adding hatches to the openings to each end, then gluing it to the body, fitting supports for the ramps and a centre block to the end of the body. The ramps are joined at the lower end, made from two layers, the upper layer having the same ribs as the well-bed, with support struts beneath the lower layer. It attaches to the wagon with twin pins from each side, the larger pins at the top, completing the wagon by adding L-profile rails to the sides of the wagon, creating an overhang within the bed. The tank is well-detailed for the scale, and the track runs are moulded with the majority of the road wheels, and have small sections of sprue between the wheels and track that should be cut away before adding the outer wheels to the idler and drive sprocket wheels. The lower hull has the suspension units moulded-in, and receives the two track runs, taking care to align the pins and install them in the correct orientation. The upper hull is applied over the open hull, slotting the fenders to the sides, with a separate jack and convoy light to increase the detail, finishing the glacis plate with a detail insert that has the bow machine gun added to the front. A rod with an eye at the top is glued to the front of the glacis, adding the exhaust and smoke box to the rear, then moving on to the turret, which is moulded as top and bottom parts, fitting the main gun and coaxial machine gun to the mantlet, an angled cupola over the circular upright, with a short periscope or vent added just in front. The turret mates with the hull and twists into position using a pair of bayonet lugs moulded into the ring. The track consists of two lengths of ballast that has the sleepers (ties for our US audience) moulded-in, with the option of adding them to any other kits from the range you have, and using one or two end caps to close the ends. The rails are separate parts that are slid into the fastener pads from both ends, linking them together with jointing plates on both sides that have the large bolts moulded-in. With careful painting and weathering the track should look realistic, but check your references to ensure you choose the correct colours to replicate the grease, soot and grime that was endemic during the steam era. Markings One colour scheme is provided, based upon dark yellow (dunkelgelb), with green and red brown camouflage stripes sprayed at random angles. The decals are mostly white stencils, with four balkenkreuz crosses for the sides of the wagon and tank. From the box you can build the following: The stencils are white, while the crosses are black and white, with good registration for the scale. Conclusion An unusual model from a growing range from Hobby Boss, and one that will garner attention once complete, thanks to the unusual subject matter and the detail that is incorporated from the box. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

P-47D-28RE Thunderbolt (48015) Free French Air Force 1:48 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd The Thunderbolt developed from a series of less-than-successful earlier designs that saw Seversky aviation change to Republic, and the project designation from P-35, to P-43 and P-44, each with its own aggressive sounding name. After a realisation that their work so far wasn't going to cut it in the skies over war-torn Europe, they went back to the drawing board and produced the P-47A that was larger, heavier and sported the new Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18-cylinder radial that would also power the B-26 Marauder, P-61 Black Widow and F4U Corsair. With it they added eight .50cal Browning machine guns aligned along the axis of flight in the wing leading edge. The P-47A was still a small aircraft, and was initially ordered without military equipment to allow faster completion, but it was considered inferior to the competition then available, so an extensive re-design was ordered that resulted in the much larger P-47B, firing up to 100 rounds per second from the eight .50cal wing guns, and with a maximum speed of over 400mph, leaving just the fuel load slightly short of requirements. It first flew mid-1941, and despite being a heavy-weight, its performance was still excellent, and the crash of the prototype didn’t affect the order for over 700 airframes, which were fitted with a more powerful version of the R-2800 and a sliding canopy that made ingress and egress more streamlined, particularly when bailing out of a doomed aircraft. Minor re-designs to early production airframes resulted in a change to the P-47C, which meant that fewer than 200 Bs were made, the C benefitting from improved radio, oxygen systems, and a metal rudder to prevent flutter that had been affecting control at certain points in the performance envelope. A quick way to spot a B is the forward raked aerial mast behind the cockpit, as this was changed to vertical on the C and beyond. The production from a new factory that had been opened to keep up with demand led to the use of the D suffix, although they were initially identical to the C, but the cowling flaps were amended later, making it easier to differentiate. Of course, the later bubble-canopy P-47s were far easier to tell apart from earlier marks, and constant improvement in reliability, performance and fuel load was added along the way. The P-47D-25 carried more fuel for extended range, including piping for jettisonable tanks on the bomb racks for even more fuel. Taking a cue from the British designers, the bubble-top was developed and that improved all-round visibility markedly, although like the later mark Spitfires, later models incorporated a fin extension to counter the yaw issues that resulted. Its weight, firepower and seemingly unstoppable character led to the nickname ‘Juggernaut’, which was inevitably shortened to ‘Jug’ and led to many, many off-colour jokes during and after the war. Jokes that are still soldiering on to this day, despite being eligible for a pensioner’s bus pass. The Jug was used extensively in the European theatre as an escort fighter, where it performed well in its ideal high-altitude environment. Later in the war when the Luftwaffe was a spent force, it also went on to become a highly successful ground attack fighter, strafing and bombing targets of opportunity, and eschewing camouflaged paintwork to add some extra speed with a smooth (and shiny) bare metal finish. As well as flying with the US forces, many P-47s were flown by the other Allies, including the British, Russians, and after the war many other countries as the remainder were sold off as war surplus. The Kit This is a new boxing of their recent kit from MiniArt, this kit representing a Evansville manufactured airframe that had subtle cockpit and direction-finding changes over the -25 model that preceded it, now utilising a Curtiss Electric prop as the standard. The kit arrives in one of their sturdy top-opening boxes with a dramatic painting of the subject with guns blazing on the front, and profiles of the decal options on one side, reserving the other side for practical details and text. Inside the box are nineteen sprues in grey styrene, although in our sample many of the sprues were handily still connected by their runners, which simplified photography. There is also a clear sprue, two sheets of decals, and the instruction booklet, which is printed on glossy paper in colour, with profiles for the decal options on the cover pages, plus detailed painting and decaling information on the weapons and tanks on an inner page. Detail is excellent, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt in the last several years, with fine engraved panel lines, recessed rivets, plus raised and recessed features where appropriate, as well as fine detail in the cockpit, wheel bays and engine. Construction begins with the highly detailed cockpit, starting by putting the seat together from base, back and two side parts, which have elements of the seatbelts moulded-in, and are finished off by putting the remainder of the lap belts on the seat pan. A pair of support are inserted into recesses in the back of the seat, then it is installed on the ribbed floor, which has control column, plus seat-adjuster, and two other levers inserted, after which the rear bulkhead, one of the cockpit sidewalls and the front bulkhead are added, trapping the rudder bar with moulded-in pedals between them. The starboard sidewall has a hose added, and a scrap diagram shows the detail painting as well as the location of the decals that need to be applied. The head cushion is applied to the head armour, then the other sidewall is detailed with four controls, numerous decals and more detail painting, so that it can be inserted along with the instrument panel and auxiliary panel, both of which have decals for the dials, with a choice of three for the main panel. The tail wheel is made up in preparation for closing the fuselage, building a four-part strut that holds the wheel on a one-sided yoke, then adding a small curved bulkhead with sprung bumper at the front, or an alternative assembly can be made from four different parts plus wheel, which is less detailed as the mechanism is hidden by a canvas cover. The fuselage halves are prepared by adding two extra detail parts to the short sill panels that have ribbing moulded-in, and should be painted to match the cockpit. At the rear on the underside, the supercharger fairing is slotted into the starboard fuselage along with the tail gear bay, and at the front, a cooling vent and a belly insert are added to the underside, fitting another vent to the port fuselage half in the same place. The fuselage can then be closed around the cockpit, adding the aerial mast into a slot in the starboard spine, although whether that will remain intact until the end of the building and painting is a moot point, and I’d be tempted to nip it off at the base, gluing the base in to act as a socket for the aerial after the majority of the handling is over. There is a fuselage insert in front of the cockpit, and that has the two-part gunsight with clear lens added to the centre, and another equipment box on the port side before it is inserted and joined by a firewall that closes the front of the fuselage, and in the same step, the rudder is completed by adding an insert at its widest point (the bottom), to avoid sink marks, and it is mated to the fin on three hinges, allowing deflection if you wish. The engine is created by joining the two highly-detailed banks of pistons together by a keyed peg, adding the push-rod assembly to the front, the ends of which mate with a circular support that is the frame onto which the cowling panels are added later. The reduction-housing bell is detailed with magnetos and other parts, plus a collet at the centre where the prop-shaft would be. This is joined to the front of the engine as it is mounted to a bulkhead at the rear, again on a keyed ring. The intake trunking at the bottom of the nose cowling is made from five parts and is installed in the lower panel, and you have a choice of open or closed vents on the sides of the fuselage by using the appropriate parts. The finished assembly is enclosed by four segments of cowling, and at the rear you have a choice of open or closed cooling gills, using different parts to achieve the look you want. Under the tail, your choice of wheel assembly is inserted in the bay, with doors on each side, or if you are building your model in flight, a closed pair of doors is supplied as a single part, adding a small outlet lip further forward under the fuselage. The upper wing halves have well-defined ribbing detail moulded-in, which is augmented by fitting an insert, two rib sections, front and rear walls, and an additional structure that has a retraction jack pushed through a hole in one of the wall segments. The flaps are made from two sides, plus a pair of hinges and these are glued into the trailing edge of the wing with the ailerons, the remaining details of the gear bay, which includes another retraction jack, the gun barrels on a carrier to achieve the correct stepped installation, plus a pitot probe, and the wingtip light, which can be fitted now because the complete tip is moulded into the upper wing so that it can be portrayed as a more scale thickness. A scrap diagram of the lower wing shows the location of the flashed-over holes that you can drill out for pylons, then it can be glued to the upper, along with two inserts at the tip and to the rear of the gear bay, which includes a flush landing light. The same process is then carried out in mirror-image for the other wing, omitting the pitot and landing light, after which the wheels and their struts are made up, each wheel made from two halves plus a choice of three hub types, and two styles of wheels are also provided, one without a flat-spot, the other under load on the ground, leaving it to your taste which you prefer. The struts are detailed with separate oleo scissor-links and stencil decals, then are mated with their wheels, plus the captive gear bay doors, the lower door made from two layers, again to avoid sink-marks. The wings are glued to the fuselage with a stepped joint making for a stronger bond, and the elevator panels are each slotted into the tail, and have separate flying surfaces that can be posed deflected, each one a single part. If you are building your model with the gear down, the inner gear bay doors are fitted to the fuselage, which contains the inner edge of the main gear bays, so remember to paint that while you are doing the bays. The engine assembly is also mated to the firewall, locating on a pair of alignment pins. If you plan on making an in-flight model, there are two single parts that depict the closed main bays, or you can insert the two struts with their wheels for the grounded aircraft. The four centreline sway-braces are fitted between the main bays for some decal options, then the model can be flipped over to stand on its own wheels so that the canopy can be installed, gluing the windscreen at the front, and deciding whether to pose the blown canopy open or closed after fitting a guide across the rear frame. The prop is also fitted, and this is made up from two parts, each carrying two blades in opposition, and the spinner is glued onto the front section. The Jug could carry quite a load, whether it was extra fuel, rockets or bombs, and all these are included in the box, starting with the two-part pylons, which can be depicted as empty by inserting a cover over the business end. You have a choice of four styles of tank, a 108gal compressed paper tank with a ribbed nose and tail, a 200gal wide and flat tank, the third is a 150gal streamlined tank with flat mating surface, and the last one is slightly smaller at 75gal. All but the third option has a pair of sway-braces between them and the pylon, which fit into slots in the pylons. They are built in pairs to fit under the wings, but the first two options can also be used solo on the centreline support. The bombs use the same pylons, and can be built in 1,000lb, 500lb or 250lb variants, each one made from two halves for the body and two parts for the square tail fins, mated to the pylon by a pair of sway-braces that vary depending on bomb size. There is also a smoke generator that looks like a drop-tank with a spout on the rear, which would be used to lay smoke for the Allied troops below to cover their actions, at least temporarily. A large diagram shows the correct location for all the pylons and their loads, but checking your references won’t hurt either. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, and a separate page shows the location of all the many stencils on a set of grey-scale profiles to avoid cluttering the main profiles. From the box you can build one of the following: 2eme Escadrille ‘La Rouge’, Group de Chasse III/3 ‘Ardennes’, Free French Air Force, France, late 1944 4eme Escadrille (SPA 167), Group de Chasse II/5 ‘La Fayette, Free French Air Force, France, late 1944 1re Escadrille (SPA 95), Group de Chasse I/4 ‘Navarre’, Free French Air Force, Spring 1945 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion There are a few other kits of this fighter on the market in this scale, but this series is rapidly becoming the de facto standard due to the wealth of variants that have been released already, with more to come. The detail is exceptional, and the moniker “BasicKit” seems to undersell its qualities. VERY highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hurricane Mk.IIC/Trop (81779) 1:48 Hobby Boss via Creative Models Ltd The Hawker Hurricane was one of Britain's foremost fighters of WWII, and although overshadowed by the more graceful and slender Spitfire during the Battle of Britain, it was a capable aircraft that was available in large numbers, and achieved more than its fair share of kills during the conflict. It went on to see service to the end of the war, but was relegated to less onerous tasks as technology advanced, resulting in faster, more agile aircraft that came to the front on both sides of the conflict. The type originated in the early 30s and first took to the sky in 1935, despite the Air Ministry’s tepid reaction to monoplanes at the time, and it was an aircraft that set standards for fighters that followed it, being a monoplane with a predominantly metal airframe, retractable landing gear, an enclosed cockpit and of course the delightfully powerful and throaty Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. Compared to the Spitfire it was a little old-fashioned, starting out with a fabric-covered ‘rag’ wing that was eventually replaced by an all-metal aerofoil, and it was less aerodynamically streamlined, with a thicker wing and overall chunkier, blunt appearance. Although the wing was replaced by a metal aerofoil later, it retained the fabric rear fuselage and as such was able to have minor damage repaired quickly and easily, compared to the Spitfire that would have to go back to a repair facility for structurally insignificant through-and-through bullet damage. A fabric patch followed by a few coats of dope, and the Hurri would be back to the fray, which endeared it both to its pilots and ground crew alike. By the time the improvements to the airframe resulted in the Mk.IIC, it was tasked with ground attack, taking out German tanks, which weren’t as easy to crack as first expected, because 20mm cannon shells would often ricochet off frontal or side armour, and bombing a relatively small target such as a tank was a matter of mostly luck, all while the enemy poured lead in your general direction. It was withdrawn from front-line fighter service at this stage of the war, as by then the enemy aircraft outclassed it in most respects, so it carried on in ground-attack, night fighter and intruder roles where it excelled, without unnecessary exposure to enemy fighters. It was succeeded by the D that mounted a pair of 40mm cannon in gondolas under the wings, increasing its offensive power appreciably, at which point it acquired the nickname ‘The Flying Can Opener’, adding additional frontal armour to the airframe that was exposed during the run-in to target. They carried on in that role until the Typhoon came into service, which could do the job faster and more efficiently without the worry of being bounced by enemy fighters that outclassed it. The Kit This is a new boxing of Hobby Boss’s 2022 tooling of the type, and whilst we have an excellent de facto standard kit from another brand, there’s no profit in that for Hobby Boss. The kit arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of a Hurricane engaging successfully with some Luftwaffe Bf.110s, for which it was a good match, providing the Hurricane pilot was wary of the rear gunner on his approach. Inside are five sprues in grey styrene of varying sizes, two clear sprues, one of which is wrapped in foam sheet, two black flexible tyres in a separate bag, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a small sheet of pre-cut canopy masks, a decal sheet, instruction booklet in black and white, plus a double-sided sheet of colour profiles printed on glossy paper to assist with painting and decaling. The metal exterior surfaces are covered with finely rendered rivets and engraved panel lines, while the fabric areas have fluted surfaces to depict the ribbing showing through the doped cloth skin. There are also oddities such as separate gun bay doors in the upper wings, despite there being nothing within, and that perennial head-scratcher, the clear instrument panel that has a decal for the dials. Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the foot-trays and a small section of “floor” that doesn’t exist in the real aircraft but has probably been included because it gives the seat armour something to plug into, slotting the seat into a recess near the bottom of the part, and applying six-part PE belts to add detail. The control column and rudder pedals are installed between the foot-trays, then the side frames are brought in, and the clear instrument panel is slotted into the top, applying a dial decal and a gunsight into the top centre. The completed cockpit is trapped between the fuselage halves along with a front bulkhead, with very shallow sidewall details moulded into the port fuselage side, and nothing on the starboard other than an access door that is also separate. As the fuselage is closed, the prop assembly is built from blades that are trapped between the spinner and back-plate, secured with a cap on the rear of the axle, being careful with the glue in that vicinity. Two sets of fish-tail exhaust stubs are slotted into the cowling on each side, with solid tips and a seams down the sides, which will need dealing with if it bothers you. The lower wing is a full-span part that has the outer portions of the main gear bays moulded-in, fitting an insert in the centre to complete boxing in the bays, although detail here is perhaps a little simplified when compared to the recent competition. The upper wings are fitted with extraneous double bay doors before they are mated to the lowers on either side of the fuselage, which could be useful if you are scratching or buying aftermarket gun bay interiors. Turning the model over sees additional detail inserted in the main gear bays in the shape of short ribs, struts and retraction jacks, building the belly radiator housing from four parts and installing it between the wings, plus a desert air filter that is made from two parts that includes a portion of the cowling under the nose, with a separate intake lip. A crew step is fitted under the wing trailing edge, a pitot probe under the port wing, and clear wingtip lights on the leading tip of each wing, adding a clear landing light cover further inboard, then fixing the cannon inserts in the leading edge after installing the two barrels with moulded-in recoil springs. Careful alignment is key here, assisted by steps around the edges of the cut-out, which can be trimmed to improve fit as necessary. The main gear legs are moulded as struts with separate aft retraction jacks, fixing captive gear bay doors, adding a tyre to the hub part before fitting it to the axle at the base of the leg. The tail-wheel is moulded into its strut, and drops into a fairing under the tail to allow the model to stand on its own wheels for the first time. Righting the model sees the elevators slid into slots in the tail, each one interlinking to give a strong bond. The canopy is in two parts, gluing the windscreen in position with a rear-view mirror at the apex, the framed canopy fitting behind it, and an aerial mast on the spine behind the cockpit. The last page of the instructions shows the locations of the numbered masks for the canopy, which also extends to the landing lights and wingtip lights. Markings There are two decal options included in the box, one on each side of the colour instruction sheet, but Hobby Boss have a widely variable track-record for their decals and profiles. Both examples here are dressed in desert schemes, but the underside colours seem at variance with the standards for the era and theatre, using Sky for one, and Light Blue for the other. It’s possible that azure blue was unavailable at times, but that’s a task for your references and the balance of probability to decide. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals should be easy enough to apply, but some of the colours used are unusual. The roundel red is bordering on peach/pink (the scan doesn't show that), and the yellow outlines appear translucent on the sheet. There are a cluster of stencils included, plus a decent rendition of instrument dials for the panel, but check your references carefully regarding colour schemes, and factor in some new decals if they bother you. Conclusion Every major company has a Hurricane in their range, and this is Hobby Boss’s. It’s not the best in scale, but to those that aren’t obsessed with detail and accuracy this could fill the spot, as it will look like a Hurri once complete. If you’re a serious modeller however (I hate that phrase), you’ll probably be looking at the competition instead. Recommended with caveats. Review sample courtesy of

Dune - Harkonnen Ornithopter (DS-009) 1:72 MENG via Creative Models Ltd Dune began life in the 1960s as the first book in a long-running series by Frank Herbert, and several attempts have been made to realise the initial book in movie form, with varying levels of success. David Lynch made a decent, if simplified attempt at it in the 1980s, although it was a flawed movie with irritating voice-overs (from my point of view, at least), while a three-part TV movie in 2000 was considered a reasonable adaptation, but I haven’t seen that one. This latest expedition into the deserts of Arrakis benefits from the availability of realistic Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) that can be used to enhance the scope and scale of the saga as it deserves, without looking false, for the most part. It also benefitted from a massive budget and acclaimed director, not to mention a cast of many famous actors, although David Lynch’s version also had some famous faces, including a young Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck before his Star Trek days. The new film has been split into two episodes to portray as much of the book’s content as possible in an effort to retain as much of the important plot subtleties of the original story as possible, and part 2 has been out now for several months, rounding off the original story, allegedly, with the possibility of more to come if it has made enough money for the studio, which I expect it has by now. I still haven’t seen the second part yet, so no spoilers please! The new film of course has some great new ships, which includes a less toy-like Ornithopter that is more insectoid and less clockwork bubble-bug than the 1984 edition. They are quadruped aircraft with six or eight helicopter blade-like ‘wings’ providing the lift in a dragonfly-like manner, and a pointed nose that incorporates expansive windscreens that probably don’t give as good a field of view forward as you’d think. The Kit This is a new kit that follows on the heels of the ‘vehicle scale’ mini-kits that now look more like stocking-fillers as this new tooling is in 1:72, corresponding with the dominant scale in which the Bandai Star Wars kits were released in, giving modellers the opportunity to compare their sizes, and display them together without any disparity in scale. The kit arrives in a standard MENG box with a painting of the ‘thopter on the front in desert tones, and a satin finish to the box, as usual. There are nine sprues of olive-green styrene plus a slide-moulded cockpit framing in the same colour, two sprues in sand for the base, two poly-caps in black, a small black sprue containing crew figures, a small decal sheet with two Harkonnen logos on it, and the instruction booklet printed in colour on glossy paper. Detail is excellent, and the inclusion of four crew figures in contrasting colours indicates that the designers kept a watching eye on the novice modeller that may not either want to, or be able to paint the model, whilst providing sufficient detail for the hardened Sci-Fi modeller. This kit is different from the Atreides kit in the same scale that we reviewed recently, having a more muscular, curved body, and only six blades for the wings, plus more aggressive cannons under the nose. It shares the same stand as the Atreides kit, and the landing gear legs are also replicated between the two kits. Construction begins with the cockpit and rear interior, with two step between the flat areas, the lower section for the pilot that controls the aircraft with twin sticks inserted into the deck along with a pair of rudder pedals that have an instrument binnacle installed between them, rising up near the pilot’s eyeline. Four identical crew seats are fitted with bases, building the pilot from two parts so his arms can reach out to the sticks, and three other passengers with their hands on laps, essentially in the same pose and garb, even down to their bald heads. Paint the uniforms a black or dark grey, and the visible human aspects any shade you like. The seats and pegged-in crew are inserted into holes in the cockpit floor, the pilot at the front, a row of two passengers behind him, and another row of two seats, one of which is empty, behind them on the central portion of the floor. Attention shifts to the attachment points for the six blades that sprout from both sides of the fuselage, and the first assembly creates a pair of sockets that pivot in unison with the corresponding socket on the opposite side, thanks to intermeshing quadrant gears that are moulded into the rear of each socket, requiring them to be carefully placed in the correct socket before gluing the two retaining surrounds together. Two more pairs are made, linking two together before they are trapped between the fuselage halves in the next step, with another sited behind, fitting the cockpit, a pivoting access ramp on the underside, and an insert under the aft slope of the fuselage before joining the two halves together, then adding a curved top cover to the blade area. The entire upper nose and framing for the cockpit is moulded as one part using sliding moulds, clipping four clear panes into the roof, one on each side, and another two in the nose. The clear parts have lugs on the sides that allow them to clip into position without glue, and while they may show a little through the edges of the windows, they are much tidier than the risk of glue squirting out of the sides, but if you prefer, you could always cut replacement acetate panels from your own stocks, using the clear parts as a template. The completed assembly is slotted into the fuselage horizontally, locating on three pegs that slide into corresponding holes in the fuselage halves. Another insert is placed under the nose with two poly-caps trapped in place, adding detail inserts around the sides and transition areas of the underside that include fixed barrels that are made from two halves each. The poly-cap turrets are populated by building a pair of twin weapons (or searchlights - it's a while since I watched the first film) on a central rod, which clips into a holder with another part that covers the innards, which slots into the hole under the nose, held in place by the poly-cap, making another assembly that is more obviously a double-barrelled weapon from five parts, mounting it on the second turret, and routing two three-part trunks around the edges of the underside symmetrically. Four directional exhausts are built in pairs, two under the root of the tail, the others on the sides at the root, each assembly made from three parts each. Two towel-rail assemblies are fitted into troughs under the boom, making the fish-like bifurcated tail sections from five parts that remain linked by pins through holes, and have a ‘stinger’ made from four parts that is inserted in another trough above the tail boom. Three tapering surrounds to the blade sockets were fitted into the hull sides without glue earlier, totalling six, and you can choose whether to fold the blades or deploy them as you like, installing the base of the blade on the main part without glue, ensuring that the flat recess on the peg is facing upward when you insert them into the sockets with a click, three per side. To deploy them, the blade is pivoted out straight, and then rotated 90° so that the moulded-in pivot pin ends are at the top. This will prevent them sagging in the cabinet, although the model will also take up a lot of room, as each blade measures over 28cm from the pivot-point. The craft’s landing skids can be posed up or down, pivoting around a central island fairing, which comprises seven different parts depending on your choice. The gear legs are built from a varying number of parts, each sub-assembly receiving a letter code to assist with placement later, and each of the four main legs ending in a pad, except for two seemingly vestigial legs at the rear. They are plugged into the upper assembly according to the last sub-step of each option, and this in turn is mated with the underside of the craft, posing the lower hatch in the open position with the gear down if you wish. The stand is moulded in a desert sand colour, and consists of a two-part support, with a pivot at the top that can be manipulated to various angles, and the base, which is a single gently undulating part that has a uniform sandy texture on its surface, and a circular dais where the support plugs into a large rectangular peg. Markings There are profiles printed at the rear of the instructions, with colours in MENG codes and Gunze Sangyo’s Acrysion range. The main colour is sand yellow, with the two Harkonnen decals applied one per side. The decals are both black, so there’s no registration, but sharpness and colour density are sufficient to do the job. Conclusion I’ve been waiting for larger kits of the Ornithopter, and MENG have now granted that wish, so I’m very happy. There is good detail included on a kit that is a relatively simple build, and offers plenty of scope for the modeller to practice their paint and weathering effects on the kit when it is ready. The two 1:72 kits are sufficiently different to warrant getting them both, so you may want to warn your wallet. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Mclaren MP4/4 1988 (CS-007) 1:24 MENG via Creative Models Ltd McLaren are named after their founder, Bruce McLaren, who began the team in 1963 competing in Formula One, with their first Grand Prix win in 1968 during a four year period where they dominated F1. Bruce McLaren was killed during testing in 1970, but the team continued to do well under new management, merging with Ron Dennis’s team in 1981, under whose management they have gone from strength-to-strength, expanding their range into production cars in more recent years. During the 1988 season drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost dominated almost every race of the season, achieving a 1-2 in the Detroit Grand Prix, Prost coming in 38 seconds behind Senna, powered by turbocharged Honda engines that were outputting immense levels of power, part of the reason for the change to normally aspirated engines by the governing body the FIA for the 1989 season. The MP4/4 was arguably one of the most successful overall designs in Formula 1, using a V6 Honda engine that displaced only 1.5 litres, but output 675hp at 12,000rpm thanks to a substantial boost from the turbocharger while they still had access to its benefits, deleting the turbo intakes briefly due to aerodynamic concerns, which proved to be a mistake that was rapidly corrected. The car ran almost unchanged for much of the season, with a reclined driver position keeping the centre of gravity low, allowing it to corner at high speeds, and with the reliability of its engine, its retirement was limited to only four races of the season, and it achieved a great deal of success and many podium positions. Their worst placing other than retirement was 6th at Portugal, although both Senna and Prost had Nigel Mansell in his Judd snapping at their heels, which perhaps spurred them on to greater things. Senna placed 10th in Italy after retiring from pole in a collision with another driver he was lapping, who unexpectedly regained control after locking his wheels in a corner. In preparation for the 1989 season, an altered MP4/4 chassis was fitted with a 3.5L V10 normally aspirated engine for testing to ensure they were ready for the following season in conjunction with the new chassis that was under development. The Kit This is a new tooling from MENG in my preferred vehicle scale, and it’s also from an era when I regularly watched F1 before I took on an old house that needed total renovation, and my free time evaporated. The kit arrives in one of MENG’s typical satin-finished top-opening boxes, with a painting of the car on the front, against a stylised backdrop. Inside the box are four sprues and a bodyshell part in light grey styrene, a clear sprue, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE), four flexible black tyres, two sheets of self-adhesive chrome stickers, a sheet of pre-cut woven material in black, three sheets of decals, and the instruction booklet, which has a painting guide in colour, sprue diagrams and a paint chart with MENG AK and Acrysion codes, plus the names of the colours in four languages including English. Detail is excellent as expected, and the inclusion of the afore mentioned extras creates a model that can be built by most of us without the need for aftermarket. The PE is trapped between two sheets of adhesive film, as it has been etched with no equivalent to sprue-gates, so once the sheets are removed the parts will be loose, as I found out when I forgot about their way of doing things. Construction begins with the Honda V6 engine, the block of which is made from seven parts, with a Honda logo decal applied in the centre of each bank of piston heads. The air intake trunks in between the banks and the fuel injectors are installed on pegs in the centre of the block, fitting additional pipework to the ends, the first-motion shaft on the rear, and a pair of exhaust manifolds on the sides. The transmission is built from two long halves that project from the rear of the engine, adding a pair of braces for the bodywork panels, and inserting two driveshafts on the sides, then applying decals to the backs of the body panels before plugging them into the sides of the transmission. Two pairs of wishbones are fixed to the top and bottom of the transmission assembly, adding more linkages and a turbo intercooler radiator over the top, then creating the rear wheel hubs from a two-part brake disc and callipers that give it the prototypical venting between the two layers of braking surface. The discs are attached to the front of their bearings with a poly-cap allowing easy removal of the wheels at any point, gluing each one to the wishbones on pegs, and mating the engine and transmission together into one. The monocoque chassis of the vehicle was laid-up from carbon fibre, which was still relatively new at the time, here depicted by the main shell with two lower sections and a front bulkhead that are spot painted, using white for a small section that is seen through the outer bodywork panels, fitting bulkheads at the rear of the side pods, then attacking it with carbon-fibre decals that are found on the large sheet. A similar process is carried out in the cockpit, which starts as a single curved tub that has decals applied all around the seat, fitting some small ancillary controls into position after decaling, moving on to create the lap belts from the black fabric sheet, threading the PE buckles through according to the diagrams, and adding a circular quick-release to one of them. The shoulder belts are each two fabric parts that wrap around a U-shaped assembly at the top, with PE adjustment buckles linking the two sections of each belt together, finishing them with more PE buckles. The completed assembly is fitted in the cockpit on the rear lip, and a pair of Boss advertisements are applied from the decal sheet in a prominent part of the upper belt where it went over Ayrton or Alain’s shoulders. A logo decal is applied to the belt holder on the lip, subtly letting everyone know which chassis and variant it is. The cockpit is mated with the shell from below, applying another small decal to the shell behind one of the cut-outs in the nose, fitting the dash into position at the front of the cockpit, using decals for the instruments, and painting the many buttons appropriate colours according to the key nearby. The relatively simple steering wheel with two red and green buttons is attached to the dash via a short column, showing just how much steering wheel technology has come on, the modern wheels costing hundreds of thousands to make, as they contain complex computers, and are covered in buttons and often have a screen built-in. A control box is decaled with another Honda logo and fixed onto each side pod, making up two radiator assemblies per side with their own feeder hoses and supports, installing them on the angled rear sides of the pods after detail painting them. Air-intakes are made from two handed parts each, fitting a cylindrical assembly to the rear, and installing them across the face of the rearmost radiator, making sure that anything needing painting is done before you start applying glue. The undertray, or lower surface of the body is almost flat at the front, with splitters near the rear that guide the airflow out from under the car, creating downforce that sucks the car onto the track, with a lot of help from the upper aerodynamic fixtures. The inside is decaled with carbon-fibre and reflective stickers, applying paint to the other areas, then doing the same to the underside, painting crucial parts of the undersides a wood colour, which are the FIA’s guide to whether the vehicle is obeying the regulations regarding its height from the ground. Additional decals are applied to the sides of the splitters at the rear, and a set of wishbones are glued into the nose, adding three pedals and a small tank in the driver’s foot well. Another set of wishbones are attached to the top of the monocoque’s nose, bracing them with additional damping rods before bringing the two assemblies together, and applying another two decals to the sides of the nose once the glue is set. The front discs and hubs are made in the same manner as the rears, and are glued to the wishbones in the same way as at the rear, with a steering linkage applied to the front bulkhead, wrapped in a protective shroud, which has three small reservoirs applied beneath it. The sloped rear behind the driver has two assemblies fitted on pegs, followed by the roll-over hoop, building up the remaining hoses and ‘conch’ shaped turbo housings to link them and the engine to their outlets in the underside between the splitter plates, which allows the engine assembly to be fitted, assuming everything is painted and decaled at this stage. Two engine mounting brackets link the monocoque to the motor, and a large cylindrical reservoir with filler cap is fixed to a peg at the front of the transmission. The plenum chamber that is sited over the air intake trunks between the piston banks is made from three sections, with an FIA logo decal applied to the cylindrical assembly at the front, locating it on four pegs at the top of the trunks after painting, then adding waste-gate cooling hoses between the intakes at the rear of the side pods. The nose cone and rear wing supports are both covered in carbon-fibre decals and installed in their respective places at either end of the vehicle, painting the four parts of the wing red and white before applying decals over their inner and undersides and assembling it so it can be installed on the supports at the rear. A brief interlude to make the wheels is next, using the flexible black tyres, which have a seam around the centre of their circumferences. These can be removed by ‘scrubbing’ the contact surface with a motor tool or other sanding material to replicate the scrubbed wheels that were usually fitted before the race so that the car got maximum traction for the start, providing the tyres were also warm. The hubs are single parts, and like their full-sized counterparts, they are attached to the car by a single stud, which in this case slips into a poly-cap rather than screwing in. Dymag decals are provided for each hub, two per rim, and if F1 isn’t your thing, you’ll need to fit the smaller, narrower wheels to the front axles for maximum traction at the rear, which will stop your more knowledgeable friends from laughing at your mistake. The completed wheels slide into position and are held there by the poly-caps, whilst giving you the flexibility to remove them whenever you need to. The front wing provides down-force to the wheels, and much of this assembly is moulded as a single part, adding a small section under the nose, and two end-caps, after painting it all white and applying carbon-fibre decals to the inner faces of the caps. Another carbon-fibre decal is applied to the full width of the wing on the underside, consisting of three separate sections to make it a little easier to wrangle. The main portion of the bodyshell is moulded as one, adding the small windscreen to the front of the cockpit, and a pair of intake inserts to the holes in the side pods, marked L and R to ensure you fit them in the correct position. The wing mirrors are each single parts, using two small chromed stickers to depict the mirrors, and mounting them either side of the driver on their short supports. The bodyshell and nose cone can then be lowered over the car to complete the build, or you can make up two A-frame trestles from four-parts each to keep the body off the floor using a similar method used by the mechanics during maintenance, showing off the details of the chassis. Markings Mclaren Honda were sponsored by the Marlboro brand of cigarettes in 1988, while such advertising was starting to be banned in many countries, and MENG have used the name McLaren on the rear wing, which IIRC was the case in some countries that had already moved to ban advertising of cigarettes and tobacco-based products. You shouldn’t smoke, vape, or drink too much, but you know that already, so I won’t go on. Two decal options are supplied as you’d expect, with just a small decal on the roll-over differentiating between Senna and Prost, the drivers for that year, plus their numbers on the nose and sides of the rear wing. Shell and Honda also get a look-in, with their logos also found on the sheet. The stickers are chrome, but look blue due to the reflections in the photobooth. You can see your face in them, although there's a little distortion. Decals are printed in China to a high standard, and have good register, sharpness and colour density. There are no decals included for the Marlboro red stripes that make the car stand out, but instead you are given a slight step in the surface of the bodyshell to mask against, and I’m unsure if that will work. The step is infinitesimal, but is the additional layer or layers of red enough to make up the difference in height? Will subsequent layers of clear gloss after decaling encourage the steps (and the carrier film on the decals) to disappear? I’m not sure. You can of course sand away the step, which shouldn’t be too onerous, as there are only short lengths on the body. Conclusion The old McLaren MP4 was an impressive machine, and this new kit does it justice. The hardest part will be choosing the correct shade of red, although Zero paints have probably got a shade in their range already, followed by a little patience applying the many carbon-fibre decals, and deciding what to do about the step mentioned above. Overall, it’s a cracking kit though. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

M55 203mm Self-Propelled Howitzer (63548) 1:35 I Love Kit via Creative Models Ltd Based upon the chassis and some of the lower hull of a P47 Patton, but with the running gear and hull reversed, it travelled engine-deck first, with a huge turret that had limited traverse overhanging the rear that necessitated changes to the rear of the track run, and had a self-entrenching tool attached to the rear. It was developed from the earlier M53 that carried a 155mm gun, which it replaced in 1956 with the US Army, serving in Vietnam until the end of the 60s, when it was replaced in turn by the open-topped M110 howitzer after serving with it side-by-side for several years. The type also served in small numbers with a few NATO states, the last of whom kept it a little longer before it faded into history, scrapyards and museum storage. It was operated by a crew by six, consisting of a commander, driver and gunner, plus three more crew members to feed the gun with massive shells, of which it could carry just ten in internal storage, and as it was essential that it was required to continue firing for more than twenty minutes (1 round per 2 minutes), it would be accompanied by support vehicles that carried more rounds to feed the beast. The type was built by Pacific Car & Foundry, and was protected by 25mm/1” of armour, as although it wasn’t expected to be on the frontline, the nature of combat couldn’t always guarantee that it wouldn’t occasionally see limited action, even if it was only sporadic gunfire as a target of opportunity by the Vietcong, as the North Vietnamese army was sometimes known. Its top speed was a surprising 30mph, but that would reduce markedly on unmade roads or tracks, as 44 tonnes of metal and armour will stress any suspension system. The Kit This is a new boxing from another of Trumpeter’s brands, although it’s a strange name for a brand by any usual standards, even if it is descriptive of how we sometimes feel about our stashes. The kit shares many of the hallmarks of a Hobby Boss kit, which is another of their brands, and arrives in a top-opening box with a painting of the subject on the front. Inside the box are five sprues and two major parts in sand-coloured styrene, two identical sprues in brown styrene, a blast bag part on its own sprue for the gun in light grey flexible plastic, a tree of sixteen translucent poly-caps, a small clear sprue, two substantial frets of Photo-Etch (PE), a small decal sheet, instruction booklet in black and white, plus a glossy colour painting and decaling guide printed on both sides. This is an exterior kit, and the detail is good, extending to the link-and-length tracks, and the PE adds more fine detail to the kit, remembering that you’ll need to glue the PE parts in with Super Glue (CA). Construction begins with the road wheels, making eight pairs of one type, four more of another, and two of a third type, each made from hubs and separate tyres, with a poly-cap trapped between the two wheels for easy installation and removal. Six pairs of return-rollers are made up, then the hull is prepared with suspension details, four on each side, plus a more complex arrangement at the front, building one for each side from five parts. A pair of hatches with separate latches are fitted into holes in the rear bulkhead, mounting several small parts around them, including a towing hook and lugs for various eyes, breaking it down into two separate stages. The suspension arms and stub axles are inserted into each of the axle ports, fitting two suspension struts per side, adding the return-rollers to their sockets, and a single small wheel to the front suspension arm alongside a pair of road wheels, using up the rest of them in specific order on both sides of the hull. The front bulkhead has two small hatches and eyes installed, building up the drive sprockets from three parts, plus a two-part final drive housing that is glued to the sides of the hull. The tracks are link-and-length, using a long length on the lower run, plus three shorter sections for the upper run, adding a diagonal section under the drive sprocket, and creating the rounded ends from seven individual links at the front and ten at the rear, plus another two between the diagonal and lower run at the front. The upper hull is a large part with the turret base in a stepped down area at the rear, and this is detailed with louvred grates that have separate lifting lugs, stowage boxes with separate hatches and handles, two tapering assemblies with PE grilles on the open wider end, and many small parts around the deck and sides. Two more boxes are built with PE inserts glued into slots within, and their open rear ends house the front light clusters with clear lenses that are fitted on a PE support, adding a PE strip along the sides of the hull so that the PE side skirts can be fixed in place along with several PE fixings per side. More lifting handles are dotted around the deck, then it is mated to the lower hull, and the travel lock is built from five parts, some without glue, and mounted on slots in the front bulkhead. The turret is a large moulding, as is the floor, which has two supports that trap the mantlet between it and the upper when they are mated. A rack with several shelves is attached to the left of the turret before it is closed, covering the projecting edges of the floor at the sides with PE that has tread-plate texture etched into it, bending the edges over to hide the styrene underneath. A lower door is mounted in the cut-out in the rear, building the upper door with its locking mechanism from seven parts, adding vertical parts with PE sections to the sides, and festooning the turret sides with individual pioneer tools, and more on racks, along with several small parts, which have their shapes magnified in the instruction steps for a better view. A side hatch is added, and jerry cans are made for either side of the rear door, with a vent on the right side, creating the commander’s cupola from three parts reminiscent of a Patton’s cupola, making the gunner’s hatch from three parts, gluing it in place with another side door beneath it. More detail parts in styrene and PE are used, and two pairs of track links are fixed to the sides of the mantlet, sliding the two-part gun barrel through the flexible blast-bag after dealing with the seam, which will be eased by ensuring proper alignment of the two halves whilst gluing. The barrel assembly is slotted into a keyed hole in the mantlet, adding a small searchlight nearby, and completing the detailing of the turret with PE racks on the left side, grab handles and styrene protective cages around parts at the front of the roof. The self-entrenching blade has two pivots made and linked with a flimsy panel, which is probably best done after locating the pivots on the blade to ensure they are glued at the correct angles. The blade has several stiffening ribs moulded-in, with three more inserted in slots, joining the blade to the hull using two pegs that slide into the projecting trunnions at the back of the vehicle, passing through holes at the ends of the pivots. The turret then slots into position on the rear of the deck, but as there aren’t any bayonet lugs, it will be held in place by gravity and will fall out if you invert the model. The barrel is locked in position with a C-shaped clamp that glues it to the travel lock assembly at the front of the vehicle. Markings Two decal options are provided on the sheet, and the only clues to their use and location is given by the serials and the names painted on the barrel. From the box you can build one of the following: US Marines 233244 ‘Eve of Destruction’ US Army 40228648 ‘Tiny Tim’ The decals are printed with good density and sharpness, and only one has two colours, so register isn’t a problem. Conclusion The M55 is a bit of a monster, and quite appealing as such. It served in active combat zones, so can be built in a state of heavy use, and the detail should be enough for most modellers to make the most of. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

British Tank Crew Special Edition (35332) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd British tank crews in WWII generally wore custom overalls and either a black beret with the tank regiment badge on the front, or a cut-down style helmet without brim, so that they wouldn’t get hung up on the equipment inside their vehicles. During colder weather, a leather body-warmer was worn over the overalls, cinched in by the crewman’s webbing belt to keep from snagging inside the tank. This set depicts a crew of five in and around a tank wearing just such items of clothing, suitable for all but the hottest and coldest of weather. Inside the figure-sized box are four sprues, two containing the figures and two their accessories, including helmets, weapons and pouches, plus a small paper sprue diagram to show where all the parts are. The commander is wearing a leather tabard over his overalls, while the rest of the crew aren’t, but some of them are wearing drop-leg holsters for their side-arms, which look surprisingly modern. The commander is stood with hands on hips, two other crew are stood, one resting a hand and foot against something, while the other inspects some charts in a rigid folio against his compass. The two seated characters could be placed half in or out of their hatches, one with a foot up level on the edge of the hatch, the other leaning forward talking into a microphone. Three of them also have comms headsets integrated into their helmets or on a band over their berets. The helmets have their internal webbing moulded-in in case you want to pose them off within or on the tank, and a set of goggles and holster is supplied for all, with a few ammo pouches, map case, unholstered pistols and even a sniper rifle with scope found on the sprues. Conclusion As usual with MiniArt figures their sculpting is exceptional with crisp detail and sensible parts breakdown plus extras to add some detail to their vicinity if you use them in a diorama. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Panzer Crew 1943-45 (35465) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models Ltd During WWII, German tank crews usually consisted of four, sometimes five men, led by their commander, who was generally dressed differently from the other men, and had the lofty seat in the cupola on top of the vehicle, communicating with the rest of the crew and others in their unit by radio with a wired throat-mic, and over-ear headphones. In the early part of the war, the crews were usually dressed in black uniforms with a large beret, but as the war progressed, they transitioned toward camouflaged uniforms to make them at least a little less visible when they were outside the comparative safety of their tank. This set arrives in a figure-sized box, with a painting of the contents on the front, and the same artwork sectioned up and used as the instructions and combined painting guide, with a paint chart that gives codes for Vallejo, Mr Color, AK RealColor, Mission Models, AMMO, Tamiya, plus colour swatches and generic names for completeness. Inside are five sprues of grey styrene in a heat-sealed bag, with the parts for each figure on separate sprues for ease of identification, and parts breakdown is sensibly placed along clothing seams or natural breaks to minimise clean-up of the figures once they are built up. The sculpting is typically excellent, as we’ve come to expect from MiniArt’s artists and tool-makers, with natural poses, drape of clothing and textures appropriate to the parts of the model. There are four figures, two standing as if they are in a turret hatch, both wearing headphones, one of whom is scanning the horizon with pair of V-shaped ranger-finders. The two seated crew members appear to be on the outside of the tank from their poses, both looking down, one studying a map, the other navel-gazing. All crew are wearing a standard two-piece uniform with double-breasted jackets, and low-profile cloth side caps, plus rolled cuffs over their combat boots. The two men with comms will need some fine wire to represent the cords leading to their headsets and throat mics for additional realism once the figures are painted and ready to be placed on/in the model. The accessory sprue contains plenty of pouches, Lugers, other pistols in and out of pouches, a Gewehr 43 and Kar98k rifle with scope, an FG42 machine gun, an STG44 assault rifle, a Bergmann MP18, a Steyr MP34, and an unusual Erma EMP with a stubby fore-grip. Not all of those will be appropriate for the crew, but can be added as part of the clutter in the background, or used on another project in the future. Conclusion A crew gives an AFV model human scale, with the realistic sculpting and poses adding to that feeling. Careful painting and weathering will further add to the effect. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of