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French R35 Tank 1:35 HobbyBoss Designed by Renault, this was an interwar light infantry tank used by the French army in their unsuccessful defence of their homeland at the beginning of WWII, after which it remained in service with the German forces as a beutepanzer, where it was either used in second line service, or heavily converted to a makeshift gun carriage and used as a self-propelled howitzer. It was originally intended as a replacement for the diminutive FT-17, but due to the sloth in re-training their crews, they were still ill-prepared even on the eve of war. When Germany pounced, there were almost a thousand R35s in service, although they had been found unreliable, poorly armed to combat tanks, and with too little armour. All the remaining vehicles were taken on charge by the Germans and more than a little tinkering with cutting torches began. Some had their turrets removed to use as small gun emplacements, while others were thoroughly butchered to become tank destroyers, although in doing so the original chassis was horribly overloaded, leading to slow, breakdown prone vehicles such as this, that must have been loathed by their crews. By the end of the war a small number were left and used by the French until they were replaced with more capable tanks. The Kit It seems no subject is too off-piste for HobbyBoss, and the little R35 proves this, although it was important to the French at the outbreak of WWII. There are a number of options to make use of the basic chassis, which HB will naturally exploit to the maximum as you'd expect. The kit arrives in a fairly small box with a divider keeping the sprues from rattling about. Inside are seven sprues, upper hull and turret parts in sand coloured styrene; two sprues in a brown styrene containing the tracks; a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a brass turned barrel, decal sheet, colour painting guide and black and white instruction manual. Someone made a mistake with the inner cover's sprue map, so a separate sheet was included to correct that goof. It shares a number of sprues with the catchily titled 5cm Pak(t) Sfl.Fgst. Pz.Kpfw.35R 731(f) that we reviewed here a few months ago, which shares the same chassis. The engine is first to be constructed, with a two part block that is heavily detailed with additional parts, a great many of which are absolutely tiny, which conspires to give you a very nicely depicted motor for your R35 chassis. Work then commences on integrating the engine with the lower hull, beginning with the sand-cast rear bulkhead, which has the idler tensioning devices and towing hook added, after which the radiator, cooling fan and ducting are assembled with the power-take-off wheel projecting from the rear of the box. The hull itself is made up from two side panels and a floor piece, into which the radiator housing, a styrene/PE stiffening plate and driver controls are added. The side panels are fitted out with three return-rollers and a final drive housing per side, and four bogies with two wheels per housing and a big suspension spring are built up. Two more solo bogies, two drive sprockets and two idler wheels are also constructed, and are installed on the suspension mounting points on the hull sides. At the same time the driver's seat, fuel tank and engine-mount bulkhead are ensconced within the hull, and the rear bulkhead closes up the rear. After adding a few more driver controls and their linkages, the drive-train is dropped into the hull, with a transmission housing added to the front, and driver-shafts to the sprockets complete the drive-train. Given their small size in 1:35, HB have decided to go down the link and length route with the tracks, and I can't say I blame them. The straight track runs are made up from six parts with a few links in between the curved lower sections, and twelve individual links at each end. Each of the individual links have three sprue gates, while the lengths have additional dead-end tabs that ensure against short-shot links, and also double as ejector-pin positions, saving the delicate detail from marring by mis-alignments. Unless you're going to the trouble of using metal replacements, these should do you proud with a bit of sympathetic painting and weathering. Give them a rub with an artist's pencil to impart metallic sheen where they get worn, and you'll never know they weren't metal. With the tracks in place, the full length fenders are added, along with a little stowage and a big bottle-jack on the right rear. The upper hull is detailed inside with the driver's instrument panel, plus a choice of actuator for his vision hatch, which can be posed open or closed. The final drive inspection hatch is added along with some PE parts, as is the lower part of the driver's hatch, with the upper section added in the open or closed aspect, depending on your whim. The upper hull is then closed up and a host of pioneer tools are threaded through their tie-down blocks to be added to the sides of the hull together with the silencer/muffler and exhaust, the feeder pipe for which comes from the rear of the vehicle. The small cast turret has the top hatch added, with a number of lifting and tie-down lugs around the edges, and the side view ports installed, before the main gun is slotted through the aperture, with its brass turned barrel. The rear hatch can be left unglued to open and close, and the turret is then completed by the addition of the floor with integrated turret ring. Twist the turret into place on its bayonet lugs, and it's done. Markings There are two options in the box for this kit, one in French service and one in German as a beutepanzer or war prize. You can build one of the following from the box: French R35 in brown/green camo, with a blue club in a white triangle on the turret sides German R35 in Panzer Grey with white crosses on turret sides and top hatch The sheet is small with good register and sharpness, but check the colour density with one of the decals you aren't using before you commit, as white decals can be precocious. Conclusion It's a small tank that's almost cute in 1:35, with plenty of detail included in the box. If it floats your boat, you should be pretty happy with what's in the box. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Russian BM-13N "Katyusha" Rocket Launcher 1:35 HobbyBoss Stalin's Organ as it was known in WWII was a truck chassis with cab where the flatbed had been replaced by a rack of rocket launch tubes that contained various diameter rockets over the years, as well as differing numbers of tubes, range and explosive power of the rockets. They were useful at delivering a lot or ordnance to a location rapidly, but suffered somewhat in accuracy due to their unguided nature and the variability of their propellant efficiency. Their ability to relocate between salvos was a plus, giving them the ability to hit fast and hard, then escape retribution by relocating, which offset their long reload time. The BM-13 was a WWII variant, although they continued in service long after cessation of hostilities in various guises, using various chassis. They were often built on lend-lease trucks such as the Studebaker US6 or post war the indigenous ZiS-151 (a rough US6 copy), and fired 13.2cm rockets weighing in at 42kg each from eight launch rails. The Kit This is a new tooling from HobbyBoss, and represents the post WWII BM-13N mounted on a Zis-151 that bears a striking resemblance to the Studebaker chassis, having some minor differences around the engine cowling at the front. Even the engine was copied to a large extent, much of which is replicated in the kit. If you are planning on building a WWII Katyusha, this kit won't be strictly accurate to the time period, but a great many folks won't know it wasn't produced until 1948. Inside the standard HB box are ten sprues, two truck parts off sprues, plus eight launch rails all in sand coloured styrene, a clear sprue, twelve flexible styrene tyres, two sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a decal sheet, markings guide on glossy colour stock, and the instruction booklet in black and white. On unpacking the sprues from the myriad of bags that protect every part of the kit, detail is good, with lots of small parts, some very nicely moulded larger parts that take full advantage of the available modern moulding techniques such as slide-moulding. The cab body is a single piece, as is the shroud that flips down for firing, and the launch rails have detail on all sides, including the lightening holes on the sides. Construction begins with another set of rails however, which are the chassis rails, because you get an almost full rendition of the vehicle inside the box. Cross-braces, transfer boxes and drive couplings are added first, with exhaust and suspension details after, including some lovely leaf-springs and hubs, onto which the wheels are placed. Each wheel has a two-part hub that fits inside a nicely done tyre that even has maker's mark and specification moulded into the sidewalls, as well an aggressive V-tread on the contact surface. The two rear axles are doubled-up by the use of handed hubs, while the single-width steering wheels are installed on a through-axle with steering gear and a transmission shaft added along the way. The engine is built up from a large number of parts, and should look impressive painted and weathered with oil and dirt. The engine and radiator assembly are added to the front of the chassis, while the battery box and fuel tank are fixed to the outside of the chassis rail along with some perforated crew steps on sturdy brackets. The cab is then built up on a floor panel, including; foot pedals, steering column and gear stick; instrument panel with accompanying dial decals; and a full-width bench seat for the crew. It is inserted into the underside of the cab, with the addition of glazing front and rear, with additional clear parts added between the inner and outer cab door skins. Separate windscreen wipers are installed in the top frame of the windscreen, and the bonnet/hood is then built up from a finely moulded set of panels, the sides for which have perforated louvers in their sides. The radiator grille is multi-layered, and includes the Cyrillic manufacturer's mark on the front for good measure, with large swooping fenders added over the front wheels. The flatbed consists of a floor panel that includes the rear fenders with light-clusters, plus several stowage boxes and a pair of spare wheels in a large and well detailed bracket that holds them vertically behind the cab. The rocket launch assembly is next to be constructed, beginning with the base, onto which the upstands and substantial tubular frame are built up over a series of steps. The eight launch rails and their rockets are constructed and linked together by three rods that hold them together, resting on cut-outs in the top of the support frame, which are glued in place with small shaped covers. The sighting equipment is then attached to the left side and the whole assembly dropped onto the rear of the truck, with a choice of travel mode or firing mode, by using a shorter or longer brace at the front of the supports. In firing mode a single-piece armoured cover is placed over the top of the cab to protect the windows and occupants from the hot exhaust gases, but this isn't shown in a stowed position for the travel option. These seem to vary in design somewhat according to available information, so check your references before you decide how to portray it. Markings The single-pages guide shows only one example, wearing Russian Green and a red star on each door, but as you can see from the decal sheet, there are other Soviet nations included on the decal sheet for your use if you feel the urge, although the Polish checkerboard looks a little out of proportion, so you'll need to check that too. Decals are usual HB, with reasonable register (looks like blue is out a fraction), slight stepping in some places, but usable. Conclusion A nice kit that needs to be set properly in a time-period, as I suspect some might think buy it thinking they're building a WWII era kit. Detail is excellent, and the use of PE is nicely done, but the decals are a bit of a damp squib overall. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Mosquito Wheels (632061 for HK Model) 1:32 Eduard This set of drop-in replacement wheels for your HK Models Mossie are just the ticket to upgrade the detail in that department. Inside Eduard's usual clamshell box are two large tyre parts with block tread, with four separate hubs and a tail wheel, all in resin, plus a set of kabuki tape masks to allow you to make a decent job of painting the hub after the tyres. There's even a mask for the anti-shimmy tail-wheel into the bargain. Moulding blocks are sensibly placed on the contact patch of the tyres and edges of the hubs, with a slight weighting at the bottom of each tyre to simulate the natural weighting of the aircraft. Highly recommended for the detail and lack of seam clean-up. Review sample courtesy of

German Motorcyclists WWII Era 1:35 Master Box A new figure set in injection moulded styrene from figure specialists Master Box. Arriving in a standard figure-sized box with a stylish painting of three of the figures pushing a bogged down motorbike & sidecar through thick mud. The first item of note is that you're not getting a motorbike into the bargain, but no-one would seriously expect one for the price they're asking! The set consists of four figures in total, three of which are designed to be pushing one bike, the other leaning on another bike with his foot on the kickstarter pedal. Inside the box are two sprues, one of which contains the parts for the figures in a mid-grey styrene, while the other in a darker grey holds all the weapons, kit bags and other accessories. My accessories sprue had taken a knock at the factory, and has a few broken parts, but as there are duplicates aplenty, that shouldn't be an issue, even if yours has too. The three figures pushing one bike are each grabbing a different part for purchase. One is pushing the handlebar, another the back of the bike and the rear of the sidecar, while the final chap is pushing the rear of the sidecar, with one hand on the welded-on machine gun mount. Figure four has one foot on the kickstarter, bracing himself with his hands on the bike's frame. Each one is wearing a winter greatcoat that flows naturally around the legs by having separate parts that attach to the figure's waist at belt height. The legs, arms, torsos and heads are individual parts, the latter having balaclavas sculpted in, leaving just their faces visible. Helmets are separate, and the riders also have separate goggles. The usual complement of MP40s, KAR98s, plus one eacxh of MG34 and MG42 are provided on the accessory sprue, plus a pair of STG44s, gasmask canisters, water bottles, pistols with holsters, entrenching tools, ammo pouches and boxes, potato-masher grenades and some other weapons I can't remember the names of right now. Painting As usual with most figure sets, there is a painting guide on the rear of the box, which shows part numbers and suitable colours from the Vallejo and Lifecolor ranges. Conclusion Sculpting is up to Master Box's usual standards, and was done by a Mr. A. Gagarin. With sympathetic painting, a suitable motorcycle combo and lots of mud, it should result in a dynamic diorama. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Schneider CA - Armoured 1:35 HobbyBoss Development began on the first French tank in 1914 at around the same time as the British were working on their Mark.1s. Although it lacked a turret and was plagued by similar reliability problems to the British, it was still pressed into production, despite having some serious design deficiencies that limited its usefulness. It was armed with a 75mm cannon and two Hotchkiss machine guns, with the cannon on the starboard side, which limited its field of fire as well as forcing a kind of broadside manoeuver in order to draw a bead on targets on the vehicle's left side. It is easy to confuse it with the larger St Chamond that followed it, and this too suffered from some of the same problems. The sloped frontal armour of the Schneider was initially effective, but once the enemy started using armour-piercing bullets, an additional 5mm spaced armour sheet was added to strategic places, which of course increased all-up weight, putting more strain on the 60hp engine. The overhanging "bow" was also an impediment to getting over rough ground, and the internal fuel cells were moved outside the hull after a number of tanks exploded due to hits in that area. The type saw action until the end of the Great War, but due to its flaws, any further development was cancelled, leaving just the remainder to be converted or scrapped. Six tanks were used by Spain, but were soon withdrawn when their uselessness became apparent at the beginning of the civil war. One original example in running condition survives in Saumur in France, which is the oldest functioning tank in the world. The Kit The early model without the improvements was released first, with this tooling variation bringing up the rear, just like the real thing. It is just what the WWI tank lover needs to add to the growing stable of Great War armour that surely now qualifies as a golden age of WWI modelling. The kit arrives in a compact box in usual HobbyBoss style, with an internal divider keeping parts movement to a minimum during transit. Within the box are five sprues, tow hull halves and two armour panels in tan styrene, four sprues of track parts in brown, two sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, decal sheet, instruction booklet and of course the painting guide. Looking over the sprues, it's a well-detailed kit of the exterior of the vehicle, with plenty of slide-moulding evident at the edges of the sprues and on the hull parts to add extra detail without increasing the part count. The second large fret of brass is actually a rather nicely etched emblem commemorating the Great War, with the words World Peace under a British Mark IV tank with some Tommies trudging past. A very nice little extra that would look good attached to the base of a diorama. The date has been done in a reverse format though (YYY-MM-DD), which detracts a little bit from the overall effect to both British and American audiences. The caterpillar track sponsons are first to be built, both of which are split into front and rear parts which are joined once the road wheels and suspension parts are added. A ladder containing five return rollers attaches to brackets at the top of the sponsons, the axles for which slot into the lower hull. A pair of triangular fairings house the final drive for the rear-mounted drive-sprocket, each one made up from five separate parts. The tracks are individual links, each of three parts that are first glued together, then made into runs of sixty four links after the glue has set. The track can be tensioned on fitting by rotating the swing-arm on the sprocket before gluing it in place. A bracing strut is also added to the underside of the hull at this point, improving rigidity of the tracks. The upper hull is substantially complete as moulded, with only a few panels missing, which are added along the way, together with the fuel tanks mounted either side of the aft hatch, and a spinal hump that extends over most of the roof panel. A rear unditching "shovel" is attached to the rear box frame, and the additional spaced armour is added to the sides along with a PE grille on the nose. More armour is fitted to the vertical section behind the nose, and the driver's double-layered vision panel covers his hatch at the front. There appears to be a goof in the instructions at this point, as the panel with the circular machine gun mount just appears in place with no mention. It then disappears again until later in the build. The main gun is mounted in a hemispherical(ish) mount, as are the two Hotchkiss guns, and the 75mm cannon gets a full breech with controls tucked away behind. The machine guns are mounted on substantial curved brackets that could be left unglued in their mounts if you wanted the guns poseable. The main armament is glued to the starboard sponson floor and the upper hull fitted over it, so that it projects from the angled panel next to the driver's ear, after which it has a piece of additional armour added to the mantlet. The two secondaries fit onto mounts further back on the sponson floor, and are covered by the panels with circular cut-outs. More spaced armour is added under the nose, and a long exhaust runs from the front-mounted engine bay to the very rear of the tank where it kicks up vertically to vent above the roof level. Markings There are two markings options included in the box, each covering one side of a sheet of glossy A4 and printed in colour. No details are given other than the serial number, so a little digging will be needed if you'd like to know where and when they appeared during the war. From the box you can build one of the following: 61213 in dark yellow, red brown, navy blue and dark green camo, with black delimiting lines. 61024 in dark yellow, red brown and dark green camo, a white diamond with red circle within and the words "Fee Kaputt" on a white flag-style background painted on the rear fuel tank. The decal sheet is barely bigger than a large postage stamp, but as it only contains eight decals it's to be expected. Colour density, registration and sharpness are good, and the carrier film is of the thin glossy type. Conclusion If you missed the early mark like I did, just fancy the updated version sporting a very early form of spaced-armour, or just like WWI armour, then this is a great little kit that won't take you too long to put together, but gives you plenty of scope for painting and paint effects. Highly recommended. Armoured Early Review sample courtesy of

Sd.Kfz.221 Leichter Panzerspahwagen (1st Series) 1:35 HobbyBoss Based on a heavy duty off-road chassis from Horch, this light armoured car was used in reconnaissance battalions with varying degrees of success. Where there were existing road networks it excelled, but in rough or desert terrain it was less successful, which led to its early replacement with alternative vehicles. Production ceased early in the war, to be directly replaced by the uprated and more heavily armoured Sd.Kfz.222 with a 30mm cannon. It was crewed by two men, and lightly armed with a single MG34 machine gun, and protected by 8mm rolled steel armour that was protection only against rifle and other small arms fire. The best defence was to get out of harm's way using the 90hp Horch V8 engine that drove all four wheels from its position in the rear of the vehicle. The Kit This is a new tooling from HobbyBoss, and on first inspection it appears to be quite expensive considering the size of it. When you open the box however, you realise that a lot of effort has been expended in the tooling, as there is a lot in there to justify the price. There are thirteen sprues plus two hull halves in sand coloured styrene, a small clear sprue, four flexible plastic "rubber" tyres, two sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass parts, a decal sheet, instruction booklet and separate colour painting guide in the box, with a divider helping to reduce the chances of damage during transit. There is a full interior as well as a detailed chassis and engine, with lots of detail throughout to keep you busy. Construction begins with the big lump of a V8 engine, which is well detailed and includes the radiator and cooling fan, which is mated to the chassis along with the four-wheel drive-shafts, suspension linkages and coil-springs, with cross-braces and sub-frames for the axles. It really is detailed under the bodyshell, and is finished off by adding the four wheels, which consist of two hub halves and an inner cap each, pushed through the tyre to seat on the rims. A further two-part hub-centre is added before they are pushed into place, and if you apply the glue sparingly into the inner cap, you should end up with wheels that will rotate freely. The lower hull has a section of floor missing to accommodate the engine, and is festooned with PE brackets for stowage, as well as an MP40 and short-handled axe, driver foot-pedals, hand-controls, and various boxes of ammo and supplies. The PE brackets are filled with potato-masher grenades on both sides, with MG34 ammo and gas-mask canisters added for good measure. The driver's position is relaxed, with a tubular framed chair, and a curious reverse-angled steering wheel that must have taken some getting used to. The engine firewall is added behind the crew area, and on the outside a large shaped stowage box, covered spare wheel, and the two crew-hatches are added, although you can leave one or both open if you wish. With the hull attached to the chassis top, the radiator assembly can be added, and the upper hull is then detailed inside with hatches, vision-blocks, pioneer tools and a firer extinguisher. On the exterior hatch outer panels are added, with mesh panels covering the flat top section of the deck, and bullet splash strips around the turret and hatches in PE. The lower hull is finished off with additional armour panels and towing shackles, then mated with the upper hull, using alignment pegs in each corner to assist in making a good seam. The fenders are built up off the hull, and have additional fuel cans, jack, and width indicators added before they're slotted into the holes in the hull sides. The turret is built up on a central assembly that has a conical section and bracing struts that attach to the underside of the shallow open-topped turret. A crew seat is attached, and the turret walls have the choice of an alternative with two extra side view panels. The completed assembly is dropped into the hull and a nicely detailed MG34 is placed into its mount, with an additional anti-tank rifle lashed to the vehicle side. The turret is topped with protective mesh panels at the frot that open in a clamshell manner, while leaving the rear section open for the crewman to poke his head out if he dare. The last job is to add the two headlamps to the front, which have large clear lenses supplied in the box. Markings As is often the case with HobbyBoss kits of this nature, only one decal option is included, which is Panzer Grey and has the number plate WH – 66322. Other blank number plates are included however, along with the necessary numerals, so that you can make up your own. The decals are printed in-house, and have good register, colour density and sharpness. They are predominantly black, with white plates and crosses, but the instrument panel decal has some red accents to brighten it up. Conclusion These low-key kits from HobbyBoss are often surprising in terms of detail and the sheet quantity of stuff in the box. This one is one of those kits, and you can go to town with painting the details, without taking up too much room in your cabinet afterwards. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

5cm Pak(t) Sfl.Fgst. Pz.Kpfw.35R 731(f) 1:35 Hobby Boss The Germans in WWII fell into the habit of reusing captured equipment, which was always fun for spares and repairs, but led to some interesting cut-and-shut jobs appearing that probably shouldn't have ever got past the sketches on napkins after a glass or two of the local vino. After the capitulation of France, a number of Renault R35s found their way into Nazi hands, with some of them being used in general security duties where their obsolescence was less important. Others were converted to various tasks, and this particularly catchily titled "thing" was one such beast. Originally sporting a 37mmm Czech gun in a slab-sided casemate emplacement perched on the R35 chassis, this sub-variant was up-gunned with a German built 5cm piece with a longer barrel, which gave it more hitting power. Although it was comparatively well-armoured and well-armed in this guise, the type as a whole was used more in protecting territory than in the front line, mainly due to its poor speed over ground, and the constant arms race making it less formidable as time went by. There is very little information available about this variant, with most pictures relating to other variants with different armament options. The Kit In keeping with Hobby Boss's liking for the unusual, this kit is of a vehicle that saw little service in small numbers, and yet here we have a styrene injected kit of it, and not only do we have the exterior, but we have a fairly comprehensive interior to boot! The kit arrives in a fairly compact top-opening box, which is full to the brim with over 500 parts. There are eleven sprues in a sand coloured styrene, two sprues in brown styrene containing tracks, and a solitary upper hull part in the sand styrene. There is also a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, decal sheet, instruction booklet, and separate colour printed painting and markings guide. The first thing that impresses is the sheer number of parts, and that the designers have managed to squeeze so much detail into such a small chassis. Then you look at the top heavy chassis and you might have a little smirk, as it reminds me of the similar Bison that sits up and begs whenever it is fired. When that moment of levity has passed, poring over the instructions shows that there will be a lot of painting to do as you go along, with an almost complete interior, the gun breech and mount, as well as the open-topped gun shroud that invites the viewer to look inside. You'll need to plan the build with that in mind, and once the interior is complete, there will be some masking to protect the effort you have applied there. There is always the option of the canvas "tent" that could be applied to the top to keep the weather out. You could sometimes see these stowed to the rear of the casemate, so with the addition of some rolled out Sculpey or similar, you could reduce your workload by covering over the interior. The engine is first to be constructed, with a two part block that is heavily detailed with additional parts, a great many of which are absolutely tiny, which conspires to give you a very nicely depicted motor for your R35 chassis. Work then commences on integrating the engine with the lower hull, beginning with the sand-cast rear bulkhead, which has the idler tensioning devices and towing hook added, after which the radiator, cooling fan and ducting are assembled with the power-take-off wheel projecting from the rear of the box. The hull itself is made up from two side panels and a floor piece, into which the radiator housing, a styrene/PE stiffening plate and driver controls are added. The side panels are fitted out with three return-rollers and a final drive housing per side, and four bogies with two wheels per housing and a big suspension spring are built up. Two more solo bogies, two drive sprockets and two idler wheels are also constructed, and are installed on the suspension mounting points on the hull sides. At the same time the driver's seat, fuel tank and engine-mount bulkhead are ensconced within the hull, and the rear bulkhead closes up the rear. After adding a few more driver controls and their linkages, the drive-train is dropped into the hull, with a transmission housing added to the front, and driver-shafts to the sprockets complete the drive-train. Tracks. Given their small size in 1:35, HB have decided to go down the link and length route, and I can't say I blame them. The straight track runs are made up from six parts with a few links in between the curved lower sections, and twelve individual links at each end. Each of the individual links have three sprue gates, while the lengths have additional dead-end tabs that ensure against short-shot links, and also double as ejector-pin positions, saving the delicate detail from marring by mis-alignments. Unless you're going to the trouble of using metal replacements, these should do you proud with a bit of sympathetic painting and weathering. Give them a rub with an artist's pencil to impart metallic sheen where they get worn, and you'll never know they weren't metal. With the tracks in place, the full length fenders are added, along with a little stowage and a big bottle-jack on the right rear. The upper hull is a very nicely moulded single part with a rather too-fine casting texture that you might want to augment with a stiff brush and some Mr Surfacer. The off-centre transmission housing cover is added to the right side, while the driver's two-part hatch is placed into the right side, with the option of having his flip-up vision port open if you choose, by swapping one opener for another when adding the instrument panel and hydraulic prop to the underside of the upper hull. At this point the upper hull is glued to the lower, hiding away most of the detail in the very rear of the hull. The side-mounted exhaust muffler and a set of pioneer tools are added to the port side, and on the starboard a small vertical panel with what looks like a starter handle fits to the rear corner. The casemate surrounding the gun is built onto a separate floor that sits on top of the original hull, but first the 50mm gun must be built up. Like the engine, it is high on parts, with a horizontally split barrel and multi-part breech sat upon the mount and recoil mechanism. Elevation and traverse mechanisms and a rather simple iron-sight are glued to the mount, and a number of bracing tubes are added to the sides to support the dual-layered inner gun-shield. The outer casemate shield is then decked out with equipment such as ready-rounds, pistol holster, ammo pouches and a gasmask canister, plus the sighting hatch cover. The floor to the compartment is then flipped over to install the fillet that allows it to fit neatly to the curvy cast upper hull, with a number of short brackets supporting the overhanging bustle. Righting the floor allows the fitting of the radio box and other internal details, before adding the large ammo boxes that fill the bustle area and explain the bustle supports you added earlier! The gun mounts on a pair of holes in the floor, and the casemate front slides over the barrel and mates with the edge of the floor panel, as does the rear bustle. You may have noticed a pair of sprue protectors around the sharp front of the bustle part, as it tapers to a point and could easily be damaged without them. Take these off and clean up the gates at the last moment, or you might find yourself regretting it. Two crew access doors on the sides fill the gaps, and could be posed open if you wanted to show off your hard work, and that just leaves you to glue the casemate to the hull. Markings HobbyBoss aren't overly generous with markings at times, and given the lack of information that's available on this variant of a lesser known Beutepanzer, it's hardly surprising that the instructions show a Panzer Grey scheme and you get a set of four white crosses with two rows of white numerals from 0 to 9. For some unexplained reason there's also a set of white crosses with sand coloured centre lines. They're not shown in the markings guide either, which is odd. The decals are printed in-house, and look to have good colour density and sharpness, while the sandy crosses are in good register – not that it matters! Use one of the spare numbers or crosses to test their light-fastness, and double up with other spares if any grey shows through. Conclusion A nicely detailed weird little tank that has a lot of parts in the box when you consider how small it is, even after the casemate was grafted on. Even though it wasn't one of the best designs of WWII, it's still a personable tank, and well worth a punt if you like to model off the beaten track. Highly recommended. Out of stock at time of writing Review sample courtesy of

Leopard 2A4 1:35 Meng Germany's first indigenous Main Battle Tank, the Leopard 1 was originally to be replaced by a joint venture with the US, but when Germany pulled out of the project they decided to go it alone. After an aborted attempt to re-create the "super tank" project, they reverted to a more evolutionary design, which gained approval in 1977 when a large order for newly built Leopard 2s was placed. The design was improved over the initial batch, and the A4 was one of the most widely produced, along with the A5, which gained sloped appliqué armour that makes it easy to tell apart. The A4 includes some important changes over the earlier models, which includes improved armour that incorporates titanium and tungsten. Targeting systems were also improved, as were the crew protection systems that were automated to extinguish fires and prevent explosions. With over 2,000 on strength at the height of the Cold War, Germany later sold off a number of this variant to other NATO countries, which makes it one of the most successfully exported modern MBTs. Time marches on, and the 2A5 replaced the A4 with the aforementioned armour, then the 2A6 that changed out the original Rheinmetall 120mm gun found in the M1 Abrams for the later L55 variant. The Kit Meng have been on a bit of a Modern German armour thing for a while now, so it's hardly surprising to see the Leopard 2A4 making an appearance. It's up to their usual standards, and you get a very comprehensive package inside the snazzy satin-finished box, as follows. There are eight sprues, two hull parts and one turret part in mid-grey styrene, four track sprues in a darker grey styrene, a clear sprue, two sprues of poly-caps and flexible parts, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass parts, a length of braided synthetic cord, two self-adhesive mirror stickers, decal sheet and a glossy instruction booklet with painting guide on the rear pages. Everything is individually wrapped, and the clear sprue is also wrapped in a sheet of "self-cling" soft clear film to further protect it from damage. The PE is bagged with a white protective card, and the mirror decals are also bagged to save them from harm. After reading up about the 2A4 in one of the four languages in the initial pages, the build begins with construction of the running gear, which comprises of fourteen pairs of road wheels, two drive-sprockets, and two idler wheels, the latter of which are made from two parts, while the road wheels have a poly cap trapped between the halves, and a separate end-cap on the bore hole. A gaggle of suspension parts and return rollers are added to the sides of the lower hull, and the final drive housing is built up from two parts plus a poly-cap before being attached to the hull at a specific angle, as described in a scrap diagram. The torsion-beam suspension is replicated by slotting the beams into the hull and locating them in slots in the opposite side of the hull, leaving the swing-arms and their detailed cover parts projecting from the side of the hull. The rear bulkhead is attached to the back of the lower hull and detailed with lights, mud-guards and towing hooks, as well as either a set of three stiffening rods or rods and an additional armoured panel under the rear of the vehicle to protect the engine compartment. The tracks are individual links that are each made up from three parts on a jig that holds six while you work on them. Lay the track pads in the recesses, add a spruelet of six track-pin parts on top without glue, then push the inner pad with the guide horn into position. That's it – no glue, just a click-fit track that takes very little time to create. There are two sprue gates on each track pad half, plus another two on the pins, one of which you clean up before installation, the other you cut off after. The last one is placed on the side of the pin, so can be cut off without damaging any detail, but take care not to apply too much force for fear of bending the tracks. Because the centre of the inner track pad is narrow, this is also a weak-point, so again take care when cleaning up the sprue gates. The final word of warning is to ensure that you always apply the track pins from the same side, as the inner edge is curved, while the outer is flat. Get this wrong, and the eagle-eyed point-scorers will have something to laugh at you for! With those caveats in mind, it won't take you long at all before you have a track run done, totalling 84 links each side. The run is joined once fitted by pressing the last pad into place, and if my rough-handling of the short length I made up for this review is anything to go by, you won't have any parts popping off unless you seriously abuse the tracks in some way. The upper deck is next, and this has a couple of inserts to make the basic part version specific. In this case the engine deck can have one of two types of circular vents on the top in a rectangular housing, with a tapered panel that fills the rest of the void. Then it's a case of adding towing hooks, mirrors using those funky self-adhesive stickers, light clusters, the driver's hatch, bullet-splash guards, and a bunch of spare track links on the glacis and front fenders. On the rear deck there are a set of pioneer tools, a pair of towing cables made from the cord with styrene end parts, raised air intakes with PE mesh wrapped around the sides, and travel lock. The large circular vents on the deck are covered with a two-part PE lamination of mesh and supporting structure, which is visible through the top mesh layer. Most modern tanks have side-skirts to protect the road wheels as much as is practical, because no matter how good your armour, if a tank becomes immobilised, it is a sitting duck. There are two styles of skirt included, but both have ERA blocks at the front, which attach via separate mounting brackets, while the rear skirts are rectangular with large raised bolt-heads, or have undulating lower edges and raised stiffening. The turret is made up from one large moulding that has a few facets missing from the side to ease moulding and provide the optional rear panel with snorkel attachment. These are added as separate panels, along with a few skin panels and vision blocks in clear styrene for the commander, the hatch ring, the base for the commander's periscope and some other small parts. This is mated to the lower turret part trapping the gun assembly in place. The barrel is split vertically, with a single or two-part part muzzle brake, and the mantlet fits to the rear with a collar between it and the barrel. The barrel elevated via a stub with poly-caps that act as brakes on the spindle, and these glue to the floor of the turret during assembly. There is no breech, but this is fairly usual with AFV kits. The PERI R17 and EMES 15 sighting devices are added to the roof of the turret and recess to the side of the mantlet respectively, and the latter's protective doors are added around the assembly. The commander has an MG3 machine-gun, which is based heavily on the WWII MG42, with the option of omitting the butt-stock by exchanging the gun with another part. The mount and ammo box are added, and then the relatively simple hatches are dropped into position, whilst adding ring around the loader's hatch so that it sits at the same level as the commander's. Unusually, the smoke dischargers fit at the rear of the turret on brackets, facing at various angles forward, and if you wish to, you can fit a palette on top of the mantlet that holds a number of canisters that are used on exercise to simulate gunfire. A couple of mantlet plugs on PE chains, optional convoy flashing light and two aerial bases are also added to the top, along with some rather hefty looking lifting eyes for what must be a very heavy turret. To add the turret to the hull, just slide it in and rotate toward the front to lock it on the bayonet fitting. Markings There are four markings options included in the kit, but they all share the same three colour green/brown/black NATO camouflage, so it's up to the decal sheet to differentiate between them unless you go off-piste and make up your own scheme. From the box you can build one of the following: Armoured Corps School, German Federal Armed Forces, Munster, 1992 – turret number 605 and "A-Team" on the front left fender. 4th Company, 33rd Panzer Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Luttmersen, 1988 - Turret number 396. 2nd Company, 393rd Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Bad Salzungen, 2003 – PFOR in yellow on turret. 3rd Company Training Unit, Combat Training Centre, German Federal Armed Forces, 2005 – Hinze on turret front, and charging knight motif on turret bustle. The decal sheet even though small has been printed by Cartograf with good register, colour density and sharpness, while the carrier film is matt and cropped closely to the printed edges of the decals. Conclusion This kit is in a league of its own when it comes to detail, and leaves any previous Leopard 2A4 kits in its dust. The optional parts give you greater personalisation, although they could have been better explained for the novice. If you wanted to depict your 2A4 with the front skirts raised, as is often seen, you will need to do a little surgery, as the kit parts aren't set-up with that in mind. There is so little to gripe about that it really isn't worth finding something more than a slightly skinny fume extractor to mention. Very highly recommended. Discounted by 35% at time of writing! Review sample courtesy of

Soviet T-10M Heavy Tank 1:35 Meng Models Having already reviewed another kit of this type, I'll take the lazy/sensible way out and paste in the preamble from the earlier kit for your ease, rather than trying to re-write the wheel, as it were. The Kit Meng seem to be locked in a release and subject matter war with other manufacturers in the same global location, with another kit of this massive tank from another manufacturer already on the scene. Meng have produced this kit ploughing their own furrow as always, and fair play to them for doing so. As usual the kit has a quality feel from the outset, with the satin finish to the dramatic box artwork, and carefully wrapped contents. Inside the box you will find nine sprues plus two hull parts in a dark green styrene, twelve in black, two in clear, a strip of poly-caps, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and a decal sheet. The instruction booklet is glossy for the first pair of pages, with full-colour painting guide occupying the last two pages. Detail is excellent throughout, and it is clear that Meng's designers have paid careful attention to the surface texture of the cast parts. There is a definite and well-executed rolled-steel texture to the upper hull plates, and some low-key welding seams added for good measure. On the underside is a slightly different casting texture, and the turret has a pronounced texture that, with the addition of a little stippled Mr Surfacer would give good rendition of the rough-cast turret's surface. It already has a texture, but it is IMHO a little too subtle without augmentation, which isn't difficult, and it can actually be quite fun attacking the part with a stiff bristled brush daubed with Mr Surfacer. It will also help to hide the seam between upper and lower turret halves, which is on the lower edge and will be visible on the completed model. The build begins with the road wheels as you might expect, with poly-caps trapped between the twin road wheels and identical idler. The drive sprocket is made up from three parts with a choice of style for the front cog, with another poly-cap hidden within, while the return rollers are three parts due to their inclusion of their support and axle. In all you will make up sixteen road wheels, two drive sprockets and six return rollers, but there are no rubber tyres, so there's nothing to tax your circular line painting skills. The lower hull is covered with detail, but more is added in the shape of axle mounts, final drive housing and suspension bump-stops, before the shortened torsion bars with swing-arms and stub axles are added, and the wheels mounted accordingly. Then you're onto tracks, which look like fun! The tracks are provided with a clear two-part jig that holds a run of the pads in place while you glue in the track-pins from each side. However, Meng have cleverly moulded six pins in a run that are perfectly spaced to fit the holes without being removed from their sprue. This reduces the amount of work dealing with fiddly pins, which are instead liberated from their sprue run once the glue has set. Speaking of glue, you should use it sparingly for fear of gumming up the track, or worse, sticking the track to the styrene jig. Each of the 87 links per run has three sprue gates, which should be easy to clean up as they are on the curved edges of the link. The track pins are moulded in blocks of 6 in pairs marked "track pin 01" and "track pin 02" for ease of identification. Once fixed and cut loose, the ends should be easy to clean up with a sanding sponge. To close up the track runs around the wheels, just add single pins to the run to form the loop, and fix with a dot of glue. The rear bulkhead slopes down from the engine deck at a shallow angle, and carried both the gun's travel-lock and the four supports for two of the four cylindrical fuel tanks it carries. This assembly slots into the rear of the upper hull, which is also detailed with engine grilles, front and rear light clusters with protective cages and the driver's hatch. On each front fender and shaped stowage box is installed, with two three-part styrene towing ropes snaking back from the glacis mounted shackles toward the rear. More stowage sits over the rear fenders, and the four tanks are fitted to their cradles, with the seemingly ubiquitous unditching beam (tree trunk) attached to the starboard hull. The basic turret is shaped similarly to that of the T-55, but it can be fitted with a semi-conformal bustle, or a large four-part rolled tarp, depending on your choice. Either way, you'll need to drill some holes in the rear, but they're marked on the inner face, so won't tax your brain too much. The rest of the turret is festooned with vision and sighting devices, spare ammo boxes for the machine gun, with grab-handles aplenty. The aperture through which the gun projects is built up with a few additional parts to get the correct shape, and the gun is mounted to a T-shaped part with poly-caps at each end that is trapped between the upper and lower turret halves. There is no breech detail, but this is fairly standard in AFV modelling, with not much that would be seen through the hatches anyway. Speaking of which, the commander's cupola has clear vision blocks mounted on a carrier ring that is hidden inside the two-part structure, to which protective covers, a small search-light and snap-in hatch are added. The loader's simplified hatch has a snap-in hatch, which if unglued should allow them both to open and close freely, as well as rotate if you leave them unglued in the turret top. The big KPVT machine gun is a multi-part assembly with separate barrel, lifting handle, two-part breech and two piece mount attached to a complex elevation and sighting mechanism that can be posed in the raised or horizontal position by exchanging one set of rams and levers for an alternative set. The mantlet for the main gun has a searchlight (with mount) and coax machine gun added, with a short barrel shroud at the base, and a two-part barrel split vertically, to which a single-piece slide-moulded muzzle-brake and collar are added to the end. Yes… it is an impressive moulding that brought a slight smile to my face when I fished it out from the box. The build is complete by dropping the turret into the ring and locking it in place with the bayonet fitting by rotating it slightly. Markings You get four decal options in the box, although the basic scheme is Russian Green, as you'd expect from that era. Meng have tried to give some variation within that limitation though, and also give you details of the vehicles and their units, as well as the time period that the scheme was appropriate for. From the box you can build one of the following: 13th Guards Heavy Tank Division, 1st Guards Tank Army, Soviet Forces in Germany, Operation Danube, 1968 – large white cross over the turret and upper hull. 20th Independent Tank Battalion, 20th Guards Motor Division, 1st Guards Tank Army, Soviet Forces in Germany, 1972-4 – White 039 on turret back and sides. 1st Guards Tank Army, Soviet Forces in Germany, Berlin Parade, 1960 – Soviet wreath & flag on turret sides. A certain Soviet Army Unit, late 1960s to early 1970s – white 202 on turret sides. That last one is a bit vague, and Google was very little help, so you're on your own with deciphering the meaning behind it. As always with Meng, the decals have been printed for them by Cartograf, and the quality is excellent. Registration, colour density and sharpness are top notch, and the carrier film is thin, with a matt finish, cut closely around the printed edges. Conclusion As always, this is a quality piece of styrene engineering from Meng, and even the unditching log's texture impresses. They have made some very interesting strides in texturing of their models to add realism, and this one is a benchmark that many producers could aspire to. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Kamov KA-27 Helix 1:48 Hobby Boss First flying in the early 1970s, the Helix is a maritime helicopter with two contra-rotating rotors, which removes the need for a tail rotor, a feature that be quite lethal on a busy deck. It also helps to keep the size of the aircraft down, especially when the main rotors are folded. Its compact design and contra-rotating rotors make it a powerful lifting platform that is capable of carrying five tonnes, as well as being easy to fly with precision in difficult situations. As well as being in service with the Russian Navy, it has been an export success with many former Soviet allies, and some have made their way into the civil market. In military service they are capable anti-submarine helicopters, and carry a torpedo or a sonobuoy pack over 500 nautical miles at up to 168mph. it is also available as an assault transport under the KA-29 designation, with a powerful 30mm cannon and machine gun added along with hard-points for additional munitions. The Kit This is a brand new tooling from Hobby Boss, and should please anyone that has a thing about Russian helos, or just likes something a little bit left of field. It arrives in the usual box with a painting of a Helix dangling as dipping sonar underneath. Inside the box is split into two sections by a card divider that is glued to the lower carton. A couple of sprues are also wrapped in foam paper to keep them safe and secure, and the rest of the sprues are either bagged individually, or in pairs to keep the chances of chaffing to a minimum. There are nine sprues in mid grey styrene, one very delicate sprue in clear, a small Photo-Etch (PE) brass sheet containing some grilles, and a short metal strut. A small sheet of decals, instruction booklet and separate glossy painting guide in full colour. Detail is very nice, with restrained surface detail on the outer skin, very deeply engraved instrument panel, equipment racks and rotor detail. They have included a metal drive-shaft for the rotors as well as a gearbox so that when you turn one rotor, the other rotates in the opposite direction, just like the real thing. A busy interior is of course a must for a helicopter with a big side-opening door, and a big goldfish bowl on the front of the fuselage, so it's a good job it has one! It's the interior that is built up first on a large round-ended floor panel onto which you apply triangular rear stowage racks, a boxed in area with more racks on the opposite side that creates a narrow central walkway, and finally a cockpit that extends aft somewhat to accommodate the systems operator behind the two pilots. All the instrument panels are deeply engraved and have decals supplied to detail them, but you will need plenty of decal softener to get them to settle into the hills and valleys of the panels. The crew seats have been slide-moulded to obtain detail on the sides and an undercut on the front of the seats, with a seam running down the centres of the back that is easy to deal with. There are separate cushions fitted to each seat before they install on their mounts, with one in the rear, one behind the main cockpit and two up front for the pilots together with their instrument panels, drop-in centre console and separate collective and cyclic sticks. The rotor heads are next, with one being made up for the top rotor that has its connecting rods underneath, and the lower rotor having the rods on the top. The two are joined together on a geared drum that permits the two rotors to contra-rotate if you manage to keep the glue and paint out of the works. Sure, it's gimmicky and being made from styrene it won't last long if you use it a lot or try to motorise it, but a nice fun feature nonetheless. The mechanism attaches to the top of the cabin roof, onto which is installed the overhead console and decal for the cockpit. This then sits on a ledge within the fuselage halves, where it is joined by the lower portion of the cabin before the fuselage is closed up. There's no detail on the ceiling, but at least there is one, which can act as your blank canvas if you feel motivated to add extra detail. A faceted metal rod is supplied as the drive-shaft, which goes fully through the lower rotor and lodges in a socket in the lower gear and upper rotor head. This both gives the assembly some strength, as well as allowing the lower rotor to spin on its larger styrene "nut" moulded into the top of the gearbox. The rotors themselves are installed as the last act of the build, which makes sense from a practical point of view, and each one is made up from one part with sag moulded into it, starting from about the right point on the rotor where the aerofoil shaped part of the blade begins, and a small balance weight just before. The twin intakes over the cabin are a complex shape, which is why the top portion with a shallow valley between the two intakes is a separate part. The intake mesh and lips are added to the front once these are installed. The nose of a Helix is covered in glazing, which is replicated in lovely thin clear parts comprising the main nose glazing, plus blown side windows that have frosted areas that become the door skins. Painting the interior of these parts would add a bit more realism to them by achieving the correct colour for the interior as well as covering up the glossy inside of the parts. More window inserts are added to the fuselage before closing up, and to the large side door before it is added. A huge array of exterior parts are required for a bit of detail, which includes the two large oval exhausts, various domes and sensor blisters, antennae, grab-rails and PE vents on the fuselage sides. Its tiny sponsons are added toward the rear of the fuselage, and the substantial main gear legs are built up from four parts each plus a single wheel. The nose gear comprises a pair of "castor" wheels on a short yoke, and all wheels are built from two halves split circumferentially. Rescue gear and flotation devices are added to the sides, and the stubby H-tail is built up with separate rudders and leading edge slats, plus an actuating arm on the short horizontal planes. These mate with the fuselage using the usual slot and tab arrangement, and have bracing rods underneath each one. Markings There are two options available to the modeller from the box, and both are in a light bluish grey, as is to be expected in this age of grey military aircraft. There's plenty of scope for weathering with these aircraft, and if you wanted to go off the decal sheet, there are plenty of other colour options available. From the box you can build one of the following: Russian Navy, Ka-27PL, 42 Yellow RF-34177 – Yellow 42 on engine nacelles, Russian star on the tails. Ukraine Navy, Ka-27PL, 20 Yellow cn. 5235003517202 – Yellow 20 on engine nacelles, Ukrainian roundel on the tails. Decals are printed anonymously on an odd blue paper that has a sort of "wholemeal" patina, and the density of the yellow is a concern on some of the smaller decals because they don't appear to have a white under-printing, or the yellow extends past the sides. Some of the writing is a little indistinct, but as it's in Cyrillic, it's not a major concern. The decals overall aren't very inspiring, either in choice of subject, or execution. Conclusion This is a nice kit of a rather unusual and compact helicopter, and while it is perhaps a little on the high side for a kit of this size, there is plenty to commend it, and it won't take up much room in your cabinet when built. I have heard concerns expressed that the details on the fuselage are incorrect, but having done a little research they appear to be about right on the pictures I have studied, although perhaps fractions of a millimetre off in places? With a lump off the RRP, and with a more interesting decal sheet, you can have a lot of fun with this kit, and the super-detailers can add to the interior that is already present. Also, don't forget the fun you'll have twiddling the rotor blades! Review sample courtesy of

T-38C Talon II 1:48 Trumpeter Stemming from the light fighter programme that gave us the F-5 Freedom Fighter, the T-38 is an updated and upgraded version of the F-5A, which has seen a great deal of service with the air forces of the world due to its low running costs, supersonic abilities and interoperability with Allies flying the same airframe. The primary role for the Talon and Talon II is that of supersonic trainer, but it is also capable of assuming the light fighter role, as well as the chase plane role that it performs for NASA to this day. The T-38C is a further upgraded airframe that came into service early this millennium sporting a new avionics suite including revised "glass" instruments, navigation systems with GPS, and of course an uprated engines. The upgrade process started with T-38As which were zero-houred and upgraded by Boeing in Arizona, with a total order of just over 500. The Kit Although not a new kit, this is a new boxing with revised artwork. It contains four sprues of mid grey styrene, one of clear parts, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, two sheets of decals, and instruction manual with colour painting diagram slipped inside. The parts are well-detailed with fine engraved panel lines but very little in the way of rivets, giving the skin an uncluttered look, while the cockpit has been well served with knobs, dials and screens. The included PE seems a little lacking in detail however, with a set of seatbelts that look simplified and etched from brass too thick to arrange them realistically. Construction begins traditionally enough with the cockpit, which is assembled around a central two-man tub, into which the instrument panels are dropped along with their coamings and decals for detail. The panels seem to be correctly arranged with a large central multi-function screen in the centre, surrounded by more traditional instruments. The side consoles also have decals provided, and the sidewalls are detailed with a pair of panels that you insert before putting the whole assembly in the fuselage. The ejection seats are quite simple, with only the rear of the headbox separate, to which the rear seat has another box added to the rear, which sits between the rear canopy hinges once installed. Separate joysticks and rudder pedals attach to the cockpit floor, and behind the rear seat, on a small deck you have the option of adding the cockpit hinge in either the open or closed positions, by choosing a short or long pair of parts. The same mechanism is used for the front canopy, with retracted or deployed parts added to the upper lip of the sidewalls, so choose early. To close up the fuselage all you need then do is glue the cockpit tub into the fuselage side, add the two inner main bay sections, and the single piece nose gear bay, which is quite well detailed given its shape and size. The two prominent intakes on the tops of the fuselage are added on each side of the spine, after which the intakes are built up from two sides of the trunk, and a single lip part to give a nice slim intake lip and splitter plate. There are four shallow ejector pin marks in each half of the intake, which is split vertically, but whether those would be seen if you chose to ignore them is for you to decide. The intakes go back only as far as the 3cm or so of the intake parts, but you could fake greater depth by painting a soft edged black circle in the middle of the blanking surface. Not much will be visible past the lips of these small trunks however, so put as much or as little effort in there as you see fit! The instructions would have you add the landing gear into the nose along with the bay doors for the nose and main bays, but I defy any mere mortal to do that and still have them attached by the end of the build. The wings are small and thin, just like the real thing, and only the centre portion of the lower wing is separate from the upper. There is basic bay detail moulded into the top wing, which will be visible through the outer bay door, which also contains the mounting points for the main gear legs and their retraction mechanism. A single bay door sits outboard of the leg on each wing, and again you're incited to put all this on before you've even added the wings to the fuselage. Madness… sheer madness! The skinny elevators are each single parts, and attach to the fuselage via peg and hole, while the two-part fin with moulded-in rudder attach to two tabs on the top of the fuselage, with a small bullet-fairing aft of the rudder. The exhausts for the two General Electric engines are presented as a single part, which might initially draw cries of woe from the more detail oriented, and if you take a squint at some pics of the real thing, you'll find that they've been simplified a little. The tubular structure that supports the rear exhaust ring is there, but the tiny gap between the ring and the inner exhaust trunking is absent, which may put of a few. Otherwise the interior is quite well detailed with fluted trunking and a reasonable facsimile of the rear of the engine on the blanking piece. The canopy for the Talon is a three-section arrangement, with the windscreen fitting tight down over the coaming, but don't be tempted to fill the joint with the fuselage with putty, because Trumpeter have aligned the break with a panel line, albeit a quite fine one. A hoop is installed between the two cockpits before the front canopy can be added, with a pair of PE rear-view mirrors for detail, and the rear has a horse-shoe shaped styrene part added to the large frame at the rear, which mates with the opening mechanism. As you also get a four-part crew ladder included in the box, it seems that leaving the canopies open is the way to go. There are fine mould lines down the centres of the canopy parts that will need sanding and polishing smooth, but as it took me a long time to notice them, you could possibly get away with not sanding them off if you don't feel confident of getting them back to a good shine. One thing of note is that the front canopy on the real thing has a "blown" look that isn't fully replicated in the kit. The canopy bulges from side to side, but not front to back, which is incorrect. This won't notice if you pose the canopies open though, and neither will the very slightly shallow side profile of the canopies. An aftermarket vacform canopy would be useful to correct these minor errors as well as gaining scale thickness. Markings There are two markings options provided in the kit, with the usual lack of detail regarding units, time period and so forth that we have come to expect from Trumpeter. I've surmised the details to be as follows: 49th Fighter Training Squadron "Black Knights" Moody Air Force base Serial 68-197 – Light grey nose tail and undersides, dark grey aft fuselage and elevators. Green Black Knights tail band. 25th Flying Training Squadron, "Shooters" Vance Air Force Base Serial 70-955 – Dark grey nose and tail, light grey wings, centre fuselage and undersides. Silver Shooters tail band. The decals are well printed in two shades of lowviz grey (one for each aircraft), and spot colour used on the tail bands, but here the Black Knights text has become a little garbled, possibly due to the decal artist's origin, or a fuzzy photograph that wasn't clear to a non-native English speaker. The result is a series of non-letters that is best approximated to Knlottts, although it is correctly spelt on the boxtop. It is however only really visible to the close observer, but worth noting. Conclusion There have been a few issues with regard to overall length of the kit noted on the internet, stemming from the inclusion or exclusion of the pitot probe in the measurements, which has led to a small elongation of the fuselage of this kit, although it is small enough to get away with unless you have your laser measure out. Detail is overall good, with a few areas such as the exhausts that may warrant attention if you are after additional detail and accuracy. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

A-37B Dragonfly Light Ground-Attack Aircraft 1:48 Trumpeter Designed and built by Cessna, is to the T-37, as the British Strikemaster is to the Jet Provost. It was developed from the Tweet basic jet trainer to fulfil the light ground-attack role, and saw action in Vietnam and beyond. The Dragonfly was vastly uprated from the Tweet to carry sufficient munitions to effectively carry out the Counter Insurgency (COIN) role, carrying a GAU-2B/A Gatling gun, stronger wings with three pylons each for stores, strengthened landing gear and uprated military-grade avionics to dovetail with the other assets on the battlefield. The initial batch of airframes were designated A, and after installation of new engines, additional strengthening of the airframe to enhance durability, and an in-flight refuelling probe with the attendant hosing running around the windscreen, almost 600 were built. After Vietnam, the aircraft continued in service, adding observation to its list of tasks, as well as export sales to numerous air forces in South America and South East Asia, a few of which remain in service at time of writing. The Kit Previously in this scale we have had the ageing Revell Monogram offering, but this is a new tooling from Trumpeter, who initially led with the A, and now give us the more numerous B. It arrive in a standard top-opener blue-striped box, showing a SEAC camouflaged B, and curiously enough, an OV-10 Bronco in the background. Another possible future kit, maybe? Hopefully. Who knows? Opening the box you are greeted by five sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, two decal sheets, two painting guides, and a separate instruction booklet in landscape format. Detail throughout appears to be very good, and the external panels of the fuselage and wings has an interesting patina that should prove a good key for your first coat of paint after which it would disappear. The big goldfish bowl canopy covers the side-by-side cockpit, which is first in line for construction, using a complete tub that is well detailed, has separate rudder pedals and dual control columns, plus a pair of three-part seats that have PE seatbelts added. The instrument panel covers the front of the cockpit, and you get a set of decals to augment the neat moulded in detail, but you'll need a steady hand or masking tape to mark out the black panels on the grey backdrop, because the decals are instruments only. The coaming has a number of parts added to the top before it is added into the fuselage. Before the fuselage can be closed up, the nose wheel bay needs constructing from three parts, with detail sufficient for most needs. With these two assemblies built up, they slip inside the fuselage on locating lips moulded into the fuselage sides. There is also cockpit sidewall detail on both sides, which should be painted at the same time as the cockpit to save duplication of effort. The wings are full-width on the underside, and the intakes with their front compressor blades are attached to the front of the wing-roots. The intake trunking is built from vertically split halves, with another circular part blanking it off with the blades and bullet moulded in. The exhausts are moulded as a single cylindrical part each, with the rear of the engine moulded into another circular part. The top wings are added, and here you will notice that the tip-tanks are moulded in, so get those well lined up to minimise clean-up later. The fuselage and wings are joined from underneath, so check fit before you apply the glue, adding a spreader bar from sprue if you need them, although from past experience with Trumpeter's fit, this probably won't be necessary. It is always worth checking however. The air-brake in front of the wing is a single part that sits under the cockpit, and has ribbing detail moulded in on the underside of the cockpit… you did remember to paint it, didn't you? You can pose this open or closed at your whim, with the two landing lights added under the wings. The tail and rudder are moulded into the fuselage, but the elevators are separate parts that are added using the usual tongue and slot method. A PE blade aerial is glued toward the top of the tail, along with a small forest of additional parts around the small hump-back behind the cockpit. The air-to-air refuelling probe sits on the nose, but this feeds the tanks indirectly by a pair of faired-in hoses that pass each side of the cockpit like a doctor's stethoscope, disappearing into the top of the wingroot. A pair of FOD guards are included on the sprues, which is a pretty rare occurrence, but as these aircraft were frequently pictures wearing them, it's a nice touch to have them in the box. The separate nose cone tip is aligned by a pin at the lower edge, into which you place two small clear lights. The canopy is in two parts, and can be posed open or closed by using a longer or shorter central strut. The windscreen has a small instrument added to the top-centre, and the hood has two side rails and PE rear-view mirrors installed before it is attached to your choice of opening jack. The landing gear is simple, with each leg consisting of a main strut, retraction jack and one-piece wheel. The nose-wheel fits between the arms of a yoke, while the main wheels attach to pins projecting from the brake hubs. The bay doors have hinges moulded in, and the inner main doors have an additional jack part added as per the real thing. A number of antennae are added to the underside, and the built-in intake FOD grilles are built up from laminated PE, which is bent to follow the profile of the recess into which it fits. You can choose the pose that suits you, from stowed away, hanging down (often seen), or in place over the intakes. Just check your references to ensure you are using them correctly. The Dragonfly was a bomb-truck, and two of the sprues are filled with four fuel tanks and other munitions, as below. Each one has a pylon with separate sway-braces, and the fuel tanks have small PE strakes added to their undersides before installation. 2 x LAU-3 rocket pods 2 x SUU-14A/A rocket pods 2 x M117 bomb 2 x Mk.81 bomb 2 x SUU-11 minigun pods The final page of the instruction booklet shows which munitions could be carried on which pylons, but check your references for likely configurations if you are going for a realistic load-out. Markings Three schemes are available from the box, two of which are from American operations in Vietnam, the other a lesser known scheme from Chile. The decals are well printed with good registration, colour density and sharpness. There are plenty of stencils for the airframe, and a whole page of the painting guide is devoted to the painting and decaling of the weapons. From the box you can build one of the following: South Vietnam 516th Fighter Squadron, 41st Tactical Wing, 1st Air Division, 6807912 – Four colour SEAC camouflage with blue fuselage band with white stars, and yellow/red additions to the national markings. Chile, Grupo 12, FACH, J-63 – overall grey/green camo with Chilean shield, and white 632 on opposing wings. USAF, 182nd Tactical Fighter Group, South Vietnam, 69-389 - Four colour SEAC camouflage. Conclusion A well detailed kit of an oft ignored aircraft that looks surprisingly purposeful when loaded up with fuel and munitions. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

We have just received the latest batch of new release from Miniart which includes their new Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.C. •This kit contains 1171 parts. •EVERYTHING you need for an ACCURATE MODEL in ONE BOX. •First model of Pz. Kpfw. III Ausf. C reproduced in PLASTIC •Highly detailed modelAll New Tooling. •State of the art engineering utilising slide mould technology •Total details 1171 •1047 plastic parts •63 PE parts •11 clear plastic parts •Decals sheet for 5 options are included •Full-colour instruction •Fully detailed interior of turret •Crews vision periscopes with clear plastic parts •All hatches can be assembled opened or closed •Workable chassisWorkable track link For more details on this kit and the other new releases please click here. Creative Models Ltd

Tiger I (Late) 1:35 Academy The Tiger tank was part of Hitler's obsession for bigger, heavier and stronger, which drove him to extraordinary and dizzying heights of impracticality later in the war, but in this case served him well. The goal was to mount the extremely successful and powerful 88mm cannon used in the Flak 36 in a tank with sufficient armour to withstand any round fielded by the enemy, and this was achieved, but at the cost of reliability and thirst for fuel. It also made for some interesting bridge-crossing as the finished article weighed in at almost 60 tonnes, which was too much for many smaller bridges of the day. There was a competition with only two contenders, and it was the breakdown of the Porsche designed prototype and subsequent fire that decided in the favour of the less ambitious Henschel design which became the Tiger, and then the Tiger I when the King Tiger came into being. When it first reached the front it caused panic and disaster for the Allies, being able to do almost everything it was designed to do, including knocking out tanks long before their guns were in range. Even when the Allies could get into range, it wasn't until they get VERY close that they had any significant chance of crippling or destroying the mighty Tiger. In fact, in the early days, the most effective weapon against it was the 105mm gun mounted on the M7 Priest, although that must have been a harrowing task for an open-topped vehicle with little protection. Many of the early Tigers were lost to mechanical breakdown due to the excessive strain on the transmission, and had to either be dragged off the field by half-tracks under the cover of darkness, armoured protection, or failing that, destroyed to stop them falling into the enemy's hands. Tiger 131 was unlucky enough to do just that while trying to free a jammed turret mechanism after a lucky shot hit the turret ring. It was brought back to the UK by a circuitous route by a Major Lidderdale (if the book is correct), where it remains today and is the only working Tiger I in the world at time of writing. The Tiger underwent many and constant changes throughout production to improve performance, fix problems and to simplify construction, but these are generally lumped together into early, mid or late productions for the sake of us modellers. If you want to get maximum accuracy of fit and finish, check your references for certainty. The Kit The Academy Tiger I is a middle-of-the-road kit that has an attractive price-point while giving plenty of detail to satisfy all but the most detail hungry modellers. This late production model has additional parts where necessary due to differences in design, as well as some parts that have been freshly tooled just for better detail and accuracy. The turret has been re-tooled with new weld-bead detail, and the top panel has a fine rolled steel texture moulded in, as well as the important seam that splits the sloped front of the roof from the flat rear. The hull deck has also been re-tooled with the same texture, weld-beads and the additional central seam that was missing from the earlier tooling. It also removes the moulded in driving lights from the corners, which were replaced with a single central mount in later marks. The box is a pleasing satin finish, with a slightly "widescreen" feel to it due to the dimensions of it, and inside are eleven sprues in sand coloured styrene, with the duplicated (upgraded) parts almost immediately visible. There is also a fret of Photo-Etch (PE), a PE Zimmerit tool, a long length of synthetic braided cord, two rubber-band style tracks, a run of poly-caps to secure wheels, decals, instruction booklet and painting guide, both of which are in black and white. Before we move too far ahead, it is worth saying a few words on the Zimmerit. It was an anti-magnetic mine paste that was applied at the factory to prevent attachment of magnetic mines to vertical and sloped faces of armoured vehicles. It was grey in colour and applied with a tool in pattern that gave it extra thickness without adding too much weight. As well as the more usually seen columns of short horizontal lines, there were waffle patterns as well as square patterns, depending on where the tank was made. Check your references, and remember that vehicles produced after September 1944 were without the paste as it had been discontinued due to unfounded concerns that the paste could be ignited. It's important to check your references if you're going off-piste for the decal choice of your model. If you are weathering your Tiger, the paste was a greyish hue when chipped, and likely to be primer colour underneath. The instructions go to great lengths to describe the application of the Zimmerit with the provided tool, which has 0.5mm and 0.7mm serrations on two faces of the oblong tool. It does not however cover the quite regular patterns that were used in application, particularly around the mantlet and final drive housings, but a quick Google should turn up plenty of pictures to help you there. Throughout the instructions, the Zimmerited areas are marked out with grey shading to help you plan your build. There are ten decal choices, which will inform you choice of parts throughout the build, so it would be an idea to choose which of them you will build sooner rather than later. The lower hull is the first part used in construction, to which the suspension arms are added, plus two inspection hatches on the underside and an escape hatch in the centre of the hull. If you are applying Zimmerit, the instructions advise to apply it only above where the fenders will be later in the build, and you can use those as templates to mask off the styrene so it doesn't get any putty on it. The lower glacis plate also receives a coat of Zimm, plus two riveted flanges and as choice of towing eye styles, depending on your decal choice. Next up are the road wheels, which are the later steel-rimmed type, with internal rubber damping to conserve valuable and scarce rubber stocks. The inner wheels are put together in pairs with a small poly-cap sandwiched between them, and are installed over the inner half of the outer wheels with their poly-cap in place, after which the outer-outer wheels can be added to complete the interleaved wheelset of the Tiger. The driver sprockets and idler wheels have a medium sized poly-cap between their halves, with two types of idler wheel at your disposal. Choose wisely, and with the benefit of references if you can. The driver-sprockets fit onto axles that are pushed through from the inside of the final drive housing, which is then attached to the hull trapping the short axle in place, while the idler wheel has a stub axle glued from inside the hull, onto which the wheel is pushed when the glue has cured. You also have a choice of two types of rear towing hitches, and more Zimm to apply to the lower section of the rear bulkhead. The tracks are of the rubber-band type, and if you've read my reviews before, you'll know I don't really like them, but these are well-moulded apart from lacking the hollow guide-horns, so with a bit of mud they should look fine. To close the loop you'll need to heat up a metal tool and melt the stubs that project through holes in the track, while avoiding sizzling your skin. I would have preferred the glue-friendly ones personally. The main rear bulkhead is also Zimmerited, with cut-outs where the exhaust shields need to go, and if you are doing decal option 2, you will need to slice off some tiny bracketry before you start with the Zimm, and in all instances you will need to fill the holes for the redundant air-cleaner cans that were fitted to early Tigers. The twin exhaust stacks are built up from two main parts with individual supports for the end-cap, and a small part that fits within. You'll probably have to fettle the seams between the larger parts, which might be better done before you add the smaller, more breakable parts. These install in the rear bulkhead holes, with the armoured shields around the lower junction, and the starter greeblies are placed between them. The rear mudguards fit onto their mounting points, after which point the pioneer tools can be fitted, which vary if you are doing option 2, but otherwise you have the jack on the right, and track link tool on the left, just above the tubular convoy light. The outer shields go onto the exhausts on four locating pins, and if you want to add some realism, you could file away some thickness in places to simulate dents and dings, which these parts got in spades (and probably with spades on occasion). The top deck isn't a single part, as the vents on the engine deck varied over time, so it made sense for Academy to tool it in separate parts. You'd be well advised to keep it flat while the glue cures, and popping onto the hull will probably be the easiest solution, although check for sag between the parts of the engine deck before you skip away for a coffee. At the centre of the engine deck is a large access panel with a armoured mushroom vent near the middle, plus another rectangular raised vent and two grab handles for the opening thereof. This is shown added later, but in order to keep everything square and level, you might want to add it at the same time as the grilles are installed. Once the deck is dry, you'll probably want to paint the grilles before adding the PE mesh panels that protect the engine from small debris and shell fragments. The front deck is covered with pioneer tools, which fit into holes in the deck that match up with pins on their simplified tie-down "lumps", which you could elect to replace with some of the PE alternatives around if you wanted, or leave as-is if you don’t. The two crew hatches are handed, and have a small tab of styrene projecting into them, which you must remove before adding the hinges in the open position, or leave there for a closed hatch. The hatches themselves have separate vision block covers, vision blocks (which aren't clear), and latches, and if used closed, the hinge attachment point should match up with the plastic tabs you didn't cut off earlier, and you'll need to remember to put the right hatch on the right hatchway. The glacis plate on the Tiger I was vertically positioned, and as such received a coat of Zimmerit, although not generally on the kugelblende around the bow machine gun. There was however often a sun-flower petal pattern around it in the Zimm, in order to give a neat join, so check your references before you start. The driver's armoured viewing slot also remains un-zimmerited, as does the central driving light and its bracket, but the sloped front panel is zimerrited, but take care not to do the fenders. Using the long length of cord supplied in the box, you cut two lengths of 195mm and glue their ends into the plastic towing eyes, draping them on the top deck as shown in the scrap diagram in the instructions, then pinning them down with their clamps. As these cables were often attached to the front towing hitches in the field for ease of hooking up these break-down prone leviathans, you could always look at your references for alternative poses if you're feeling brave, and take it from there. The turret always seems to be the fun part of making a tank (certainly according to my son), and her we have some more new parts. The mantlet is new, but this won't matter much once you've covered it with Zimm, but check for the correct pattern before you get the putty out, as this is perhaps the most complex area of application, as well as the most detailed. The mantlet front piece is backed by a further two layers behind it, one of which has the hinge pins for elevation. Into the front you then place the cylindrical barrel armour, the inner shroud and bezel, and finally the barrel itself, to which you add the separate three-piece muzzle-brake. Academy have cleverly used single piece sections for the barrel, breaking it at convenient locations to reduce the amount of clean-up. The brake is designed in the same way, and breaks down like an aftermarket piece, having an insert that slots inside, and a cap that closes up the vents on the sides. With this complete and cured, it can be set between the two halves of the turret sides, which making sure to keep the front clamped or taped to prevent the gun from dropping out of its mounting. The vertical seam at the rear of the turret will need looking at to ensure it is level with the surface, but don't waste time polishing it out if you're going to slap Zimmerit over it! The turret roof has eight vision blocks added, which are again not clear parts, and then the commander's hatch & machine-gun track can be added to the late-style cupola. Add the additional track-links and their brackets to the turret sides, build up the gunner's hatch and shell-ejection hatch (the latter on the side), before the roof is dropped into place, and the rear stowage bin is installed on the turret rear. Install the turret on its bayonet fitting, and then you can add the side skirts below the section of the hull sides you have previously Zimmerited. A crew member figure is included in the box, and a painting guide is printed above the final stage to assist with his completion. He has a little bit of an odd-shaped head/face though, so if you have any of those handy replacement resin head, an otherwise adequate commander figure can be saved from the spares bin. Markings Academy have been generous to a fault with their decal options in this kit, having ten options available, but this has restricted the space available for each option, which has led to no top-down views of the camouflage schemes, which might cause some consternation. By this stage in the war camouflage was the norm due to Allied air superiority, so every single option has camouflage of some style. From the box you can build one of the following: Pz.Abt. 505 No.312 Central Russia, July 1944 – Sand/green/red brown tiger-stripe, with optional sand/red brown 2-tone version. Black 312 on a yellow barrel shroud. Grey barrel. SS Pz.Abt. 101 Michael Wittman near Caen, France August 1944 - Sand/green/red brown camouflage and white 007 on the turret. SS Pz.Abt. 101 Komp.2 Michael Wittman near Normandy, France June 1944 - Sand/green/red brown camouflage and red with white outline 212 on the turret. SS Pz.Abt. 102 north France, August 1944 – red brown/green camouflage with sand demarcation bands, and white outline 221 or 231 on the turret. Pz.Abt. 503 Normandy, France, July 1944 – sand with red brown/green camouflage. Black with white outline 313 on turret. Pz.Abt. 505 Central Russia, July 1944 – Sand with dark green camouflage stripes on hull. Grey barrel with 300 on shroud. Pz.Abt. 506 Ukraine, Spring 1944 - Sand/green/red brown camouflage – yellow 2 on turret sides. Pz.Abt. 508, Toscana, Italy, July 1944 - Sand/green/red brown camouflage. White outline 3 or 1 on turret. 9th SS Pz.Abt. Totenkopf, Radzymin, Poland, August 1944 - Sand/green/red brown camouflage. White outline 912 on turret. The Grossdeutschland Panzer Division, Gumbinnen, Lithuania, August 1944 - Sand/green/red brown camouflage. Black A22 on turret. Decals are printed by Cartograf and are of their usual high quality with good register, sharpness and clarity, with a closely cropped glossy carrier film. Included with all the decals for the tank are a number of uniform insignia decals, with a helpful key under the last profiles to show both where they should be placed, and what regiment each collar and shoulder tab relates too. Unfortunately this last part is in Korean (I think?), with no English translation, so not of much use. Conclusion It's a nice kit at a competitive price, and you'll have a fair few spare parts lying round after that may come in useful. It's not super-detailed, but neither is it bland, and the addition of the newly tooled parts have improved it from the earlier tooling. Having to do your own Zimmerit might seem a chore to some and a challenge to others, but there are aftermarket sets in resin or PE, so it's not a massive issue if you don't fancy your chances of completing the task yourself. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

German A7V Tank (Krupp) 1:35 Meng After the British Mark IV tanks crashed (clanked and sputtered) onto the battlefield in 1916 at the height of WWI, the German army went into overdrive in an effort to bring their own landship to the front, but in the meantime pinched and re-purposed as many of the British tanks as they could as Beutepanzers in the meantime. Their design was intended to include a re-useable chassis that could sport an offensive armament, or a cargo body, with only a pitiful 20 out of 100 in the initial order. They weighed in at around 30 tonnes with only mild steel for armour plate, which although it was 30mm at the front and 20mm at the sides was still ineffective compared to a hardened alternative. The running gear was based on a Holt Tractor that was borrowed from the Austrians, and the blockhouse body housed a single 57mm cannon in a cylindrical casemate, which allowed limited traverse as well as elevation. There were also six 7.92mm machine gun emplacements, and under the top-mounted driver's position were two Daimler petrol engines that could propel the vehicle at up to 3mph on uneven ground. It entered service in 1918 in time to engage in the first tank-on-tank battle, where a three tank patrol met three British Mk.IVs, the Females being damaged by armour piercing machine gun rounds and forced to withdraw. The Male Mk.IV brought its guns to bear on the lead A7V and knocked it out with three shots, after which the two remaining German tanks withdrew. It proved to be about as reliable as the British tanks, and no more were ordered, although some other designs were in progress when the war ended. The only survivor of the twenty, numbered 506 and named Mephisto was abandoned by the Germans at Villiers-Bretonneux, and recovered by the Allies a few months later. It was taken by the Australians as a war prize, where it remains today. The Kit We appear to be in the middle of a renaissance of WWI armour, and that pleases me immensely as someone that's quite fond of the ugly old clankers. We have been treated to a number of kits of British Mk.IVs from Takom and Tamiya, with a Mk.V and Whippet light tank on the way from Takom, so this new issue from Meng fills an important gap, and sits well beside their two Renault FT-17 tanks that were used byt the French in the Great War. Previously we had only the Tauro kit in this scale, and that wasn't very good, having a totally fictitious interior and clunky tracks, as well as being hard to get hold of in recent years. This new tooling by Meng offers a fairly comprehensive interior that has a much firmer grounding in reality, and it can all be shown off by leaving some or all of the access hatches open. The box is standard sized Meng fare, and inside is a plethora of plastic that fills all the available space, requiring careful re-packing. There are nineteen sprues in sand coloured styrene, four in black, two pairs of black poly-caps, a small Photo-Etch (PE) brass fret, a length of synthetic braided cord, and a decal sheet of moderate proportions. The instruction booklet is bound in a colour cover, with extensive text on the genesis of the A7V in four languages at the front, and painting diagrams at the rear. As always with Meng, the first impression is of a quality product, right from the satin finish on the box to the instruction booklet. The sprues are very well detailed, and use of slide-moulding is evident on a number of parts to ease our job of putting it together. Construction starts with the many road wheels, of which there are two types with and without flanges on the edges. Two of each type are sandwiched in a bogie of which there are six in three pairs. The idler wheels are built up on their track tensioning device, while the drive sprockets have a stub axle for later fitting to the hull. Each pair of bogies are added to their sub-frame, which is very well detailed indeed, and these are further detailed with additional linkages and dampers on the tops, and are later installed on the underside of the chassis in between the return roller racks that are built up and added to the underside of the chassis. The lower frame of the chassis has a floor panel to which the final drive is added, which houses a pair of poly-caps, and deep girders are then added all around, after which the aforementioned return roller racks are installed, of which there are two types. Small bogies containing two return rollers each are attached to the racks, and at this point the idler and drive sprocket wheels plus the exhaust muffler are also added. The three main road wheel bogies are installed on the underside of the chassis, and that's the end of that – the chassis is then turned over for the addition of the tracks. The tracks are individual links, and can be found on the black styrene sprues, of which there are four. You will need to make forty eight for each side, and each link is made up from the track plate, and separate linkage part, but fret not – there are only two very dainty sprue gates on each part, and the moulding is very nice indeed with large domed rivets, slide-moulded lightening holes and click-fit track pins. A little glue to mate the two parts is all that is needed, and once dry you can clip each run together with the minimum of fuss, resulting in a set of very well detailed workable tracks that just need a lick of paint and some weathering. The interior is the next job, and that begins with the addition of the floor panels, which have tread-plate detail moulded into them. The floor is broken into front and aft parts, in between which would be the two engines, with a pair of narrow walk-ways outboard. The engines aren't included, which might seem a shame on initial inspection, but when you look at the finished item, the area is so deep within the bowels of the machine that it wouldn't be seen under normal (non-endoscopic) circumstances through any open hatches. Some enterprising soul is bound to bring out a resin set to fill this area if you have eyes that can see round corners though. The driver's area is raised above the main floor, on a pair of T-shaped brackets that are moulded into the chassis sides, and the raised floor fits on top, with a pair of crew seats, hand controls and foot pedals for both the driver and co-driver for redundancy. The radiators sit at the front and rear of the raised area, against two bulkheads with large circular cut-outs in which the cooling fans would have been placed. The radiator cores sit outside the bulkheads, and have a PE mesh added to the front, and three protective bars running horizontally across the front. More bracing struts are added to each corner, and a number of additional controls are applied to the portions of the bulkheads that project up above the raised floor. The main gun has a slide-moulded barrel, to which the recuperators and cradle are added, plus the aiming devices, the sights and the vertically curved portion of the splinter shield. The gun then slots into the main shield from the open back, and a PE top is added to the cylindrical shield. The gun is supported on a tapered octagonal base, which the gun fits atop after installing a sector gear and spacing device that clips round the shaft. An ammunition box and six seats for the machine gunners are built up next, with the ammo placed behind the main gun, which is installed on an octagonal depression on the front floor. The machine gunners' positions are able to swivel on a single point outside the seat-pan, presumably to facilitate access to the gun for re-loading and fast exit in the case of bail-out. Two are placed in the front compartment, with the remaining four at the rear. The guns are built up from a one-piece breech and barrel, with separate hand-grips and mounting parts. The guns mount to brackets attached to the side of the hull, and each one has a nicely moulded belt of ammo that can be flexed to fit its position. As a bit of extra detail, a rack of four rifles can be made up in the rear compartment, with additional "potato-masher" hand grenades, two extra rifles with bayonets attached, and a pair of Bergmann MP18 sub machine guns with separate side-mounted snail-drum magazines, although these were only used in the closing months of the war. Each of the machine guns are added to the insides of the hull plates before they are installed on the hull, so you'll be doing some internal painting at this stage unless you're leaving all the doors closed up. They are attached to the walls via plates on the mounts that mate with corresponding depressions in the walls. Each gun slot has a pair of triangular panels protecting the cylindrical mount (plus the gunner's face), two of which can be posed closed if you aren't fitting the rear guns. After this, the sides, front and rear are joined to the hull and your A7V starts to take shape with the addition of the lower glacis and valance front and rear. The four large towing shackles (two each front and rear) are covered by wedge-shaped armour panels, which can be posed raised for towing, or down for normal use by cutting off one or other of the two mounting lugs, which are roughly 90o opposed from each other. The crew doors are built up with separate pistol-port covers, handles, and a fold-down jump-seat that is stowed vertically to open the doors. They also have an appliqué weather bar riveted to their bottom edge, which is a further separate part, and a decal for the inside surface stating the tank's number in case the crew forget which one they're in! As well as the crew doors, there are double doors on each unused machine-gun slot, and four inspection/maintenance hatches along the track runs on each side, with a further two low down on the front of the glacis plate. One of the smaller panels in the middle each of the sides are propped open by the exhaust pipe, which snakes up the side and away from the gun ports, with a bracket separating the solid pipe from the hollow tip. At this stage the tank lacks a roof, as well as a protective cab, which is next on the agenda. The front and rear walls of the cab have a bifold door that covers the opening on the inside, and a pair of sliding doors for the outside, the latter having PE guides added to each side. The instructions show three positions in scrap diagrams in the open, closed and half-open position to assist you in working out how they should look. The side walls have only one hatch each, the doors for which operate in the same manner as the others, while the roof panel has a circular hatch in the centre, a hinges vented panel over one driver, and a clam-shell door over the other. The main roof is moulded as a single part, and has a large central cut-out for the driver's cab, and numerous parallel ventilation slots cut in the roof, which are covered by armoured grilles. Inside hang a number of toggles for the crew to steady themselves on, and a strip of PE covers the front edge of the main gun's "window". This and the driver's cab are then placed onto the hull and the inside is closed up. The length of string/cord is cut into two lengths of 148mm and a scrap diagram shows how it should be folded over and attached to three sleeves in 1:1 scale, with 3mm between each sleeve. These are then arranged on the top deck and tied-down by shackles, which is probably best done after main painting has been finished. That's it! Markings Only one scheme is provided in the box, that of Schnuck, No. 504 of Abt.2, German Army, in Northern France in Autumn 1918. It has a three colour scheme of sand, red brown and green, with five views showing how the areas flow across the hull, leaving you in no doubt where to put which colour. The decals are larger than most AFV sheets due to the size of the few decals on the sheet, and include eight old-school crosses, plus two further in a ghosted "shade" with a red I in the centre. The other decals are two white "Schnuck" markings, and the 504s for the interior doors. They're printed by Cartograf as usual with Meng, so quality, colour density, sharpness and register are spot on. Conclusion This new one from Meng makes me supremely happy, as I'd got a Tauro Models kit in my stash that had been thrown back in there when I realised the size of the job I'd got to render the interior anything like the real thing. Meng have done their usual fine job of rendering the lumpen riveted surface of the hull, and the inclusion of most of the relevant interior is just gravy. The kit deserves to do well, and will look great next to its adversaries that seem to be popping up like London buses at the moment. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

P.1000 Landkreuzer "Ratte" 1:144 Takom Weighing in at a projected 1,000 tonnes, the Ratte was the ultimate paper panzer, designed to be a super-heavy tank that was impregnable, dwarfing all on the battlefield. It was conceived as a mobile fortress, capable of bringing massive firepower to bear on bunkers and other entrenched positions, and gained the approval of Adolf Hitler in 1941. He did like his ridiculous projects! It would have carried the same turret that was mounted on battle cruisers like the Gneisenau, but with the centre barrel removed to save weight. It was also to be powered by marine diesel engines, using either two used by U-boats, or a massive eight from the S-100 fast patrol boats. The main turret sported two 280mm guns, plus a "secondary" 128mm tank gun, mounted either on the glacis or on a smaller turret on the engine deck, but there is conjecture about which was most likely. Inside it had space for an infirmary, storage for a couple of reconnaissance bikes amongst other things, which gives some idea of the size of the thing. As to size, it would have been over 39m with the guns pointing forward, and 14m wide, running on three widths of King Tiger track on each side. The top of the turret would be 11m from the ground, assuming it didn't sink into the earth! A rather more level-headed Albert Speer cancelled the project in 1943 seeing no conceivable use for the finished item. The Kit A flight of fantasy from our friends at Takom, as can be seen from the pair of flying saucers included on the boxtop. It has been tooled in 1:144 due to the sheer size of the thing, and to keep it affordable, as well as reduce the "I'm not buying that because my house isn't big enough!" issues. It arrives in a standard enough box, and although they are on the box top, don't expect to see any UFOs or all three of the Maus' – there's only two! Inside the box it isn't too crowded, with the two hull halves taking up most of the room. The hull, four Maus sprues, four superstructure sprues and one outer wheel sprue are moulded in sand coloured styrene, while the two track and turret sprues are in a reddish brown colour. A long sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) is included for the railings, and a small decal sheet containing a few crosses and Nazi flag. The instruction booklet is quite small, accompanied by a small errata sheet that corrects some mis-numbered parts, and the painting guide is spread across three separate A5 sheets on glossy paper. The first item to be constructed are the two massive track runs, which have been simplified so that only the outer wheels have detail, with the rest being depicted by cylinders linked together on a back-plate. This will speed construction a great deal, and shouldn't be very noticeable once the tracks are on, and installed in the hull. The tracks themselves are link and length type, with long runs top and bottom, a short run toward the drive sprocket and idler ends, and individual links around the ends of the runs. The outer faces of the tracks are quite well detailed, but the inners are less so, but once covered in muck and grime, that won't notice either, although the track outer will take some hiding, due to its rigid flat edge. The track runs fix into the lower hull using long tabs, and this assembly is then put to one side until after construction of the upper hull. This shouldn't take long, as there isn't much to do. It does start with some confusion however, because it shows two flak turrets being affixed to the rear deck on raised outlines, which aren't there on the rear deck of the tank. This is not a major problem if you mark and fix them neatly yourself, but it tells you to make up two, and supplies four. Use two or four then, as you see fit. No-one will realistically be able to say you did it wrong! The bases are square with sloping sides, while the turrets look very like stacked Panzer I turrets armed with four flak barrels in twin mounts. These could be replaced with some metal barrels if you can find some similar, but they're not bad out of the box. The engine deck has eight armoured covers in rows of four, implying that Takom opted to depict the S-boat engines mounted, and behind them are two crew compartment cooling units, which look a little different from the usual, but as it's a what-if, we'll let them off. If you put a little fine mesh over them, no-one will even know. A PE crew access ladder drops down from the rear deck to the ground, and a trio of safety railings run around the back and sides of the upper hull, with another ladder going up the side of the main turret. The main turret has a flat lower with the turret ring moulded in, while the upper has spaces for the range-finding "wings" that project from either side. The main guns are moulded from one part each, and have slide-moulded hollow muzzles, and these fit into holes in the front, trapped in place when the two turret parts are joined. The rear of the turret is another separate section, and is fitted after the barrels, then lined up with the lower turret before it has fully set. The secondary armament is added to the glacis in a Stug-style flexible mount, and this again has a hollow muzzle. Fitting the turret to the hull and locking in place with the standard bayonet fitting completes construction of the Ratte. You also get two tiny 1:144 Maus Heavy Tanks in the box, which take up two sprues each. The turret is nicely detailed with a hollow muzzle to the main gun, two-piece mantlet, coaxial gun, and detail on the turret roof. The tracks are one part per run, which affix to the narrow lower hull, and come together with the single piece upper hull and turret at the end. Then you have the fun of painting them! Markings There are three fictitious marking choices in the box, but realistically the world is your oyster, as… well yes. You remember it's a paper panzer, don't you. The schemes have been done by Mig Jiminez's new company, and of course the call-outs are in his Ammo paint numbers. The third page offers up two possible schemes for the Maus, which are more fact based, given that the Maus almost made it, and you could imagine these schemes being used on the King Tigers during the closing stages of the war. The decals are printed in-house, and look to be of good quality, and the Swastika has been printed in two parts to avoid getting anyone into trouble where it would be illegal or frowned upon. Conclusion What is not to like about a crazy thing like this? Takom have given it form in styrene, and although it is a little lacking in track detail, it's entirely forgivable because it is quite a niche product. It's a shame we don't all have massive houses to fit a 1:35 kit, but the designers have taken the more realistic route and at least now we have one in styrene. If you really are insane or have masses of space in your house, you could always use this kit as a pattern for a scale-up to 1:35, buy a ton of plastic card, shed-loads of King Tiger kits, and all of Friul's KT tracks. I know someone is crazy enough, because I've seen the pics out on the 'net. More power to his elbow! Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Me.262A-1a/U1 1:48 Hobby Boss The Schwalbe had the distinction of being the first jet engine fighter to see active service, and was respected by the Allies due to its speed and manoeuvrability, care of the advanced axial-flow engines that burned brightly, but not for very long. It came too late with too few airframes entering service due to delays with the engines, and the German high-command's insistence that every aircraft should have a myriad of variants sporting different configurations that brought with them further delays and confusion. The A-1a/U1 was the heavy armament Zerstörer or destroyer, with six cannon mounted in the nose, two of which were 20mm MG151s, two more 30mm MK.103, and the final two 30mm MK.108. Only a single prototype was constructed before war's end, but had it seen service it would have packed a phenomenal punch, especially as the armament was all concentrated in the nose, thanks to some careful arrangement of components, and a little additional fairing. The Kit If you've seen any of the other Hobby Boss kits of the 262, or indeed any kit of the 262, there will be much that you recognise here, and on opening the box you will see that there is again a highly modular configuration of the sprues to extract the maximum permutations from the toolings. Good, says I, as you just can't have too many Swallows IMHO! There are two sprues containing fuselage halves, three larger sprues, and seven smaller sprues in a medium grey styrene, two small clear sprues, a white metal nose weight, and a medium sized decal sheet. The instructions are A4 portrait in black and white on plain paper, stapled into a booklet, while the painting and decaling instructions are printed on one side of a piece of glossy paper. It was one prototype airframe, or one of three if you believe some sources over others, so wore limited schemes. One thing I noticed about the boxart is that it doesn't represent the kit in the box, which has two protruding cannon and two more faired in cannon bulges in the nose. The boxart has faired over upper troughs, and a pair of bomb carriers under the nose, none of which is in the box. Not to worry though… the stuff in the box is correct for the nomenclature. Construction begins with the cockpit tub, which is well detailed and provided with instrument decals for the main panel, plus the side consoles, all of which have clear backgrounds so you don't have to match paint with the rest of the cockpit. The cannon bay is next, and again there is a lot of detail packed into this area, in the shape of six cannons and their ammo feeds. The larger 30mm cannons are fitted to the rear of the bay, which sits on top of the metal nose weight, which also forms the walls of the nose gear bay. The gear leg is shown fitted at this time, along with a retraction jack and bay door, and you can choose between a simple smooth tyre or a heavily treaded one to suit yourself. A quantity of internal parts of the aircraft, such as radio gear and other equipment are placed within the two fuselage halves, which can be seen through a small hatch in the side of the fuselage if you care to leave it open. The fuselage halves are painted RLM02 inside, then closed up around the cockpit and nose gear bays. The engines and wings are built up next, with the engine nacelles split vertically with single mouldings for the front and rear fairings, plus depictions of the front and rear faces of the Jumo 004 engines. The wings are full-width on the lower, and separate port and starboard on the upper, with some main wheel bay detail added to the gap between them before the fuselage is added along with the engines, tail, separate rudder, and the cannon bay covers, which includes optional open panels and props that sit on a central brace. The nose cone has fairings moulded in for the 20mm cannons, and the larger 30mm cannons have barrel parts, the lower of which have perforated muzzle-brakes moulded onto them, although none of the barrels have hollow muzzles. It would be well worth getting a set of brass barrels for these, as they're somewhat a focal point of this variant of the 262. A three-part windscreen and canopy is added over the cockpit, with the windscreen including a small portion of the upper fuselage, making for a nicely faired in look to the screen once complete. Main construction finishes with the main gear legs, which have separate oleo-scissor links, retraction jacks and two bay doors each, with another opening into the centreline. Two cannon shell-chute panels are added to the underside of the nose, as is the remaining nose gear cover, and that's the aircraft finished. As a bonus, a set of Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4 wire-guided missiles are included in the box, taking up two of the small sprues, and covered with some protective wrap. Although eventually cancelled, the X-4 was destined to be carried by the 262 and Do.335, but problems with guidance and the pilot splitting his attention between flying his own aircraft and a missile some hundreds of metres distant led to its cancellation before it was ever carried by the Schwalbe. These are constructed by adding stabilising wings to the body, which already has two wings moulded in, and adding a tail section. The missile is then added to a two-part pylon that mounts on the wing via two holes drilled before the wings are closed up. A task to remember if you're planning on using them. Additionally, a pair of tubular RATO pods are also included, which fit close to the fuselage centreline, just aft of the main landing gear bays. Even the advanced Jumo engines were slow to spool up or down, so the additional thrust of a pair of rocket motors would be useful to get a heavily laden 262 off the ground quickly. Markings As already mentioned, there was only one prototype of this variant (depending on who you ask that could be three airframes), so your options are limited if you intend to stick to real-world scenarios. Hobby Boss have opted for a hypothetical scheme however, as some of the prototype schemes can be a bit samey, I suppose. From the box you can build: Einsatzkommando Schenk (E-51)3.,KG/51 'Eddleweiss', red 5. RLM82/83 spinter camo on the topsides, with faded and mottled sides, over an RLM76 underside. Red 5 on the front cowling, and bisected Swastikas on the tail. The decals are printed in-house, and include plenty of stencils and walkway decals, although the red dotted lines aren't used in the scheme above. Print quality is good, as is registration, but the whites of the various crosses appear a little translucent. Sourcing alternatives might be a wise idea once you've satisfied yourself of their quality. Conclusion Hobby Boss to a nice line in 262s at an attractive price, and this one is no exception, with perhaps the caveats of the scheme and decals to watch out for. Detail is good throughout, and it is well-engineered, with the built-in nose weight especially welcome. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Leopard 1 A5 1:35 Meng The Leopard Main Battle Tank (MBT) was designed as an answer to a requirement by the newly reformed German Army to replace the outmoded American cast-offs they had been using. It was based upon the premise that manoeuvrability and armament were more important than armour, as the rise of the HEAT round had rendered most standard rolled steel armour fairly useless due to its penetrating ability. Instead the Leopard was designed to withstand 20mm rounds for all directions, and given NBC capability to counter the Soviet hordes that it was expected to be facing. The initial A1 variant reached service in the mid-60s, with an important upgrade to the A1A1 standard forming the basis of the A5 in the 1980s, which with the benefit of retro-fitting, became the de facto standard Leopard 1 up until its replacement by the Leopard 2 in Bundeswehr service in the early "noughties". The Kit We reviewed the initial release of the A3/4 variant here toward the end of 2013, which shares a number of components including hull and running gear, but with the earlier cast turret of the A1 as a basis instead of the larger welded turret provided with the earlier kit. This stems from the decision to base this upgrade on the earlier 1A1, which was adapted to fit the extra kit and move the rounds into the turret and away from the driver. There are six new sprues and two different Photo-Etch (PE) frets, with a totally different approach to the creation of the tracks. Gone are the single piece links and rubber-band style options, to be replaced by three-part track links that should, with a prevailing wind and careful gluing, result in workable track links. Inside the standard Meng-style satin finished box are thirteen sprues in a mid-green styrene, one flexible sprue in the same colour, and three hull and turret parts. A clear sprue, two sheets of PE, a length of cord, a sprue of poly-caps, and a large sub-box containing 912 parts for the 192 track-links, although the instructions don't give a suggestion as to how many you will actually use, which is odd. Another black sprue with a "Supplier" logo in the top left corner is… erm… suppled? Containing twenty-four ice-cleats and a jig to construct the track. The logo is repeated in the instructions when the parts are mentioned, but I'm not entirely sure why. The last fun item in the box is a small sheet of greased paper on which two wing-mirror lens foils are attached. That is a rather nice touch to obtain realistic looking wing mirrors, which are quite prominent on the Leopard, as it happens. The instruction manual is also standard Meng fare, and is well laid out in four languages, with the painting and markings section in colour at the rear. Construction starts in the same way as the earlier kit with the lower hull, as you'd expect. The bump-stops and return rollers first, then the working torsion suspension arms, which go through to the opposite inner hull. Onto the swing-arms fit the fourteen sets road wheels, which are made up in pairs with a poly-cap between them. The idler wheels are of the same construction, and the drive sprockets have an additional flange in the middle. The upper hull part has three PE grilles added to the engine deck, and the rear bulkhead is built up with tools, stowage and additional track links before installation after the tracks are made up. The tracks in this model are different from the last Leopard, as already mentioned. They take on the form of individual workable links in styrene, each link of which consists of five parts. The central piece has track-pins moulded in, and two track pads are constructed from halves, linking the pin sections together one after another. A jig is included to help with this, and the winter ice-cleats are shown with seven links between them in case you wish to use them. The track-pin part has four attachment points to the sprue, while the pads have only one each, with a double pin/hole combination differentiating between the inner and outer portions. You will need to be very careful indeed with the glue, because there are very small contact patches between the pad halves, so take your time, and make full use of the jig, as well as taking plenty of coffee breaks to allow things time to set up. As also mentioned earlier, the number of links needed per run isn't made clear, so test them for length as you get nearer to the 96 link figure, which is half of the parts. Better to be too short and add more links, than too long and have to force the assembly apart. With the tracks completed, the upper hull and rear bulkhead are added to the lower hull, and a set of pioneer tools are added to the sides, as are the prominent side skirts. Towing shackles and a rack of ice-cleats are installed on the glacis, but if you've already put these on the tracks, you'll need to investigate the best way of separating the redundant moulded in cleats from the rack, as the empty racks can be clearly seen on the glacis of the parked up winter camo Leopards (Note the Gepards on the right) in the Wikimedia image below: The hull is further festooned with additional tools, vision ports, driver's hatch and grilles on the sides, plus the twin towing cables that are made up from styrene eyes and 130mm lengths of the supplied synthetic cord. Attention then turns to the turret, which is substantially different than the A3/4, despite mounting the same license built British L7 105mm main gun. The mantlet is built up first, with lifting lugs and mounting points for the stand-off shroud that covers it, which has its own lifting lug in the centre over the barrel. The barrel is supplied split vertically, and as it is jacketed for cooling, it would perhaps be difficult to replicate in metal, so a degree of seam-sanding will be needed here. The muzzle is a separate part that fits on a peg at the end of the barrel, giving the impression of a hollow tip. An optional clip fits around the aft area of the barrel, which acts as the mount for the (also optional) grenade launcher, which has a heat/debris shield projecting forward to protect the barrel's jacket from damage during launch of smoke canisters. It mates with the mantlet via another peg and socket, and this in turn is glued to the upper turret. Yes… glued. You have two options for the elevation of the gun unless you fancy some scratch-building, namely straight ahead, or fully elevated, with nowhere in between, and no mechanism to leave the barrel poseable. Two canvas shrouds are included to cover the top area, one for each position that are suitably wrinkled for their position. An odd approach by Meng, but as a lot of folks will glue a barrel in position anyway, I can see their logic. A circular clear part is added to the inside of the commander's cupola, the lenses of which transparent blue and masked off until main painting is finished. Additional blocks and a periscope are added to the upper surface along with PE shrouds, with a pair of aerial bases in the rear "corners". The sides are dotted with circular stand-off parts, the reason for which will become apparent later, when the Lexan appliqué armour is added. The gun-sight sits atop the turret in front of the commander's cupola, and is glazed with another clear part that will need transparent blue lenses and masking, or an optional door for the closed position. If you are leaving it open, use the two additional parts supplied with the closed doors. Gun rings and mounts for the two top hatches are added, and the shell ejection port on the left side of the turret is added, which has a small circular handle on the inside, but posing it open would only expose the lack of detail inside the turret. The hatches for loader and commander are constructed from a number of parts, with the loader having a different hinge system that involves optional open and closed parts, presumably to give him a clear field of fire for his MG3 machine gun mounted on the aforementioned gun ring on his hatch. The bustle at the rear of the turret is a large stowage area with a central box to stow the searchlight, which has open racks on either side, supported by two L-shaped brackets each. A number of fine parts are included to form the rails, and unusually you are instructed to keep the additional sprue parts that link the rail sections together in place until they are installed in the basket. Once the glue is set, you are to cut these links off and make good the sprue gates. This is to simplify the task of installing a reasonable number of fine rods in difficult positions, with only small contact patches between the sides and the rear. How easy that is going to be remains to be seen. Knowing Meng however, it's likely to work unless you are impatient or use too little glue. Now the stand-off Lexan armour panels can be added, as they extend aft to cover the baskets. Each side has a flexible styrene panel that hugs the sides of the turret, with a handsome texture moulded in that is also present on the inner face where it can be seen through the baskets. There are also panels for the rear of the baskets, but there will be some visible ejector pin marks if you look hard through the bars, and as sanding flexible styrene is difficult (I've tried), you'd be well advised to fill those stowage baskets with kit. Two flat panels toward the rear of the turret sides are the mounting points for additional grenade launchers, which are individually added to a little platform before installation. The final parts are a trio of grab-handles and stowage rails on the side of the turret, after which it can be dropped in place and twisted to lock it down using a bayonet fitting. Markings Three options are supplied on the small decal sheet, all sharing the same basic three colour NATO pattern in green/brown/black. The only differences are the vehicle markings, number plates and insignia on the turrets. From the box you can build one of the followings: Armour School, German Federal Armed Forces. 2nd Company, 183rd Panzer Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Boostedt, 1990s. 5th Company, 74th Panzer Battalion, German Federal Armed Forces, Altengrabow, 1990s. The decals are printed by Cartograf, and quality is excellent, as you'd expect from them. I would have liked to have seen at least one winter camo as per the WikiPiccy above though, just for a little variation and justification for the inclusion of the ice-cleats. Conclusion Another great kit from Meng that has some rather fun parts such as the tracks, that will need a little care in assembling, and a good dose of patience. If you're indie-link phobic, you can always have my spare rubber-band tracks from the A3/4, or use your own if you have the other kit, and use the single-piece individual links included in that kit. The immovable gun might put a few people off the kit, but as has been proven many times before, you can't please everyone. These oddities aside, it's a good-looking comprehensive kit, and with the addition of a few crew figures to hide the lack of interior, it can be posed with open hatches quite easily. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

US Cougar 6x6 MRAP 1:35 Meng The Cougar is built by Force Protection Inc. and is based loosely upon the previous South African MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected), but integrates a number of innovations and lessons learned from previous experiences. It has a V-shaped hull with the wheels outboard of the hull, and the engine in a separate compartment at the front. The V-shape directs the blast away from the crew compartment, improving survivability, which has been proven many times since it entered service. This variant is the six-wheeled chasis, but there is also a 4x4 version in service. The British Army have a number of the 6x6 version as the Mastiff Protected Patrol Vehicle (PPV). The Mastiff 2 is fitted with the CREWS II remote weapons station, while earlier versions have been fitted with a manned turret surrounded by protective armoured screens. The Kit This new tooling from Meng will be a welcome addition to any MRAP collection, and as it's from Meng, you know it will be a lovely kit to build. It arrives in a standard Meng shaped box, with that quality satin look to the lid, and inside are a wealth of sprues for you to pore over. There are sixteen sprues in a sand coloured styrene, two in a flexible black styrene, four sprues in clear styrene, two in turquoise tinted clear styrene, eight flexible styrene wheels, poly-caps, plus a large upper hull part and slide-moulded machine gun breech in sand styrene. The decal sheet is separately bagged, as is the small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, and the instruction booklet is Meng's usual affair, in four languages, and colour pages at the rear for the painting and decaling instructions. First impressions are excellent as usual with Meng's offerings, and the part count is high, with some nicely tooled detail evident. Inclusions such as PE, flexible styrene and optional tinted windows to simulate the bullet-resistant glass are the icing on the cake of what is a great looking model. From the box you can build either the Cougar 6x6, or the Cougar 6x6 HEV, which is the USMC Hardened Engineer Vehicle and has a different stowage and aerial fit, plus a pair of spare tyres mounted on the side. This isn't massively obvious on first inspection of the instructions, but will dictate your choices throughout the build, where you should choose A or B options respectively. Construction begins with the V-shaped lower hull, which needs a few holes drilling in it, after which the leaf-suspension can be installed, plus a rear towing bracket and two-step crew access with PE mesh treads. The three main axles are built up in broadly the same manner, with the steerable front wheels having additional parts, including track-link rod and bearings. Each one is fitted to the lower hull, with an armoured transfer box between the front and rear axles out of which the transmission shafts project. A pair of fuel tanks with PE thread-plate tops are built up next, and you have a choice of two types to install under the hull of your Cougar, which is nice. You are also given a choice of two types of front bumper/fender, one of which looks less like a girder than the other. The Cougar rolls along on six tyres, although in the event of an IED blast, has been known to limp home on only three. The HEV also carries two spares in the event that they are needed, just aft of the drivers' doors. The tyres are flexible styrene, with sand coloured hubs, space for a poly-cap in the middle, and a thick rear to the hub that traps the poly-cap in place. Only the six installed wheels are built up like this – the other two have a single piece hub, and are optionally added to the brackets at the end of the build. At this point the model is flipped over and work begins on the crew cab in the shape of the floor, which is stepped up at the sides to form a base of the seats and further protect the crew from blasts. The drivers' seats are first to be built up, with insulating bases that contain the usual complement of adjustments under a tough protective gaiter. The seats are made up from two parts, consisting of the main seat, plus a rear with the headrest built in, which once joined are placed on the base, and a pair of the flexible styrene belts are added to each one. The driver's pedal box is installed into the short front bulkhead stub, and a mesh panel is placed behind each seat on a bracket that raises it up to head-height. The dash is a full-width part, and the instrument panel has a number of decals supplied to detail its surface after painting, plus a couple of stencils on the co-driver's side. A small raised table/jump seat sits in the space between the rows of seats, which are single parts, which have another pair of flexible styrene belts added before they are glued in place. A total of eight passenger seats are fitted, with an equipment rack at the rear on the starboard side, and a recess with equipment box fixed to one wall on the opposite side. The upper hull is a complex moulding with some great detail on the outer skin, which again needs a few holes drilling in it in preparation for construction. Inside you will find a few fine mould lines, ejector pins and the occasional sink mark under the side windows, but how much of this will be seen is questionable. If you think it will, and it bothers you, break out the sanding sticks and a smear of filler. Clean up shouldn't take very long at all really. A radiator grille, some small interior parts, and the multi-part turret ring for the top-mounted gun position, which is trapped in place by another ring on the inside of the crew compartment. Internal lights are added, half of each painted transparent red for night-lighting, and then the large boxed-in side windows and windscreen panels are added, made up from a styrene frame, with clear centres. You can choose the usual clear parts or the more realistic tinted blue/green alternatives that better represent the thick bullet-resistant glazing used in modern MRAPs. The rear bulkhead has a choice of aerial bar that is placed above the door, and a quartet of grab-handles added, before it is joined to the hull, and the upper and lower halves are brought together. The short front fenders and long rear fenders are built up following this, with the various light clusters added front and rear, plus a choice of two air-intake filters on the starboard fender, and the exhaust that comes out of the side of the engine bay. The exhaust then goes up over the door frame on a stand-off bracket to roof-height, terminating at a back box toward the very rear of the vehicle, held in place by a U-bolt. There is a PE heat-shield for the section over the door, which has a little jig provided to obtain the correct curve to fit around the exhaust. The PE part is held between the two parts of the jig, with pressure applied, and out comes the part correctly formed. The next phase involves fitting all the additional parts that adorn the exterior of a modern AFV, such as the IED jamming booms in raised or lowered position, a roof mounted searchlight in protective clear dome, two or four additional stowage boxes on each side of the vehicle, jacks, and the panel jammers that attach to the front bumper. The drivers' doors and two rear crew doors are built up with boxed out glazing panels, grab-handles and side-view mirrors, plus the top access for the gunner's ring, and an escape hatch toward the rear of the roof. These can all be posed open or closed, with the latter having a pair of hydraulic rams holding it open. The gunner's position is protected by armoured screens, the sides of which are supplied flat, but with a bend-point built into the rear side, so that you can create the angled front sections without additional panels. Each section has armoured vision blocks added to the outside, and a solid rear panel, plus a rear-view mirror on each side. The .50cal M2 derivative is built up from a number of parts, the most impressive of which is the slide-moulded receiver and cooling jacket, to which the breech top-cover and barrel are added, plus a two-part carrier that fits to the pintle-mount. A three part ammo receiver is built up, with the ammo can added inside, and this can has some quite impressive ammunition moulded into the top and extending beyond the lip to mate with the breech. The gun, turret control joystick, front shield with vision blocks, and the protective shields are all added to slots and holes in the turret ring, with the front shield sitting in front of the angled "glacis". The final task is installing an array of aerials, which differs depending on your choices earlier on. If you have chosen the short side stowage boxed HEV, you can fit the spare tyres mentioned earlier, with six traditional whip-style antennae and a short X-shaped antenna at the rear. If you elect for the four-box side stowage "vanilla" version there is no place for the spare tyres, and you fit only four traditional antennae, plus two cylindrical "cell-tower" type antennae, which sit in the centre positions on the rear aerial mount. Markings Modern AFVs aren't particularly well marked on the outside, so the decal sheet isn't massive. What is there is good quality though, having been printed by Meng's usual choice of Cartograf. There are only two markings options included, both in the modern sand camo, with one for each variant, as follows: Cougar 6x6 United States Marine Corps. Cougar 6x6 HEV United States Marine Corps. The decals not already used on the instrument panel are mostly tie-down stencils, plus various other sundry stencils around the vehicle, and a maker's logo on the larger air filter of the 6x6 variant. Register, colour density and sharpness are all top notch, as you'd expect. Conclusion Another good kit from the Meng stable that will appeal to a great many modern AFV modellers. Detail is excellent, and the subject matter is very "now", lending itself nicely to dioramas. Lots of small parts that should keep you busy for many an hour, although sprue B part 1 was so fine that it had broken on the sprue due to flexing of the sprue in transit. The clear parts are all separately wrapped in slightly sticky clear plastic to keep them from being scratched within the bag, and the inclusion of the tinted parts is a great boost to realism. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Soviet S-51 Self-Propelled Gun 1:35 Trumpeter Using a chassis from the successful KV-1, the S-51 mated a huge 203mm B4 howitzer, resulting in a leviathan weighing over 55 tonnes that caused problems for the transmission. The recoil of the gun was also so fierce that the crew had to dismount during firing to avoid being thrown off and injured. It was such a mismatch that it was never accepted into service, with only one prototype built. The Kit Trumpeter have taken the opportunity to kit this virtual "бумага танк" as it utilises the unaltered hull of a KV-1, to which they have mated the new superstructure and the sprues of the B4 howitzer that was released in 2012. I'm sure it was probably more complicated than that, but that's what it looks like to this reviewer. It's not a bad thing though, as who would have created a full new tooling of such a niche vehicle otherwise? Opening up the box reveals 13 sprues in pale grey styrene plus a hull tub in a protective card annex within the box, two track sprues in mid-brown styrene, a tiny clear sprue, a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, two lengths of different diameter cord, and a decal sheet about the size of a stamp. The instruction booklet printed in black and white in portrait A4, with stapled pages – I dislike the ones that just keep folding out, and the painting and decaling guide is a separate glossy sheet. Construction starts with the lower hull as you might expect, which has a pair of side skins that seem to have been tooled to prevent having to slide-mould the details on the sides. To this is added the curved rear plate with towing shackles, with similar ones added to the moulded in lower glacis plate at the front. Various return roller axles and bump stops are added along the sides, and the upper deck is installed, all on the first page of the instructions! The deck has a large depression toward the front where the crew stand to serve the weapon, all of which is moulded in one part. The suspension arms are mounted in the moulded in recesses, and six sets of paired road wheels are added to each side, with three paired return rollers each. The drive sprockets are made up of four parts each and fit to the rear, and the two-part idler wheels install to the front. The tracks are link and length, with long runs moulded together for the top and bottom sections. The top run has a pleasing sag over the three return rollers, while the bottom run is flat, as you'd expect. There are short straight runs of four links for the diagonal parts of the tracks at each end, and individual links to go around the drive sprocket and idler. Detail is good here, and the individual links around the ends will give a more accurate representation. A pair of large deep sponsons sit over the tracks, performing the task of being fenders, and adding extra standing area for the crew, due to the tops being level with the majority of the deck. The supports for the gun are then built up using the styrene equivalent of massive beams for the gun to recoil over, a set of handrails surrounding the "pit", and a loading area made from tubular material that overhangs the rear of the tank. More handrails are added on the outer edges of the fender/sponsons, and the towing cables are made up using styrene eyes and the thicker cord supplied in the kit. Now for the fun part – the gun! The barrel is split vertically, with the complete muzzle end captive on the starboard part, to which you can add a rolled PE sleeve inside if you're feeling brave/competent. It has fine rifling detail etched in, and once glued and painted will make the barrel look much more realistic to the close observer. There is a metal barrel available from RB Models, which you can find here under the code 35B52. The rear of the barrel is keyed to fit into the outer sleeve, and this is then festooned with recuperator tubes and the toothed elevation mechanism. The three part breech is added to the rear, and a two-part breech block fits into the end, after which the trunnion mounts are then constructed with all the elevation and sighting equipment scabbed on. The rest of the elevation mechanism sits on a U-shaped platform under the breech, and here the finer cord is used to simulate two drums of cable at the front of the base. The trunnions are added to the base at the same time as the barrel, and with careful gluing the barrel can be left able to elevate. At this point the gun is added to the front of the chassis, and a pair of splinter shields are attached to the front of the sponsons, finishing the build. Markings This is going to be quick! Russian Green, and two Soviet patriotic emblems are included in the kit, as this was a one-off creation. Conclusion A nicely moulded kit of a highly unusual, and apparently rubbish self-propelled howitzer. It looks impressive, and would look even better with a crew going through the firing process, with plenty of scope for whiffery. Recommended. Don't be put off by the incorrect picture Review sample courtesy of

Scud B – Soviet 9P117M1 Launcher with R17 Rocket "Elbrus" 1:35 Trumpeter The Scuds rose to infamy during the First Gulf War, when they were targeted at Israel to provoke their entry into the conflict. Its entry into service was much earlier, in the mid 60s during the height of the Cold War. It was an upgraded R11 weapon with a more stable burn to the rocket that improved accuracy, but even this led to a stated accuracy to almost half a kilometre, which the Allies almost doubled, and was partially due to the fact that it was only under guidance during the powered phase of its flight, relying on its continued smooth trajectory for terminal accuracy. It was initially paired with a tracked launcher, which was dropped in favour of a more stable eight-wheeled MAZ-543, which got the nickname Kachalot or Sperm Whale because of its size. It was capable of launching autonomously if necessary, but was usually accompanied by a control wagon, with the launch process taking up to an hour, during which time it was vulnerable to attack. Capable of carrying a small nuclear tipped warhead, it was mostly used with conventional explosives, although it was also able to carry a chemical canister containing over half a tonne of the deadly (and outlawed) VX nerve agent in an oily liquid form. The MAZ transporter has a prominent split cab, between which the missile can be seen, and was a regular attendee at the Red Square parades while in service. It is powered by a massive 39 litre diesel engine giving it a top speed of 37mph, and it also used as the basis for many other military systems, as well as some civilian vehicles. The Kit There is currently a rash of missile launcher kits arriving on the market from various companies, and Trumpeter have hit a sweet spot with this one, as it is probably the most well-known of all the Soviet missile systems in the West through its involvement in the Gulf conflicts, as well as Syria and Libya. Who of the right age can forget the news reports of the Scud launches in GW1 and the first use of the Patriot Missile System in an attempt to intercept them? The box is a large one, with an overall black finish and a rather nice painting of the subject matter on the top-opening box. Lifting the lid reveals the interior separated by a card divider, and a LOT of styrene! There are eighteen sizeable grey sprues, plus eight "rubber" tyres, three sheets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, two decal sheets, a sheet of masks, poly-caps, small metal pins, a length of braided copper wire, and a length of thin insulated wire. An A3 colour painting and decaling sheet is sandwiched between the middle pages of the substantial instruction booklet to round out the package with 36 pages and coincidentally, 36 construction steps. First impressions are good, with lots of detail present on the parts, which is typical of modern Trumpeter or Hobby Boss kits. The vehicle is modelled in its entirety, complete with engine, transmission, drivers' cab, as well as the control cab that nestles between the front and rear pairs of wheels, plus a highly detailed missile and transport/launch cradle. The addition of metal hinge-pins on the rocket platform and mounting pins that hold the rocket to the base of the platform shows that some care has been taken to ensure a good fit and long life, which is always good to see. The engine detail is hidden for the most part, but can be exposed by tilting the cab forward as per the real item, which is yet another great idea. The aforementioned 36 construction steps are required due to the 1,330 plus part count, which is quite amazing for an un-tracked vehicle kit. Let's see where that all goes. The build starts with the ladder chassis constructed from a pair of huge girders that are joined together with cylindrical parts as well as four cross-pieces that support the drive-train parts that are placed between the sides. Drive-shafts, differentials and auxiliary drive-shafts are inserted before the two girders are brought together whilst adding a large truncated A-frame in the middle, and the massive hydraulic cylinder at the rear. The underside of the chassis is then covered in protective plates, and the 39-litre engine is built up from a substantial number of parts, fitting within the structure from above, along with the main drive-shafts. The large radiator and double fans are added later in the build, as the upper chassis nears completion. Suspension detail is then added to the outsides of the chassis, onto which four suspension units are installed on each side, with four cylindrical arms for each wheel slotting into the brackets, backed by a drive-shaft and axle on short swing-arms. Additional parts and stowage bins are set between the axles, after which the basics of the upper hull are added, most of which has that necessary depression running along the chassis line for the missile to nestle in later. What appears to be a centrally mounted fuel tank sits between the aft sponsons, with a long filler-tube routed to the outer skin of the vehicle, above which is a trestle platform that houses four large cylinders that power the hydraulic systems. All of this is covered with a perforated cover to protect it from damage, and largely hidden by the following steps. The front bumper is added to the angled end of the chassis, along with a towing cable that is made up from styrene eyes and the braided copper wire from the box, with a scrap diagram showing how it should be draped around the light-clusters on the front bumper. Equipment boxes are glued into long slots in the underside of the aft hull, which have moulded in detail in case you decide to leave their doors open for a more candid look, and a detailed painting diagram as well as a number of instrument decals are also supplied to assist with this. The rear of the vehicle doesn't have a bumper as such, as there is a large pair of hinge-arms projecting from it that support the missile, and one would hope that the worry of running into a big rocket would dissuade any incidents from the rear. The eight wheels are supplied as two-part hubs with a poly-cap trapped between them, and a flexible styrene tyre in black that has rather nice detail on both the treads and the sidewalls, including tyre data information. A set of PE and styrene rods are installed in the area over the two rear wheels, along with the rear stabilising feet that can be positioned up or down by sliding the parts within their outer piston. A mass of equipment boxes sit over the fenders, and a cylindrical hydraulic reservoir is installed within, next to the large ram that powers the missile to the vertical when the need arises. Attention then shifts to the upper structures that sit atop the huge chassis members, beginning with the cabs, which are situated at the very front either side of the missile "valley". Both are well detailed with equipment, a textured floor, openable side doors with separate handles, and crew seats. Only the left cab is blessed with a steering wheel however, but both have individual glazing panels that are provided with die-cut masks to aid painting. A searchlight, aerials, vents and grab handles adorn the outer skins, and both sides have wing mirrors, despite the driver being unable to see the right-most one. The auxiliary power plant and other equipment are stored in the forward section of the upper hull, just behind the cab, bisected by the missile trench, and containing lots of parts to detail its interior to such an extent that it would be a shame to hide it all away behind the various access panels, onto which styrene handles and PE tie-downs are added. The central section of the upper hull contains the local control centre and emergency launch command equipment, which takes a good portion of the left side of the area, dropping down between the wheel pairs to give headroom for the operator(s) who sit at a pair of fold-down seats. Banks of equipment are supplied, with decals to detail them, and on the other side of the transmission tunnel is another small crew area that is adorned with one solitary seat. Tea room or toilet? The sidewalls are added along with the roof, and the poseable doors are detailed with handles, blinds and circular porthole glazing, which again have pre-cut masks. The roof has a more shallow valley cut into its surface, and various tie-downs, handles, fire extinguishers and other ancillary equipment are dotted around its outer surface. At this stage the main assemblies start to come together, starting with the auxiliary power pod, and followed by the control room, with yet more storage and equipment added to the rear platform either side of the tail of the rocket. Before the cabs are installed the radiator is installed and hosed into the cooling system, and a large cover with intakes is suspended between the grille and the front of the next compartment. The two cabs are added to the front, by clipping their C-shaped hinges onto a pair of hinge-points within the front fender. This should allow their movement later to show-off all the work you did on the engine compartment. A cab-stay can be added to keep them tilted forward if you wish. The launch platform is constructed from heavy gauge tube, which is represented by some chunky parts that slot together into an L-shaped platform with diagonal bracing beams at the sides. The launch-ring is made up from a sandwich of styrene and PE parts, with the top ring having four circular pads onto which the missile sits. To achieve a good fit, Trumpeter have included four metal rods that stand proud and slide into fairings on the base of the steering fins later in the build. The rest of the launch frame is built from a series of long parts, plus the tubular protective front frame that mimics the shape of the missile's nose cone. A number of support frames join the two halves of the frame together, and the completed frame is attached to the hinge-arms at the rear of the vehicle along with the launch platform, being secured by a pair of metal pins with flat tops. The missile itself is built up from two halves, into which the rocket exhaust and steering control parts are added, all of which looks to be nicely detailed. The steering vanes and their PE base-plates are mounted in slots, with the PE held in place on two small pips moulded into the base of the vanes. The completed missile slides onto the four metal pins on the base, a few pieces of equipment are added to the aux. power cubicle, and then it is time to add the two opposing rams that hold the missile carrier in position for both transport and firing poses. To depict your model ready for transport, the forward piston is added with the missile in the raised position, and this slides into the cylinder deep within the chassis as you lower it. The aft piston is a single part that links the base of the launch platform to the rear of the vehicle, and is shown extended for transport. To show the missile deployed, you have an alternative long piston for the front, and a much shorter piston for the rear. It's a shame they couldn't have made a more convenient and functional mechanism to enable a seamless transition between the two modes, but I'm sure that some bright spark will experiment with telescoping brass rods before too long. Markings Someone has pushed the boat out with this release, as you have seven schemes to choose from, and Mig Jiminez's new venture Ammo has provided both the colour information and profiles. Colour call-outs are given in Ammo (of course), Mr Hobby, Model Master, Tamiya and Humbrol brands, although only Ammo and Mr Hobby seem to have all the colours needed in their range. From the box you can build one of the following: Afghanistan Army, Kabul 2005 – four colour soft-edged "splodge" camouflage in Zis 508 Green, Russian Brown, black and forest green. Armenian Army – light green and mahogany camouflage with black and sandy brown "digital" patches. Libyan Army, Libyan Civil War, 2011 – sand yellow all over, and a white missile. Russian Army – all over Zis 508 green. Russian dark green missile. Iraqi Army, Gulf War I, 1991 – sand yellow all over, and a white missile. Iraqi Army, Iran/Iraq War, 1980-1988 – Middle stone with wood brown squiggle overspray. Light green missile. Islamic Republic of Iran Army – Dark green/middle stone/wood brown hard-edged camouflage. Light green missile with Russian dark green nose cone. A half page of the A3 painting & decaling guide is devoted to the missile, which is normally a light green, with one fin tipped with yellow. The reason for the detail is to show the numerous stencils and markings that are present all over the missile, including the hot end. The decals are printed to a reasonable standard, and are in good register, but there is one decal that is printed in English and states "Control Cabin", which I suspect might not be from an in-service vehicle – after asking Google, I'd replace it or just leave it off in case it is an addition from a museum example. The number of decals for the instrument panels is impressive, but my copy has an issue that looks to be the result of having something dragged across it while the dark grey ink was still wet. Consequently, one decal is a write-off, and there is a grey streak running across the middle of a few insignia. Hopefully, you will fare a little better. Conclusion Such a cool, menacing and iconic subject that appears to have had some care and attention lavished on its design, which is good to see. The golden age of missile launchers continues, and when built up this will make a very impressive addition. Detail is excellent, and I feel a little ungrateful moaning about the elevation mechanism requiring the swapping of parts, with consequent additional handling to change its pose. The number of decal options is great, and both the colours and operators should appeal to most tastes, although some of the schemes will be fun to paint. Very highly recommended. Phew! I got through the review without typing a certain word. Review sample courtesy of

Soviet SS-23 Spider Tactical Ballistic Missile (85505) 1:35 Hobby Boss Known by the Russians a Oka, the SS-23 Spider is NATO's codename for it, and the complete system was a definite threat to the West, which resulted in some controversy during the 90s, when its ability to strike quickly and without any viable means of defence against its warhead brought its existence into question during the disarmament treaty discussions. It ended up with Mr Gorbachev withdrawing them as a gesture of goodwill toward the west, although some were used by former Soviet states in a conventional role after this. Based on the eight-wheeled BAZ-6944 amphibious launch platform made by Bryansk Automobile Plant, it replaced the ageing Scud Bs in the late 1970s, and could set up and launch a missile within five minutes. The missile was highly capable too, and could hit mobile as well as stationary targets, and at the time was impossible to defend against due to its trajectory and speed. Its 250 mile range was hotly disputed by the west, and all of the nuclear tipped warheads have been withdrawn, as have the conventionally equipped missiles. A few vehicles and dummy missiles still exist in museums, fortunately. The Kit The modelling manufacturers seem to have a bit of a thing for missiles and their transporters, with this just one of many announcements over the past months, and now we have it available in the UK from our friends at Creative. The box is a large one, and is quite heavy with good reason. Once you lift the lid, you see why, as there's a lot of styrene in there, in the shape of ten sprues in sand coloured styrene, six large parts on their own, plus two smaller cylindrical parts, all in the same coloured styrene. The wheels are black "rubber", there is a length of copper wire hidden in the bag for the cab part (watch out for that), there are two frets of Photo-Etch (PE) brass in a card backed bag, and a small decal sheet. A clear sprue contains the windows and lights, and then it's just the instruction booklet and a glossy full-colour printed painting and marking guide. Initial impressions are that you'll need a big shelf/cabinet/base to display the finished model, as it measures almost 34cm long before you deploy the missile for firing. Detail is good throughout, and you have the option of posing the missile in transport mode, where it is completely covered within the vehicle, or in firing mode with the missile deployed in a vertical position and stabilising legs dropped from the front and rear of the vehicle. Construction starts with the crew cab, which sits within a large "bathtub" that is later dropped into the front of the body before it is closed up. A separate dash with steering and missile control equipment is first in, followed by a set of gear and drive mode selection levers, two crew seats, and a pair of odd turrets that stand behind both seats. In the roof are more instrument boxes, and a rear bulkhead, with the glazing added to lips from the inside at the sides, and from the outside at the front. Two hatches are added to the roof, along with an intake that can be posed raised or lowered, a series of grab-handles around the sides, and three windscreen wipers for the faceted windscreen. The huge keel of the vehicle is a single part, and has lots of suspension detail and ribbing moulded in, onto which eight suspension units are built up with swing-arms and dampers, before adding the wheels, which have styrene hubs and "rubber" tyres that are very nicely detailed. The keel is then added to the lower hull, locating on a number of large tabs. A profusion of grab-handles and other small parts are added to the sides, and the rear sponson boxes are installed behind the last pair of wheels. Note here that both front wheel pairs steer, so remember to pose them accordingly if you are planning on showing them deflected to one side or other. You need to choose whether your missile will be on display about now, as that will determine whether the four large stabilising legs are deployed or stowed in the sponson end-boxes for transport. After installing the triangular shaped strengthening beams and fuel tanks on each side, the hull is flipped over, and yet more small fixings are added to the sides. A small recessed panel is added to the inside of a rectangular hole in the hull side, which is later covered by a fine PE mesh, and the cab interior that you made earlier is installed in the front. The little PE brackets on the sides have short lengths of the copper wire inserted through their holes, of which you have to make 21, so it would be an idea to make a basic jig to cut 1.3mm reliably. It's time to build the missile, and here you are helped by the bottom two sections being moulded as cylinders, with plenty of detail added using sliding moulds. Four exhaust nozzles are added, as are the four waffle-textured steering vanes on each quadrant, and into the top is inserted the tapering business end of the missile, which is split lengthways, so will need a little work to hide the seams. The launch rail is another large moulding, with two inserts for the attachment of the missile, which secures on two large lugs on the transition from cylindrical to tapering. The triple rams are added under the rail, and its bay is decked out with three hinged hydraulic cylinders into which the rams slide, and the launch rail is attached via two hinge-points, which should allow it to be raised or lowered if you are careful with the glue. The missile bay walls are busy with equipment as moulded, to which more is added before they are installed on the bay floor using a number of location tabs and slots. It is then time to build the roof of the bay, which takes up most of the length of the vehicle. The main part is one of the large mouldings that comes with a removable strengthening sprue binding the two sides together to prevent damaging flexing during transport. The front of the bay is added, as are a number of access panels on the sloping sides, and another eight of the little brackets with wire cross-pieces. The two assemblies are now brought together, with the bay mounting in the roof by six hidden slots and tabs. It might be good to brace this joint further with some rod to prevent gravity working its magic over time. There is an optional cover for the nose of the missile that can be added at this stage, which has a blunt nose, and two clam-shell doors in the upper half to allow the missile to rise out of the cover during erection (don't!). The long doors are added next, and these can be left to hinge to expose the interior if you wish, as long as you have glued the small hinge-points into the doors securely. The finishing act involves installing the cab, roof, and the light-clusters, plus the grilles on the side, footstep under each door, and if you were sensible and left them off until now – the wing mirrors. With a little scratch-building work you could make the stabilising feet movable, so you could change your model's stance from transport to launch on a whim, as the doors and missile already have that capability. Markings Two options are available from the box, and neither have much in the way of decals if you ignore the instrument decals for the driver's controls. One is painted all-over light green (FS34102) with black lines wriggling over its surfaces as if someone was going to paint in camouflage, but forgot. The second is more flamboyant and has a dark grey and middle stone camouflage with black demarcation lines separating them. The decals are well printed, and all that will be placed outside are a pair of small unit markings for the front sides of the cab. The rest are in the cab, and should improve the detail there very well. Conclusion A big mobile missile launcher is quite impressive to look at, and HB have done well in terms of the detail that will be on display here. My only complaint is the fixed nature of the legs, particularly when the rest of the model can have its pose changed at any time. Address that as you see fit, and it's a good thing. Very highly recommended. The first stock has sold out already, but they will be back, and in the meantime you could always pick up one with a damaged box here Review sample courtesy of

BAe Hawk T Mk.1A 1:48 Hobby Boss The Hawk has been the RAF fast jet trainer of choice since it replaced the Folland Gnat in the late 70s, at which time it was still under the management of Hawker Siddeley, who were later subsumed into British Aircraft Corporation. It has gone on from there to be a widely used across the world in varying guises, including a carrier-borne variant operated by the Americans as the T-45 Goshawk. The T.1 has been in service since the beginning with the RAF, and a number of airframes were upgraded to the 1A specification to carry Sidewinders and a cannon pod. As well as being used to train pilots, it is also the mount of the much-loved and admired Red Arrows, who are probably the best advert for the aircraft available. The new T.2 has been designed as a lead-in to the new fast jets, the Typhoon or F-35, as and when it arrives in service. The Kit This release from HB was a bit of a surprise to all but the diligent, with very little heard about it before it hit their catalogue a few months ago. It arrives in a busy market, with the old Airfix kit, and the newer Italeri kits in this scale as competition, both of which have their own foibles. Can this new release correct those, and give us a nice Hawk T.1A out of the box? The box art is a little dull, and inside are eleven sprues of mid-grey styrene, two and a bit of clear parts, and a pair of small frets of Photo-Etched (PE) brass. There are also two decal sheets, a glossy painting guide, and the usual instruction booklet, with a card divider inside the box keeping some of the smaller sprues in place. First impressions are quite good, as the designers have certainly tried to pack plenty of detail in, and they have used a good degree of slide-moulding to achieve this, although this has introduced some additional seam lines here and there, which will need some careful scraping to make good. There is also some restrained use of raised riveting at the rear of the fuselage, which looks nice, but may fall foul of the sanding stick during building, so to this modeller is only really valuable if you can manage to avoid damaging them. There's always a few runs of Archer 3D rivet decals if you fail to keep them intact, so I'll not worry about it. The cockpit is the first task in building the kit, and it is well appointed with moulded in side consoles to the two-piece tub, separate instrument panels with moulded in raised dials and decals to finish off, twin control columns, but no rudder pedals (which probably won't be seen anyway), but there are some bits and bobs missing from the rear "parcel shelf" behind the back-seater, which is an accusation you can also level at other kits of the subject. Detail on the seats is nice, but you only get the early wedge-shaped head-boxes, so would need to spend out for a more modern iteration of the Martin Baker seat if you wanted to model a more recent article. Once complete, the cockpit and single part nose bay are inserted into the nose and closed up for posterity. The nose bay is a little shallow, but most folks won't notice that anyway, as it's quite dark in there. There is a bit of detail moulded into the sides that should come up nicely under paint however. The nose section goes back as far as the rear of the intakes, which is a requirement to maximise the use of tooling for all the variants they have planned. The rear fuselage closes around the back of the nose section, with an insert for the belly-mounted air-brake, and the front cockpit coaming added during the process. The intakes are single parts, with slide-moulding giving them plenty of detail all around, and a nice thin lip. There is a clear light part to add to each one, but they weren't fitted to all airframes, so check your references before you install them into the engraved spaces on the intake sides. The exhaust fits into a rear bulkhead, and although it is too short, it has engine detail moulded into the end. The canopy can be installed at this point, complete with the blast screen that fits between the pilots attached to the canopy. Some GS Hypo cement, or PVA would be best to fix that in to avoid clouding up the canopy, which seems quite thick on the sills, with a bit of distortion. There are PE rear-view mirrors provided, plus a small latch on the forward edge of the canopy for external opening. There are no references made to the det-cord pattern on the canopy top, and a representation isn't moulded in, but there are decals that are provided on the larger sheet to accomplish the task, and if you look carefully at the last two decal options, it is mentioned there, but not on the first option. Odd! The tail fin isn't integral to the fuselage halves, as there are differences between marks in fit and finish, and the two halves are glued together then added to the fuselage on two pins that fit into matching sockets. The fin looks a little short and/or blunt, but is actually taller than the Airfix offering, and both now look a little wide and short to my eyes. That's annoying! The horizontal tails are single parts that attach to the fuselage sides via a single point, just like the real ones. The wings will be the cause of a little sanding and trimming, because they have four fences moulded into them, some of which aren't needed for the T.1A, which generally sports only the larger outer one. One wing for all marks seems to have been tooled, but you aren't advised to remove the inner fences for this edition, even though you'll need to do so if they bother you. Comments have been made about the vortex generators being too far aft, but that might be an optical illusion caused by the excessive wing fences, or the fact that the wing span scales out correctly for an airframe with tip-mounted Sidewinders at 9.94m, when the Airfix kit is almost 10mm shorter in wingspan, which is about right for the basic wing at 9.39m. The wings look like they're about 10mm too wide if I'm correct. The vortex generators are actually closer to the leading edge than the Airfix kit, and are finer too. The lower wing is full-span, while the upper wings are split either side of the fuselage, with flaps and ailerons moulded into the wing. The flap actuator fairings are added to pairs of holes under the wings after they have been joined to the fuselage, but the main gear bays are inserted beforehand. The bay inserts are a single part each, and have wiring and ribbing detail moulded in, some of which is fictional, and they don't have the deeper inner section of the real thing. A lovely clear nose-light and wingtip lights are added here too. The landing gear has been moulded in halves to add extra external detail, but this will mean a seam to hide, although with some careful alignment, you do at least have some control over it. You will also need to remove some large ejector pin marks from the mating surface to achieve a snug fit, so test-fitting is the way to go. The nose gear leg has a single wheel trapped within its yoke, and the moulded-in hubs are shallow, while the tyre has a substantial sag to it, which isn't all that evident on the real thing unless it has been parked up for a while. The main gear also have sag moulded in, but this is more appropriate, and again the hubs are too shallow by far, having an almost hub-cap like appearance. CMK's wheel set will come in handy here for sure. The main legs are built from four parts, plus small legs that hold the captive bay doors at the correct angle, but you'll probably want to leave them off and paint them with the rest of the airframe exterior. The air-brake and actuator strut are shown open only, and although the brake is nicely detailed on the inside, the bay itself is a little simplified, and until I have fitted the parts together, it is difficult to say whether it will be easy to pose retracted as it is often seen when on the ground. A full set of pylons are included in the kit, which aren't frequently seen installed all at once, but they're there, and you can use them if you wish. You are supplied with the following ordnance and a diagram of which pylon they can be placed on, but you are better off looking for some actual photographic evidence rather than loading up regardless. 2 x AIM-9P with adapter rails 2 x AIM-9L with adapter rails 2 x LR-155 Rocket Packs 2 x M117 Iron Bombs 2 x Additional fuel tanks I do wish that companies (in general) would provide some training rounds for more typical real-world practice scenarios, but I suppose you could always take your knife to a "live" Sidewinder instead. Markings There are three markings options from the box, which have sufficient variation to please many folks, but I believe some of the roundel sizes are incorrect, so you'll need to check your references again there. The red centres of the roundels are also way out of register on my copy, which will stick out like the proverbial sore-thumb if applied to the model. From the box you can build one of the following: XX256 of No.2 Tactical Weapons Unit (No.63 "Shadow" Squadron) RAF Chivenor, 1981 wrap-around grey/green camouflage. XX341 of the Empire Test Pilots School, Advanced Systems Training Aircraft (ASTRA) Boscombe Down, 2000 Raspberry Ripple scheme in blue, red, white and grey. XX226 of No.4 Flying Training School (No.74 "Shadow" Squadron) RAF Valley, 2001 all-over gloss black with tiger head on the tail. Decals are a little below-par for Hobby Boss, and some of the yellow doesn't seem to have been under-printed with white, so will probably disappear if applied over any darker colours. The red is a little spotty on my sample, as well as being out of register to a fair degree, and the overall view under magnification is slightly fuzzy, but it's not so obvious at 1x. The smaller sheet contains all the stencils for the weapons, as well as two nice decals for the instrument panels, which should improve their look after being well soaked in decal softening solution to get them to settle over the raised detail. Conclusion Not the easiest review in the book, because from an advanced modeller's point of view the kit has some fairly difficult problems to fix in terms of shape as well as the smaller details. If built up out of the box you should obtain a reasonable replica of the aircraft as you can see in the tape-up pictures above, but the more critical eye will notice problems that they would either choose to address or go elsewhere. The apparent issue with the wing span doesn't bode well, but I would prefer corroboration one way or the other before waving my arms around in horror. The kit is best suited to the casual modeller who has no major concern regarding accuracy, and I'm sure it will sell well as such. All Hawk kits in 1:48 so far have their issues to a greater or lesser degree, but for the more detail and accuracy motivated modeller, it's a case of choosing which one you are prepared to work with, and I suspect the case for this one will be weak. Review sample courtesy of

KV-5 Soviet Heavy Tank 1:35 Takom The KV-5 was a still-borne dead-end offshoot from the KV project that took its name from the initials of the Defence Commissar Kliment Voroshilov, and were a range of (mostly paper) projects coupling heavy armour with heavy armament. The successful KV-1 and KV-2 are the only variants that saw service due to changing requirements, doctrine and projects falling out of favour at the whim of the higher-ups. The KV-3 and 4 suffered a similar fate, which was never reaching even prototype phase before being passed over in favour of more advanced alternatives. The KV-5 was in the Super-Heavy class, and would have weighed around 100 tons, sporting ridiculously thick armour varying from 120-190mm and a 105mm Zis-6 gun inside its blockhouse of a turret. Soviet doctrine called "Deep Battle" required heavily armoured less-agile tanks that could apply pressure to a besieged enemy without significant fear from the opposition's outbound fire. The KV-5 would have been one of the ultimate answers to that need, with a crew of six servicing the 105mm gun in a large turret, protected by heavy armour. The series was ended with the KV-7 consigned to the "paper project" bin and subsequent developments suffering the same fate after Voroshilov fell out of favour, with the alternatives renamed to JS prefixes after their leader Joseph Stalin. The Kit A new mould from Takom, this is a thoroughly modern tooling of this monster, and it arrives in a glossy top-opening box that bears a painting of a KV-5 bearing down on us. Inside the box are eight sprues, plus lower hull and turret parts all in a very dark grey styrene, plus another small sprue that contains a figure, which seems to be Takom's "thing" for most of their kits. Also present is the novel and helpful approach to sprue labelling, which is a stencil-style cut-out through the tab that makes identifying sprues so much easier. The package also contains a turned metal barrel, a small fret of Photo-etch (PE) brass, a small clear sprue, and a small sprue of poly-caps. A decal sheet and instruction booklet round out the package, the latter being printed in A4 landscape orientation, with a brown cover and cream pages within. It is a paper project, so not much data is available, so Takom have erred on the side of caution and not added any internal detail. What is there is a full exterior that is nicely done, but lacking underside detail and any sign of pioneer tools that would have been fitted if it reached service. That wouldn't have been an issue if the decal options hadn't included and fictitious in-service options. Construction starts with building up a host of wheels onto their swing-arms in pairs – sixteen for the road wheels, plus another two for the idler wheels, and a four-part drive sprocket. Another eight return rollers are glued onto conical mounts, and all that work is then put aside while the front lower glacis with towing lugs and headlights is built up, as is the rear bulkhead, then the smaller turret with its machine gun, and the driver's cupola. The upper hull is closed over with a flat blanking plate that is bereft of any detail, plus the front and rear panels, after which the bump-stops for the suspension swing-arms are added next to the axle locations. The wheels and their swing-arms are then fitted into their respective stations, which have hexagonal holes that match the hexagonal ends of the swing–arms, automatically setting the ride height. The tracks are individual links moulded on three of the larger sprues, with four sprue gates on each link, but no sink-marks or ejector pin marks to remove, so it's simply a matter of cleaning up the curves on the edges of each link before they can be glued in place, adding what appears to be substantial sag, if the instructions are correct. The KV-1 seemed to run with a similar amount of sag, but the KV-2 seems to have less pronounced sag, but I guess that as it was never built, that's up to you. You aren't given a suggestion as to how many links to use, so you'll have to build up a length and then wrap it around the wheels and shorten/lengthen it to suit. The machine-gun turret is mounted on a raised podium, and sits next to the driver's cupola, in front of the main turret ring. The fenders run full-length, and mate with the upper hull via a number of pegs and by incorporating a section of the upper-deck that sits to the side of the turret ring. This should result in a strong join, which will be further strengthened by the addition of a number of straight and triangular supports along its length. Three filter boxes sit atop the forward end of the engine deck, and have PE grilles installed where the air is drawn in, and these cover up a set of louvers that aren't moulded particularly convincingly. Each fender is fitted with the stowage boxes at the rear, in between the three triangular supports, and these are moulded as single parts, but with moulded in hinges and lifting handles for good measure. The main turret had a cupola for the commander, plus another mini-turret on top for a machine-gunner to perform close-in defence. The turret is built up from a to p and bottom half, with a gun barrel inserted from inside, and a pair of armoured vision block shrouds added on top. The cupola has moulded in vision blocks, and a lift-and-swivel hatch, which must be glued in place. The main barrel is turned aluminium with a short hollow muzzle that should be painted black to hide its shortness, and inserts into the mantlet, which has its hinge-points glued in behind it, attaching to the mounting points via a pair of poly-caps to give it a friction-fit that will allow the barrel to be moved and posed. The turret is made up from the large main part, a front panel onto which the mantlet glues, and a turret ring, with bustle-step at the rear. A set of crew steps run up the port side, more armoured vision-block shrouds, rear lifting lugs, and an aft hatch add detail to the turret, along with the machine-gun turret and commander's cupola, the latter fitting into a keyed hole, the former mounted on a bayonet-style turret ring. There are five large bolts on the top corners of the mantlet, which aren't moulded in, but are instead supplied on a flat portion of the sprue runners. These are to be cut off and positioned according to the scrap diagram, after which the turret is installed and twisted to lock it. The final assembly is the figure, which is a small kit in itself. The head, torso and legs are moulded as one piece, while the arms, mask and flame-thrower are separate parts. He is wearing a protective suit, a gas mask, hood and long boots, with the flame-thrower held in two hands. A hose leads from the breech of the gun to a double tank on the figure's back, with a small bag to the left. The figure is a little speculative, but is quite impressive, and has a rather sinister look to it. Markings Two speculative sets of markings are supplied for two vehicles. Registration is good, and colour density seems acceptable, although it is always difficult to tell with white decals, which form the majority of the sheet on this occasion. From the box you can build one of the following: Soviet 2nd Tank Army, Kursk 1943 – Russian Green with red star and patriotic slogan on the turret sides, and vehicle number 16. Finnish Army, Enso 1944 – Tan/Green/Grey camouflage, Finnish cross and vehicle number 21 on the turret. Conclusion It's not often you get an injection moulded KV-5 in 1:35, and it's a decent model, given the lack of readily available information or even a prototype of the subject. The exterior is reasonably well detailed with the obvious exception of the underside, which is a bit of a "so what?" area anyway, and individual link tracks are always a plus-point in my estimation. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Blohm & Voss BV141 1:48 HobbyBoss In 1937 the RLM (Luftwaffe High Command) issued a request for proposals for a single-engined reconnaissance aircraft with a three-man crew. The initial concept by Richard Vogt, chief designer for Blohm & Voss, was a conventional layout with the cockpit behind the engine. However this provided a limited field of view, leading him to come up with possibly the most radical aircraft design ever. The crew cabin was moved onto the starboard wing, resulting in an asymmetrical configuration which looked as if it would be unstable and uncontrollable even if it could get off the ground. In effect it was a twin-boom aircraft with the starboard nacelle removed! However the RLM saw the potential and authorised the construction of three prototypes. The first BV141A took to the air on 25th February 1938 and proved to be surprisingly easy to handle. Vogt redesigned the cockpit to improve the field of view before the second prototype was built. This machine was lost when it crash-landed following an undercarriage problem. However the RLM gave its approval for further aircraft to be built. Along the way the plane got a more powerful engine, an asymmetric tailplane which improved the rear gunner’s field of fire, and a change of designation to BV141B. Then the project was suddenly cancelled – not, as some historians have believed, due to any misgivings about the aircraft’s design or performance, but for purely logistical reasons. The engine used in later models was the same one fitted to the Do217 and the Fw190, and the factory where these engines were built found itself unable to meet the demand after it was bombed by the RAF. Understandably, the RLM felt that the war effort would be better served by bombers and fighters rather than reconnaissance aircraft, and the BV141 was consigned to history without ever seeing active service. Its role was filled by the Fw-189, even though it did not meet the initial request for a single-engined machine. Records show that twenty aircraft were built before the plug was pulled, but none survived the war. The Kit Until now the only mainstream kit available – so far as I’m aware – was Airfix’s 1:72 offering, which was first released in 1970 and has reappeared periodically since. It’s fair to say that they took some liberties with the design – for instance, to accommodate the wing attachment tabs they created a non-existent step in the cockpit floor, which led to the rear-gunner having to be moulded with no legs below the knee so that he would fit! This left anyone interested in the aircraft keen to see a new more accurate kit, preferably (for me at least!) in a larger scale. And now we have one: HobbyBoss have come up trumps with their new 1:48 offering. The kit comes in a sturdy top-opening box and consists of three sprues of light grey plastic and four small ones with the transparencies. HobbyBoss have got round the attachment tab problem by moulding the entire starboard wing, including the base of the cockpit, as a single piece. Surface detail is nice, with finely-engraved panel lines and some good detail in the wheel-wells. The main fuselage halves are here and it’s clear how slender this component can be when you don’t have to include room for the crew! Of course this is the case for twin-boom aircraft but it’s odd to see just one in the box. There’s some lovely internal detail for the cockpit, including the mat on which the rear gunner lay and the rails on which the observer/bomb-aimer’s stool ran. The kit doesn’t actually include crew figures so if an in-flight version is required these would have to be obtained elsewhere. The asymmetric tail has some odd sink marks in its surface that will need correcting before assembly, but it occurs in the centre area where there is minimal detail, so it's not the end of the world. Unfortunately, they don't show up well in the picture below. The BMW801 radial engine is reproduced in fine detail and some careful painting will bring this out, even though much of it will be concealed by the cowling. The undercarriage was the source of teething problems in more than one aircraft and again this is nicely detailed. This sprue also carries the machine guns and ammunition plus other internal items, all of which will be visible through the big cockpit transparency. Most of this was absent from the Airfix kit so its inclusion here is good to see. The transparencies sprues are packed individually, each one wrapped in a soft foam material and sealed in a plastic bag, which will avoid any scratches. This is particularly important with the main cockpit canopy, which is moulded as a single piece – masking that should be fun! The shape bears a strong resemblance to that of the Fw-189 and a side-by-side comparison might make an interesting display. The various access hatches are moulded separately so can be fitted open if desired. Markings are supplied for two aircraft – NC-RA, the second B-version to be constructed (the tenth machine overall) and GK-GH, which was found in a wrecked condition by the US Army. There are, of course, no swastika decals as such but the sheet does include the “mirror-image question mark” things, meaning that the model can be completed without having to resort to aftermarket sheets. Conclusion A long-awaited kit which should satisfy anybody with an interest in this odd aircraft. Also an ideal basis for some what-if projects! Nicely tooled, with plenty of detail inside that goldfish bowl of a crew compartment. I obtained details of the aircraft’s history from this book: It contains numerous photographs and diagrams of the real aircraft, plus some beautiful digital renderings of the plane in action. My copy has been on my shelf for years so I’m not sure how easy it would be to get hold of, but it’s worth the effort. Review sample courtesy of Thanks also to GordonD for the majority of the text in this review