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The Tupolev SB-2 M-100A in the ICM 1:72 scale is a challenge that has been waiting for its implementation in my workshop for many years. The model was first purchased at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, sold after deciding to abandon the small scale, and bought again this year, out of sympathy for the silhouette of the plane, slender, with wings of a vast span compared to fuselage length. Beautiful, in its twisted way. An undervalued plane in scale modeling. SB is persecuted by bad luck regarding the availability of decent models. The new kit in 1:48 scale is probably lost with the collapse of the modeling company (supposedly, one can hunt vacuum-formed MPM for a lot of money, but you know...), Frog's or MPM injection products - either primitive or almost impossible to build, and finally ICM - which in the box it looks nice, especially when it comes to surface details, but it is so fragmented, even shredded, that it can be discouraging. But somehow, I made it to the end. No, it's not my top achievement; I just glued it together and painted it. Rob Taurus canopies are, in my opinion, a must-have accessory for this model. I also added the harness in the cabins (Eduard) and applied Print Scale decals - that's it. My Katiuska is painted with MRP, and AK Interactive 3G paints. Weathered with Modelers World washes, some subtle highlights are done with Oilbrushers from Ammo Mig (dry brushed). The model is supposed to represent a Republican aviation machine - 24th Group, Barahas, Spain, April 1939. I hope you like it!

So with the Tucano done I need another project. This one landed on my lap from a mate, he bought it purely for the donation to Ukrainian causes and asked me to build it. I couldn't refuse. So I won't go into the contents of the box as these are all we documented on this site, its a nice kit with decent detail, a bit of flash but nothing to serious. Going to model this one in flight with one of the Coastal Kits Blur bases but some mods need to be done on the kit as its depicted as on the ground only. A bit of a parts cleaning session so far. Some fettling of parts is required but considering ICM have produced and distributed this kit is quite amazing in its own right. Was thinking of adding a couple of AGM-88 HARMs as at the moment there is a lot of controversy on the integration of the system to ex Soviet airframes, I think it might add a bit of interest ? Just a bit of AM Decals will be from the kit but I do reserve the right to add a tad more AM to the build Enjoy

Hallo This is my Ju 88 A-5 in 1/48 from ICM. Since this kit has some flaws in geometry in the cockpit, I got the resin AIMS cockpit. This is fine, but you create some longitudinal displacement. This displacements accompany through the finish of the model and cause some sever headache. Most of the vertical positions are fine, but not all of them. Here meets two flaws and one single place. The trim wheel from Eduard is too big! So it causes an intersection with the horizontal cockpit panel. This horizontal panel has all the control levers. Here is one point: Exactly under the trim wheel is the throttle double lever inside and outside both sides the propeller feather control. This detail is in the original Luftwaffe manual by page diversion omitted! And Eduard etched parts, also do not show the throttle lever. I also show you some other details from the manual, which may be unknown to you. The rudder break. Eduard has this part in the interior set. The hydraulic lines, I made it with lead wire. Here number 5, the bombardier control stick, just used in attack! This control stick has to be stowd! Eduard set has the fixing here number 1! The seats of pilot and radio operator. The seats for bombardier and gunner in ready position. The bombardier seat in stowed position. I could not make it. So far some details explained. So have a look and get some inspiration for creating a more accurate Ju-88, as the kit provides it. Used aftermarket parts: · Resin AIMS cockpit · BIG Eduard set · Montex masks · New Ware masks Happy modelling

As part of my ICM 1/48 Nightfighter builds, i decided to include some figures to go along with them. With a couple large aircraft on the way, i decided it would be a good idea to get two packs of figures, instead of just one. Having done plenty ICM figures in the past, im sure construction will be lovely as ever, and the details look pretty-nice. It's not my first rodeo in terms of Luftwaffe crew painting either. I did a bunch of aircrew figures in 1/72 not too long ago. So, should be fun, especially now that i have all that new experience from doing the WWII Soviet figures. It is kind of funny tough, that pretty-much whenever i do any builds in 1/72 scale or a larger scale, im always thinking about how to add some crew/figures to go along with them, and when i do, i almost always make more than what one would perhaps normally need. It really has become almost an obsession for me. And here are the figures i did in the past. So, basically the same, but in larger scale. Tough this time i will swap the almost RAF looking blue for something more gray'ish. And no, those are not all Luftwaffe pilot figures, they are of multiple nations, just painted to look more German. Not perfect, but i think it works well enough. Anyways, rest of the info will be provided as we go along. Below will be links to the projects other segments.

Hallo This will be my 6th Ju-88 in scale 1/48. The former kits were Revell and Dragon. I thought that this present day kit by ICM would overrule all the old kits. Yes it does. But vice versa. The kit shows me a poor engineering of the basic airframe. The wing joint to the fuselage is a merry-go-round, with one pin. If you try to make a dry fit, nearly impossible. The fuselage is soft in the wing joint area, so you can squeeze it with easy. I built an additional bulkhead. The cockpit has a fresh air ventilation to the wing! Nice! The first encounter with cleverness was the stabilator of the elevator. Actually you can not glue it. The elevator prevents any access to get glue on the seam. I should be more calm, but the pilot seat is also a masterpiece of engineering! What should be better? I am close to put this kit back in my shelf. For bad times, or for a person I dislike. What should I do? I am really frustrated by such a design! Happy modelling

ICM is to release 1/32nd Bell AH-1G Cobra kits - ref. 32060 - Bell AH-1G Cobra (early production), US Attack Helicopter - released Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM32060 - 1/32 - ref. 32061 - Bell AH-1G Cobra (late production), US Attack Helicopter - released Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM32061 - ref. 32062 - Bell AH-1G Cobra with Vietnam War US Helicopter Pilots - released Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM32062 Special Hobby boxing - ref. SH32082 - Bell AH-1G Cobra "Early Tails over Nam" V P.

Which would be great... but..... and yes, i know that we frequently have spats and bunfights over colours, and I can't really see the colours just in the bottles, and the following is meant as a discussion/query rather than a dummy spitting rant, though I am rather put out in general with acrylic attempts at RAF paint... but aspect of this concern me..... so I hope the following will explain further Chocolate? Extra Dark Green? Blue Grey? Dark Grey? Looking at the paint guide, they are intended to represent Dark Earth (which is a greeny brown), Dark Green(a dark olive green) and Sky (which is a very pale yellow green, but not blue or grey) which set alarm bells ringing. I don't really care if they call them Barbie pink and unicorn Purple, if they represent the actual colours well, but just the names alone worry me....I mean, this is hardly an obscure subject.... and FWIW, the colours shown on the image below from the instructions are to my eye and screen, 'close enough' for a reasonable idea and this 1941 Life magazine image shows the colours well, note also the markings, sky, grass, uniforms, faces look 'right' Spitfire in England by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr But the point is that we have gone backward with RAF model paint in acrylic..... I have several brands, naively thinking as these are well known and well documented colours.... it was only after finding a model when painted looked wrong (still awaiting stripping) I really started digging, comparing brush out to the RAF museum book chips. Xtracrylix are usually rated, I found all the major RAF ones 'off', AK Interactive, same Tamiya's claimed RAF colours, XF81/82/83 were also off, I got some Lifecolour, also way off. I was sent a sample of Hataka Dark Earth/ Dark Green/Sky, also off. I'd not trust Vallejo's stated matches for anything these days, though with such a wide range near matches are to be found by trial and error, we had a mega thread on what serious miss the MigAmmo colours were.... https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235078859-accuracy-of-ammo-by-mig-jiménez-raf-wwii-colours/ At this stage I'm not about to waste any more money or time trusting model paint sets without some trusted confirmation... Note, for any of those rolling their eyes, and 'there was a war on' and the like ideas, the post in the direct link here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235078859-accuracy-of-ammo-by-mig-jiménez-raf-wwii-colours/page/3/#elControls_4045174_menu which I'm going to quote for it's clarity, Is one of the most illuminating I have read on here on wartime colours, courtesy of @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies who runs a paint company, and has made up samples from wartime paint formula, so is not talking out of his hat. I'm going to point out some facts about real-life paint manufacture and either the reader will understand and "get it" or will not understand and are in no position to contradict me. 1) Usually camouflage colours are fairly low saturation colours because these blend in better with nature. They're seldom bright and bold. Low saturation colours are normally manufactured by adding coloured pigments to a base made from inexpensive white or white and black pigments. 2) Colour pigments are expensive. The expense varies depending on the specific pigment, but they're expensive. 3) The only way to over-saturate a colour so much is to substantially over-dose your base with the expensive colour pigments. I'm not talking about a few percent more or less - that causes minor differences which you only confirm the presence of with one swatch adjacent to another - I'm talking more in the order of a double dose to get something you obviously look at and think "woah". 4) In the case of colours like dark olive, these are mostly white, black and ochre (which is relatively inexpensive for a colour pigment) sometimes further tinted with a bit of red or green (which are often very expensive). 5) There can certainly be variances in a manufactured paint, but these tend to be greatly overstated, i.e. used as a ready made excuse for all sorts of mistakes. Ultimately, the only way a manufactured paint can end up so oversaturated is to have dumped in a vast amount of the expensive pigments, if not adding in new additional pigments in large quantities not expected in the recipe. Frankly, it's difficult to see how any manufactured paint could end up so drastically off target, particularly in the over-saturated sense, by any business that wasn't actively trying to bankrupt itself by roasting through obscene quantities of pigments like chrome green which were already expensive at the start of the war and in particularly short supply during. 6) I'd venture that most of the "there was a war on, you know" type apologists for such spectacular errors probably don't have any actual experience of what is and isn't possible when mixing different proportions of 2,3 or 4 pigments when 2 of those are usually black and white just to make your base to tint. You simply cannot end up with a Humbrol 30-esque bluish green using only the ingredients to make olive - i.e. you'd actually have to sabotage it by introducing if not blue then an obviously bluish green. Same goes for that bright green Spitfire above - you can't achieve that with black, white, ochre and a touch of red - you'd need to fire in a lot of bright green pigment in to get that saturated on an overly-light base. It would be more tan-like just using the basic olive green ingredients which only turns obviously olive when tinted enough with black. Put another way, with a fixed number of pigments in various ratios you WILL end up somewhere within a certain envelope, and usually when colours like this bright green are discussed it's because it's well outside that envelope. The point of all the above? In essence it's harder to make a credible explanation for how such a colour might have been arrived at in a real-life paint manufacturing environment than it is to demonstrate that someone would have had to go to a lot of trouble to get it so far wrong. That is harder to rationalise than just getting it closer to correct. Just to clarify, I have good colour vision, and the paints I mention above are frequently not even close, common problems are beigey or chocolaty Dark Earth (no green) and muddy Sky (browny tint) for example, along with blueish Ocean Grey (it's a slightly green hued grey) , muddy or yellowy Medium Sea Grey (it very subtly purple hued grey) being some of the main failings I found... I know this as I spent a long time doing mixes and comparing them to the chips. in the case of the Beaufort, they were Temperate Land Scheme, as in pic above, Dark Earth/ Dark Green/Sky, or Temperate Sea Scheme, Dark Slate Grey(a grey green)/Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky, or in the case of MW-R, black undersides So.... what are the scheme and colours they are intending in the set? charitably it's Temperate Land Scheme with some grey? which is for what? Or are they using the same green for Dark Green and Dark Slate Grey? Any chance of some images of the spray out ? Do you have any standards to compare any of these too? Just something that would allow some idea of the colours in the set. I hope ICM have made decent job of the colours, as the actual paint sounds decent, though the names picked imply them using 'near matches' from their paint range, which never bodes well. Hope of interest to the subject under discussion and not too ranty, and I have explained my concerns reasonably and clearly?

Mobile Brigade West – Schnelle Brigade West 1943 (DS3517) 1:34 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd Schnelle Brigade West was formed in France during the Spring of 1943 as a fast response unit to Allied advances, being highly mechanised and capable of rapid relocation when the need arose. German industry was struggling to keep up with demand from their forces at that point, and this necessitated the pressing into service of captured vehicles, as well as captured vehicles that had been adapted to better suit their needs, which included many of the new Marders that were based on French tanks of differing types, some of which were designed by their industrious and inventive commanding officer Major Becker. It also included the quirky-looking Laffly V15T, which had been captured or surrendered after the armistice and been pressed into German service. Despite their relatively light armour and armament, they were available in sufficient numbers to be of use, and the Brigade was soon used to reform the 21st Panzer Division after the original Division surrendered in Africa. This set depicts some of the vehicles that constituted this relatively short-lived unit, at least by that name, with three kits included in the large top-opening box with the usual captive lid on the lower tray. The three instruction booklets have been slipped inside a cardboard folder, and the small decal sheets can still be found within the front pages of each one. Each kit is separately bagged with an orange sticker having the kit number printed on it. Each decal sheet has an option for the Mobile Brigade West, but also has two alternatives if you just wanted the kit for the contents rather than the headline option. 10.5cm leFH 16(Sf) auf Geschutzwagen FCM36(f) The Geschutzwagen (gun vehicle) series of Self-Propelled Howitzers were originally created to fill a need for mobile artillery that could be self-sufficient and yet work in unison with troops and tanks at the high speed of Blitzkrieg, similar to the Marder, but with indirect fire from behind the lines their stock-in-trade. The concept was to mount a large diameter howitzer on a captured tank chassis that had been stripped of its superstructure and given an extended splinter shield around the gun and its crew, whilst leaving the roof open to the elements. Like the early Marders, they were built on captured French tank chassis, such as the obsolete FCM 36, with a large shield that extended almost the whole length of the vehicle, housing a WWI era 105mm leFH 16(Sf) howitzer, which was of 1916 vintage. Incidentally, FCM stands for Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, who were based at Toulon in the French Riviera. Only a very few of these vehicles were made due to the relatively small number of FCM36 chassis that were originally captured, and some say that as few as eight were built, although there are numbers as high as 12 mentioned elsewhere. Either way, there weren’t many. They saw service in Europe during the relatively inactive period after their conquest of France and before D-Day, and by 1944 there weren’t any on charge according to records, which up until that point were pretty reliable. The tank was only lightly armoured to protect their crews from shrapnel, shell splinters or small arms fire from all-round, which is somewhat better than a standard artillery piece would afford its crew, although the open roof would make a tempting target for grenades or demolition packs in close combat. However, they weren’t meant to be near the front line under normal circumstances, so it mattered less than it did with direct fire vehicles such as Marders. It would however have been uncomfortable for the crew in bad weather necessitating a temporary tarpaulin roof to keep the precipitation out, but very little of the cold. This is another re-tool of ICM’s previous FCM 36 kit, adding the relevant parts for the conversion undertaken by Baustokommando Becker at the time. Inside the resealable bag are seven sprues in grey styrene, two flexible black sprues of track links, a decal sheet and glossy instruction booklet with colour profiles in the back pages for painting and markings. The original FCM 36 kit was only released in 2020, so it’s a modern tooling with plenty of detail and this boxing includes the majority of the interior due to the open roof. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is made up initially of the floor and two sides that are cut back slightly to accommodate the different upper hull, as shown in an accompanying diagram, with bulkheads added to the sides to support the lower sponson panels that give the vehicle more ground clearance. The running gear is made up from a three-part drive sprocket, eighteen sets of twin wheels that are fitted to eight double bogies and two singles, then the big idler wheels at the rear of the hull on adjustable tensioning axles. The sloped armoured upper sponsons are installed along the way, with the mud-shedding apertures on each side, idler adjustment mechanisms and some towing eyes on the back plate. Two pairs of return rollers on the top run are glued inside the sponson, then the flexible black “rubberband” tracks are glued together, the instructions neglecting to mention that styrene glues won’t join them, so you should use super glue or epoxy instead. Each run has two sections, with the joints best placed in the centre of each run so they stand less chance of being seen on the finished model. Detail on the tracks is very nice, with twin guide horns and perforated centres like the real thing, but of course the links will curve round the ends, rather than having the correct faceted look that individual links provide. The upper hull is a new part that was also seen on the recent Marder I kit, and has an opening at the front where the turret would have been, and has the two fender sides fitted to the rear before it is joined to the lower hull, hiding most of the upper track run. At the rear a large louvred panel and fixtures on the final-drive access hatches are glued on first, with the two shrouded exhausts and their mufflers slotted into grooves to their side, and a shallow C-shaped manifold joining them at the top. Pioneer tools and towing eyes are fitted later, because the gun must be made up first, after adding a driver’s panel and vision slit it fixed into the top of the glacis plate. The WWI era 10.5cm leFH 16(Sf) gun, is begun by making up the combined cradle and breech, then adding the cradle trunnions and elevation mechanism on both sides, after which the floor is made up with the underfloor ammo storage depicted by gluing the 36 striking plate charge sections of the two-part ammunition into the box-sections in the forward floor. It is mated to the hull on a substantial C-shaped plinth with a locking washer, covering up the former turret aperture, then adding aim adjustment wheels before the gun’s splinter shield is begun by adding the two faceted side panels and the cheek parts, the former having been fitted out with shell racks, radio boxes and machine gun ammo canisters. The forward splinter shield that moves with the gun barrel is added outside the main shield, preventing stray rounds or shrapnel from entering the cab or damaging the gun slide, the latter part comprising two sides with angled front to deflect frontal shots. A louvred panel is fixed into depressions on each of the side walls, and the back panel with moulded-in access hatch are glued onto the rear of the crew compartment, then two sets of 21 x 105mm shells and a few more separate charges with striker plates are placed next to them. At this stage the pioneer tools can be attached to the exterior compartment walls at the rear of the vehicle, with light cluster, spare track links and barrel cleaning rods at the front, plus an antenna perched atop the side wall to the rear, and a self-defence MG34 machine gun on the front, then you can put on the two-part muzzle brake that gives the impression of a hollow barrel. Markings There are three markings options on the small decal sheet, with variation between them and some interesting camouflage schemes, all of which saw service in 1943. From the box you can build one of the following: Mobile Brigade West, 1943 931st Assault Gun Division, France, 1943 Training Camp of Mobile Brigade West, Summer 1943 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partner, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Marder I on FCM 36 Base The Marder series of Tank Destroyers were originally created to fill a need for mobile artillery that could be self-sufficient and yet work in unison with troops and tanks at the high speed of Blitzkrieg. The concept was to mount a PaK40 or captured Soviet 76 mm F-22 Model 1936 divisional field gun on a captured tank chassis that had been stripped of its superstructure and given an extended splinter shield around the gun and its crew, whilst leaving the roof open to the elements. Many of the initial Marder Is were built on French Lorraine or Czech 38(t) chassis, but a small number were constructed on the obsolete FCM 36, with a large shield that extended almost the whole length of the vehicle. FCM stands for Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, who were based at Toulon in the French Riviera. They saw use on the Eastern Front initially, then also in the West after D-Day. Although they were intended to be mobile artillery that was capable of destroying most tanks at a respectable range, they were only lightly armoured to protect their crews from shrapnel, shell splinters or light arms fire from all-round, which is somewhat better than a standard artillery piece would afford its crew, although the open roof would make a tempting target for grenades or demolition packs in close combat. It would have been uncomfortable for the crew in bad weather too, necessitating a temporary tarpaulin roof to keep the precipitation out, but very little of the cold or blowing snow. This is a substantial re-tool of ICM’s previous FCM 36 kits, adding the specialised parts for the conversion designed again by Baustokommando Becker. Inside the bag are seven sprues in grey styrene, two flexible black sprues of track links, a decal sheet and glossy instruction booklet with colour profiles in the back pages for painting and markings. The original FCM 36 kit was only released in 2020, so it’s a modern tooling with plenty of detail and this boxing includes the majority of the interior due to the open roof. Construction begins with the lower hull, which is made up initially of the floor and two sides, with bulkheads added to the sides to support the lower sponson panels that give the vehicle more ground clearance. The running gear is made up from a three-part drive sprocket, eighteen sets of twin wheels that are fitted to eight double bogies and two singles, then the big idler wheels at the rear of the hull on sliding tensioning axles. The sloped armoured upper sponsons are installed along the way, with the mud-shedding apertures on each side. Two pairs of return rollers on the top run are glued inside the sponson, then the flexible black “rubberband” tracks are glued together, the instructions neglecting to mention that styrene glues won’t join them, so you should use super glue or epoxy instead. Each run has two sections, with the joints best placed in the centre of each run so they stand less chance of being seen on the finished model. Detail on the tracks is very nice, with twin guide horns and perforated centres like the real thing, but of course the links will curve round the ends, rather than give the correct faceted look that individual links provide. The upper hull is a new part, and has an opening at the front where the turret would have been, and has the two fender sides fitted to the rear before it is joined to the lower hull, hiding most of the upper track run. At the rear a large louvred panel and fixtures on the final-drive access hatches are glued on first, with the two exhausts and their mufflers slotted into grooves to their side, and a C-shaped manifold joining them at the top. Pioneer tools and towing eyes are the final parts for now, because the gun must be made up first. The PaK40 is begun by making up the cradle and inserting the breech, then the one-piece gun tube and part of the elevation mechanism. The cradle trunnions are held in place by the side frames, which are fixed to the arrow-shaped floor. More of the elevation mechanism is added, then the floor is mated to the hull, covering up the turret aperture, then having armoured supports slipped under the overhang. The gun’s double-layer splinter shield is slid over the barrel and glued to the gun, then the two faceted side panels are fitted out with shell racks, then attached to the side of the vehicle, to be joined by the rear wall after adding some stowage boxes inside and a pair of louvred panels to the sides. Twenty-eight shells are supplied on the sprues to be slotted into the holes in the racks nose down, then some spare tracks are fixed to the sides, and the self-defence MG34 machine gun is fitted to the front shield on a short pintle-mount. An outer splinter shield slides over the gun, and then you can put on the two-part muzzle brake, which gives the impression of a hollow barrel. Markings There are three markings options on the decal sheet, with a nice variation between them, all of which saw action (or training exercises) in 1943. From the box you can build one of the following: 931st Assault Gun Division, 2nd Battery, France, 1943 Training camp of the Mobile Brigade “West”, summer 1943 Mobile Brigade “West” 2nd Battery, Manoeuvres, Spring 1943 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partner, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Unusually for a model review, we’re going to talk about actual paint. That’s because ICM have launching their own range of paints, the first release a set of 6 pots for this particular model, the rest of the range totalling 77 in all. Here is a link to the paint set in case you’d like to avail yourself of it. Laffly (f) Typ V15T The Laffly V15T was a particularly niche entry into the French Artillery Tractor roster, with only 100 being made before production ceased at Laffly to be taken over by another company. The type saw limited service in the French army pulling the outmoded 25mm anti-tank guns, and after capitulation, in service with the Wehrmacht as transport or radio wagons, where they bore the suffix (f) to denote their French origin. The unusual aspect of this vehicle was the four apparently ‘vestigial’ wheels on axles spurring off the chassis rails that were intended to increase the off-road abilities of the type. When viewed from the side however, the small balloon-wheels appear to be above the level of the main axles, so whether this actually worked anywhere but in the deepest ruts is a mystery. We don’t see them on modern vehicles, so I’m guessing they were more trouble than they were worth. This is a reboxing of a brand-new tool from ICM, and I was not wrong when I imagined we’d be seeing a few more boxings, and that’s no bad thing. It’s typical of modern ICM in that it is well-stocked with detail, and there are seven sprues of grey styrene inside, plus a clear sprue, four flexible black tyres, a small decal sheet and the glossy-covered instruction booklet with spot colour and colour profiles to the rear. It’s a full interior kit including engine, chassis and crew compartment, so there are plenty of parts to get your glue on. Construction begins with the chassis, with an option to remove the rounded rear-end where the towing hitch attaches, which is cut off easily with a scalpel or razor saw using the red outlined section on the drawings as a guide. A number of cross-braces are added, and a jig is placed under the inverted chassis onto which the rear suspension arms are laid, so that they set up at the correct angle, taking care not to glue the arms to the jig. If you have left the rear section on the chassis, the towing eye and other parts are glued in place, then the various leaf springs, ancillary axles and other suspension/steering parts are attached to the sides, with a sizeable transfer box and twin drive-shafts placed in the centre facing aft. The front axles are made up and glued in place with twin springs above them on the chassis, two more drive-shafts pointing forward, and more suspension/steering parts for the small wheels. The little balloon tyres are each made from two halves each, and four are created to affix to the small axles that project from the chassis rails, the front one of which has some limited steering capability. The 4-cylinder 2.3L petrol engine is next to be built, beginning with the two-part block and adding the sump, timing pulleys, transmission, exhaust manifold and finely-moulded cooling fan, plus other ancillaries that should result in a highly detailed rendition that just needs some HT-wires and sympathetic painting to complete. It is laid into the centre-front of the chassis along with the airbox and intake hosing, then is bracketed by a pair of tapered inserts that fill the gap between the block and the chassis rails. The main cab is based on the shaped floorpan, with sides, aft bulkhead and some internal structures added along the way, which later form ammunition storage bunkers around the sides of the rear portion. The front crew have a seat each with separate backs, and there is another optional wider seat in the middle of the rear compartment, which installs over a moulded clamshell door with pull-handles. A set of driver controls are added to the left front of the body, then a firewall with pedals, a breadbin-like compartment and other small parts is fixed to the front of the body, with a steering column and wheel added after the bodyshell is fixed to the chassis. The dashboard with dial decal is added over the wheel, and the area is covered over with a curved scuttle panel. In the rear compartment, the tops to the stowage boxes are fitted, and these have the individual sections and their handles moulded-in. Returning to the engine compartment, the steering column is extended into the lower chassis and a horn is fixed to the trim panels, then the three-part radiator is assembled and glued to the front of the vehicle, defining the engine bay. A loop of hosing joins the radiator to the engine, and the cowling panels are closed over the compartment, although you have the option to leave them open if you wish. Some small parts are added to the lower edges of the cowlings, which has crisply detailed louvers moulded-in. A pair of curved front wings are glued to the lower body over the wheels, and each of the four main wheels have a brake drum part added to the end of each axle, after which the wheels themselves are made from two hub halves that mate inside the hollow tyres and glue to the axles, allowing the vehicle to stand on its own wheels. At the rear, an axe and shovel are fixed to the bulkhead with a stop sign and the towing hook, a folded tilt is added to the rear, and the windscreen is made up from a frame and two individual clear panes. A trio of rolled-up canvas anti-splatter covers are pinned to the fronts of the door apertures and the two headlights have their clear lenses glued on before they are put in place on their mounts next to the tiny wheels at the front. The final parts are a front number plate board and an optional square unit plaque on the left front wing. Markings There are three varied markings options provided on the decal sheet, one more than the original boxing, and they’re painted in differing shades, depending on where they were based and the prevailing colours at the time. From the box you can build one of the following: Unknown Unit, 1941 931st Assault Gun Division, France, Mobile Brigade (West), 1943 Mobile Brigade (West) France, 1943 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and consist of dials, number plates and a few other small decals, with good register, sharpness and good solid colours. Until the first boxing of this kit arrived, I had no clue that the type existed, and it’s a curious-looking beast that’s endearing for its unusual shape and design. Detail is excellent, and if you didn’t fancy the options on the sheet of the original kit, these alternative schemes are a lot more interesting, and you have to love those weird vestigial wheels. Conclusion These boxed sets from ICM represent excellent value for money to the discerning modeller, and we’ve been blessed with an interesting range of kits included in their various offerings. This one is no different and will look grand either on a shelf or in a diorama. What’s more, the three kits arrive in a box barely larger than that of a single kit, so it’s good for the apparent stash size. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

WWII Royal Air Force Acrylic Paint Set (3018) ICM via Hannants ICM have fairly recently released their own brand of acrylic paints on the market, and are creating some kit specific sets to go with their major releases, of which this is one. The set arrives in a cardboard box with six screw-capped bottles inside, each containing 12ml of paint. The bottles are clear Polypropylene, and are capped with cylindrical tops with knurled sides, and a one-time security seal that you break on first opening. A label on the side gives you basic information about the colour and code, a little information regarding application in English and Ukrainian and a bar-code. This set provides the major colours to assist you in painting your brand-new Bristol Beaufort Mk.I in 1:48 from ICM themselves, and you will find the following colours in the box: 1054 Chocolate 1069 Extra Dark Green 1037 Dark Grey 1032 Blue Grey 1027 Gun Metal 2002 Satin Varnish The paint is thick in the bottle, with plenty of headroom between the surface of the paint and the lip of the neck. I dropped a glass stirring ball into each bottle, and they took a few seconds to disappear beneath the surface, indicating their viscosity. If you look closely at some of the colours in the range (not necessarily this set), you'll notice that the colour of the paint seems lighter in places. That's not a reflection on the actual colour inside the pot though, so don't be put off, as it’s just some pigments seem to be drawn to the container wall. Lifting the lid shows the true colour, which is a much better representation of the colours, and that’s the shade that can be seen in the darker areas. What causes the lighter pigments to adhere to the bottle sides is a mystery, but it's cosmetic only so not something to worry about. During testing, I used Ultimate Acrylic Thinners to dilute the paint to spray through my Gunze PS770 airbrush, which has a 0.18 needle chucked in. The paint dilutes well once it has been mixed thoroughly, and sprays well through my airbrush, which has a smaller than usual needle that is a good test of the finesse of the pigment grind of any brand, as some brands don’t spray very well though anything less than a 0.3mm needle if they’re coarsely (cheaper) ground. There were no problems with blockages at all, and the coverage was excellent after my usual ad hoc dilution method, which was probably nowhere near the 40-60% thinners or water that’s suggested on the pack. Apart from the varnish, the other paints all dry to a matt finish. In past tests, the Satin Varnish worked very well diluted with water, sprayed over the spoons that were also partially taped up to perform two functions at once. The satin patina that resulted is exactly what was expected, and the tape lifted no paint at all, despite my best efforts to do so. Bear in mind that the spoons were prepped by a buff with a very fine sanding sponge to give them the best chance of adhesion. Using a brush, the colours cover well two coats with minimal brush marks visible. Conclusion The paints are an excellent new brand, and whilst there is a little less paint in the bottles than some brands, they’re about average on balance. That is more than offset by the very reasonable price they’re asking for the set, even at RRP. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

”Hold the Rope Willi!” (DS3516) 1:35 ICM via H G Hannants Ltd The Panther was Germany's answer to the surprise appearance of the Russian T-34 after they finally reacted to the invasion that was Operation Barbarosa. Although the project had been in gestation for some time before, they took some design cues from the T-34 in the shape of the sloped armour, resulting in the Panther that was intended to fill the gap between the Panzer.IV and the (then) new Panzer VI Tiger. It was eventually supposed to replace both the Pz.IV and the earlier Pz.III that was really showing its age, but in reality it often fought alongside the Panzer IV due to lack of production numbers. It was planned as a lighter, more manoeuvrable tank than the Tiger, and was fitted with a high velocity gun from the outset, which gave it enormous penetrating power that was only equalled by the British 17-pounder fitted to the Sherman that turned it into the Firefly. The sloped frontal armour gave it an increased effective armour thickness, but this was not so true of the side armour, which was weaker and more steeply sloped, becoming the preferred target area of allied tanks, especially in urban combat where this was a telling issue. Like most German tanks of WWII, it was complex to produce, so suffered in terms of volume, which led to it being rushed into service with quite a list of problems still to resolve. Later production solved most of these initial gremlins, but loses in the interim were high with many being abandoned after breaking down during combat. Curiously, the Ausf.D was the first to enter production, with the Ausf.A following later in 1943, replacing attrition of the less reliable Ausf.Ds until they themselves were superseded by the Ausf.G, which became the final major variant with increased ammo storage, simplified design to ease production, and further improvements to reliability, although this was never fully cured with a high rate of attrition due to mechanical issues, some of which resulted in catastrophic fires. The Kit This box set contains quite a bundle of kits, including two Panther kits, one Ausf.D, the other an early Bergepanther, a catchily titled le.gl.Einheitz-Pkw Kfz.4 with a Zwilling Anti-Aircraft (AA) mount, and three sets of figures, one of drivers, one of tankers and another of tank riders. It arrives in a compact top-opening box with their usual captive inner flap on the lower tray, and inside are several bags that contain a total of seventeen sprues in grey styrene, either in black, one clear sprue and three small sheets of decals. The instructions are contained in a glossy white folder, and there are seven of them in total, as the figure sets and the AA mount is also available as a separate kit. The two panthers are ostensibly the same except for their turret sprues, or lack of in the case of the Bergepanther, which has its turret removed and replaced by a wooden top cover, a winch and some additional parts that aren’t included in the other kit. We’ll cover the Panther with the turret first, then differentiate between the two kits, then the little AA truck, and finally the figure sets at the end. Px.Kpfw.V Panther Ausf.D This kit is the subject of the Bergepanther’s ministrations, and is a standard Ausf.D that’s combat-focused, and has the following sprues: Construction begins with the lower hull, which is completed by adding the T-shaped rear bulkhead and the armoured surrounds around the final drive housings at the front of the hull. The many stub axles are inserted into the hull with a peg holding them at the correct angle, and these are accompanied by a number of additional suspension parts, bumpers, the housings themselves and of course the interleaved main wheels, plus the four-part idler wheels and two-part drive sprockets. The rear bulkhead is detailed with twin exhausts that hold the detailed jack, and on each side a pair of angular stowage boxes with separate lids are included. The upper hull has the inside of the glacis plate detailed with driver’s hatch and vision blocks, plus two hatches on pegs that insert into the lift-out front section of the forward deck. The rear deck also has a large inspection hatch in the centre that is decked out with mushroom vents and grab-handles, then has the various rectangular and circular vents from the engine compartment added either side, plus a couple more circular vents and lifting lugs. The stowage for the sides of the hull are made up on frames, a couple for each side, plus a tube for the barrel-cleaning rods and two racks of spare track links at the rear. The front mudguards have width indicators added that I’ve not seen before, then it’s time to make up the tracks. The track links are made up from individual parts that are joined together to create the complete run, although you aren’t given a guide figure of how many to use, but from memory I suspect around 90 would be appropriate. They clip together, but need some glue to retain their integrity, so wrapping them around the road wheels while the glue is still flexible, then hold them in place with tape, foam wads and other tools to obtain the correct sag on the return run. The good news is that there are only two sprue gates to deal with per link, but they are on a concave surface, so if you have a circular sanding stick, file or burr for your motor tool, they won’t hold you back for long. There are however two small circular ejector-pin marks in the outriggers of each link’s outer face. Sanding those could be done with a small, flat-tipped burr, or you could make your own and glue some wet’n’dry to it, as I have done in the past. The alternative is to slap some weathering and mud on the tracks to hide any issues you didn’t fix. The turret is moulded as one part with an open back to which the rear bulkhead with its circular hinged hatch is fitted, and at the front the basic breech is mounted on a pair of trunnions that project through the front of the turret and receive the two-layer mantlet. The barrel is made from two halves with the muzzle brake moulded-in, and once the seams are dealt with, it is inserted into the mantlet, locating its notch on a pin within the aperture. The rest of the turret details involve the hinged shell-ejection port, the multi-layer commander’s cupola with pivoting hatch, lifting eyes and grab-handles, the corner-mounted smoke grenade dischargers, and finally the bottom plate, which has the bayonet lugs that secure it in the turret ring with a twist. The model is completed by adding the spaced schurzen side skirts under the sponsons, the twin tow ropes, one on each side, and the gun’s travel lock, which glues on the front between the two hatches, and is made from four parts that should allow it to hinge if you are sparing with the glue. Markings There are two schemes you can depict from the sheet, both based on a dark yellow (dunkelgelb) base and wearing different types of green camouflage. From the sheet you can build one of the following: 52nd Battalion, 39th Armoured Regiment, The Kursk Salient, July 1943 Armoured Regiment of Division “GrossDeutschland”, August 1943 All the decals are by ICM’s usual partner, and are in good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Bergepanther Early (35342) This kit builds up the same as the one above until the turret, which is missing for obvious reasons, as is the sprue. Instead, there is a different sprue that includes the wooden two-part hatch that fits over the turret ring, a self-defence machine gun on a short mount on the front right corner and an optional upstand on the other side to move it to if the need arises. Additionally, there is a crane with two supports that fix on brackets at the rear, and hangs over to the side with a twin-sheave block and a pair of hooks to attach the loads on. At the rear is a large two-plate towing bracket with drop-in pin for heavy-duty towing duty. Markings There are two options on the sheet, one in plain dunkelgelb, the other with lengths of diagonal green camouflage sprayed over the yellow, both wearing just a trio of crosses. From the sheet you can build one of the following: S.Pz. Jäger Abt. 653, Kursk, Summer 1943 Panzer Regiment Herman Göring, East Prussia, Autumn 1944 le.gl.Einheitz-Pkw Kfz.4 This bag contains seven sprues in grey styrene plus a single clear sprue and decal sheet, with two sets of instructions with integral painting guide at the rear of the larger one. This is a re-box and amalgamation of the staff car with their Zwillingssockel 36 that is available separately, plus a few extra parts on new sprues that helps merge the two together into the completed vehicle. The chassis is first to be built up with dual springs supporting independent suspension and a driveshaft linking the two transfer boxes, plus the steering linkage front and rear. Fuel tank and stowage are placed to either side of the chassis rails and an exhaust pipe is threaded through to the engine compartment, which is filled with a full rendering of its 4-cylinder 2 litre Stoewer power plant over the front axle. The floor of the cab is built up and added to the chassis, then the three-part styrene wheels with moulded-in tread are fitted to each corner along with the radiator at the front. The firewall and a rear passenger bulkhead are installed next with the former having instruments and transmission tunnel moulded in and pedals attached to the floor. The cab sides, boot/trunk cover, engine cowling and gear shifter are all put in place before the seats are built up from base, cushion and curved back in the front, with a large tread-plated area for the gunners that has just enough room down the sides for spare ammo cans in racks lining the lip. Two rifle stowage points are attached to the front bulkhead, bumpers/fenders and doors are all added with steering wheel, and windscreen also made up between the front and rear compartments with tripods racked on the rear deck of the vehicle. The rear light cluster is fitted to the rear quarters with a spare wheel in between them, and the folded canvas roof above the divide between compartments. Front lights and pioneer tools are attached to the fenders, and windscreen wipers are fitted into the depressions on the frame, with wiper-motor boxes moulded into the frame for completeness. The lights and windscreen all have clear parts so the passengers don't get bugs in their teeth. The guns are built on a separate instruction sheet, and the completed assembly is shown in the main instructions being dropped into place in the rear fighting compartment. To make up the gun, the ammo cans are made up first, joined to the twin frame, which then has the gun mounts fitted on top. The guns are still fitted with their bipods, which along with the breech cover are moulded separately to the rest of the guns. If you’re a detailer, you may want to drill out the muzzles very carefully with a tiny bit in a pin vice. With the guns on their frame, the outer frame is fitted around it in two halves, slotting into the pivot points moulded into the frame, and supported by a cross-brace lower in the frame. Another bracing strut fits across the front and has a canvas brass catcher curtain suspended beneath it that is attached to the tube by a series of rings moulded into the part. The conical base is built from two parts and inserts into a socket in the underside of the outer frame, then it’s a case of making up the seat that fits at the very rear of the outer frame, and choosing the correct sighting part for your chosen pose, pivoting the guns to an appropriate elevation during the process. A pair of scrap diagrams shows the two finished poses, and overleaf is a painting guide in greyscale that could be a tad confusing as it has no paint call-outs on the two greyscale profiles. Markings There are three theatre specific options included in the box with early war Panzer Grey the colour of choice. From the box you can build one of the following: Luftwaffe Ground Units, Greece, 1940 1st Panzer Division, Greece, 1941 11th Panzer Division, Eastern Front The decal sheet is small and printed on a bright blue paper, with good register, sharpness and colour density. German Drivers 1939-45 This small set from ICM gives you four figures to fill those empty seats. It is single sprue with four figures and It's safe to say that all of them are posed in the seated position, while two are dressed in standard Wehrmacht uniforms with a forage and patrol cap on their heads. One other figure has a smock coat over his uniform with a lace-up neck, and the final one is an officer with a rather relaxed hand draped over the top of his steering wheel. Two of the drivers forage cap and smock guy are looking to their left, while patrol cap guy seems to be looking at his steering wheel, perhaps at a map? Each figure comes broken down as torso, individual legs and arms, head and hat, with a couple of ammo pouches for the belt around the smock bedecked gentleman. The instructions are on a single sheet of glossy paper, with part numbers and colour call outs that reference a chart on the rear that shows Revell and Tamiya colour codes, plus the name of the colour in English and Ukrainian (that's a guess). Sculpting and moulding is excellent as we have come to expect from ICM, and the figures will doubtless fit a lot of applications without any adjustment. German Tank Riders (1942-45) Riding is better than walking, and tanks are generally a better way to hitch a ride to or from the battlefield, and also make for a great hiding place if the front isn’t where it was supposed to be. This set arrives on a single sprue in grey styrene that contains parts for four figures, three of which are seated, the standing with a forage cap and MP40 in a semi-ready stance. Two of the seated characters are wearing camouflaged smocks and stahlhelms, one nursing an MG42, the other crouching with a rifle in one hand. The uniformed seated figure has an MP40 over his shoulder and helmet on his head. Parts breakdown is as you’d expect with separate heads, torso, arms and legs, plus helmets that fit over their bald heads with moulded-in chin-straps, except for the cap-wearer, who has his hat moulded onto his head. The additional parts on the sprues include gas mask cylinders, water bottles, pouches, bags, grenades and an ammo box for the MG42. German Tank Crew (1943-45) Another four figure sprue in grey styrene, which includes a standing commander in flat peaked cap checking his watch, an officer in a peaked cap bending over to look at the work being done with a choice of two optional left arms, a spanner twirler on his knees in shirt and trousers, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his spanner equipped hand, and another crewman in overalls leaning on one hand on his hands and knees. Parts breakdown is standard ICM with separate heads, torsos, arms and legs, with the spanner twirler sporting a nice centre-part while his compatriot has a moulded-on cap. The Officers have flat tops to their heads and separate caps. They also have pistol holsters to fix to their sides. Conclusion How they managed to pack two Panthers minus one turret, a 4x4 Anti-Aircraft truck and three figure sets into this relatively compact box and keep the price so attractive is amazing. The Panthers aren’t the latest toolings, but they should suffice for everyone but the most detail hungry, with tons of detail in the Einheitz, and excellent sculpting on the figures. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

ICM is to release 1/48th Gotha Go-242 kits. Gliders to put alongside the ICM's 1/48th Heinkel He.111Z Zwilling, I suppose! - ref. 48225 - Gotha Go-242B, WWII German Landing Glider (100% new molds) - March2022 Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM48225 - ref. 48226 - Gotha Go 242A, WWII German Landing Glider Source: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM48226 V.P.

Hallo This is my 1/48 scale Mig-25 from ICM. I used Eduard etched parts for interior. Also I used the Reskit exhaust nozzle and the masks from NewWare. The ladder is from LD in 3D print. The gear is from Dream Model. Well in all it was a nice built. The instruction was fine and with the Mig-31 already done, it was a nice built. Somehow also relaxing. The legs for the gear are in much more detail as SEC gears usually are. The price is, the legs are a bit softer. The Reskit nozzle was easy to build and to install. The Eduard parts also no great hazard. The masks from NewWare are simple the best I have. No matter which a/c. The spraying was done with Gunze C, CX and MC, M and SM colors. Well, so have a look: Happy modelling

The Ghost of Kyiv (72140) Mig-29 of Ukrainian Air Force 1:72 ICM via Hannants Ltd. This is going to be a difficult review to steer a centreline on, so you’ll have to forgive me if I drift to one particular side a little, although I’ll try not to. Please don’t be tempted to engage in any jingoism of your own. On 24th February 2022 an aggressor invaded Ukraine with malevolent intent, a variety of fallacious explanations as to why they were there, and intentions of taking over the whole country to make it their own. Ukraine, its government and people have fought back valiantly against this attack, and one Ukrainian aviator in particular gained notoriety for shooting down a number of the aggressor’s aircraft in quick succession, flying an upgraded Mig-29-13 in a grey digital camouflage scheme. There is conjecture whether the ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ exists, has since been killed in action, or whether it is simply a conflation of the exploits of the Ukrainian Air Force as a whole. Whichever it is, it has given the aggressors pause for thought, and prevented them from achieving anything resembling air superiority over most of Ukrainian territory, giving the brave Ukrainian fighters one less thing to worry about amongst many perils. We at Britmodeller would like to wish all of Ukraine’s armed forces the best with their struggle, and hope that it is resolved soon to their satisfaction. The Kit This is a reboxing of ICM’s 2008 tooling of this classic Cold War Soviet-era jet, but with new decals appropriate for the subject matter. The kit arrives in a stylishly appointed top-opening box with captive inner lid, and inside are three sprues of medium grey styrene, a small clear sprue, two sheets of decals and the instruction booklet, which shares the same design as the box lid, and has spot-colour throughout, including full colour profiles on the back page. Detail is on par for the era of its original release, with engraved panel lines, raised and recessed detail where appropriate, cockpit and gear bay detail, and a complement of weapons and fuel tanks, the latter remain unused. Construction begins with the cockpit, which has an ejector pin mark in the middle of the floor that will be covered by the ejection seat, but should be cut flush to ensure everything fits properly. A control column and instrument panel with raised and recessed detail moulded-in completes the cockpit, although the Zvezda K-36 seat could do with a little additional work, including adding the tubular housings for the ejection stabilisation beams that sit at each side of the headbox. The cockpit inserts into the upper fuselage from below, after which it can be closed up ready for the other components. There aren’t many stages to the instruction booklet, and we see the wings, elevators and stabilisers added at the same time as the two-part canopy. Two inset diagrams show the twin engine nacelles being made up with integral FOD guards before they too are joined to the underside of the fuselage, with the exhausts also made up from inner and outer parts in more inset diagrams. The included weapons also have inset diagrams, and you can make up two each of R-27 Alamo, R-60 Aphid and R-72 Archer air-to-air missiles, but bear in mind that the weapons sprue has a little flash, so some clean-up might be needed. Each missile has its own pylon, and the larger R-27s have separate fins perpendicular to the seamline. They are all shown inserted into the holes in the wing undersides at the same times as the main and nose gear, which have separate wheels and retraction jacks, plus gear bay doors and a clear landing light in each main gear well. The nose gear bay has three doors, and at the tip of the nose a pitot probe will poke out your eye if you look to closely. Markings There is just one decal option spread over the two sheets, with all the digital camouflage on the larger sheet, while Ukrainian national markings and codes are on the other. As the real identity of the Ghost is unknown, there are six lines of numeric codes in white/blue, blue/white and white/yellow options, plus a stylised skull for the nose on a black circular backing. The underside is painted sky grey and the topside off-white, glossing them ready for the digital camo decals, of which there are eighteen in three shades of grey. An instrument decal is also included to improve the detail in the cockpit, plus a number of stencils for the airframe, all of which should settle down well with the help of some decal setting solution. They are printed by ICM’s usual partner, and registration, colour density and sharpness is good. Ghost of Kyiv Paint Set (3027) ICM have this year released their own brand of acrylic paints to the market, and are creating some kit specific sets to go with their major releases, of which this is one. The set arrives in a cardboard box with six screw-capped bottles inside, each containing 12ml of paint. The bottles are clear Polypropylene, and are capped with cylindrical tops with knurled sides, and a one-time security seal that you break on first opening. A label on the side gives you basic information about the colour and code, a little information regarding application in English and Ukrainian and a bar-code. The paint is thick in the bottle, with plenty of headroom between the surface of the paint and the lip of the neck. I dropped a glass stirring ball into each bottle, and they took a few seconds to disappear beneath the surface, indicating their viscosity. Inside the box are the following bottles: 1028 Offwhite 1033 Sky Grey 1034 Dark Sea Grey 1037 Dark Grey 1038 German Grey 2002 Satin Varnish The paint is undiluted, so will need thinning by between 40-60% with water or acrylic thinner for use with an airbrush, and they naturally have a semi-gloss finish that can be adjusted later by the use of varnishes, and are waterproof when dry like most acrylics. During my initial testing I used Ultimate Thinners, my go-to thinners for any acrylic paint, which helps keep the number of large bottles in my spray booth to a minimum. The paint comes out of the bottle quite thick and viscous, so it’s possible you’ll have to dilute it even for brush painting use, although I used it neat during testing, so a small bottle will go a long way in either case. It sprays well when diluted, and like a lot of acrylics a light coat is best initially, followed quickly after by heavier coats until you have the coverage you require. It dries quite quickly, and is touch-dry in 5-10 minutes in summery 20-23oc temperatures, unless you’re in the antipodes as I write this. I have used them to create a number of spray-out cards and spoons for other sets in the range, and they both spray and brush very well, with little issue other than my inexpert application by paint brush. Conclusion It’s a poignant re-release of this model, and the decal choice is inspiring. If 1:72 is your thing and you like jets, you should get one. A set of acrylic paints specifically designed for this kit makes painting your model much easier to accomplish too. It’s all made by a Ukrainian company that is still capable of doing business despite the circumstances, which is singularly impressive. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. The Ghost of Kyiv Mig-29 (72140) Ghost of Kyiv Paint Set (3027) Review sample courtesy of

’Jig Dog’ JD-1D Invader with KDA-1 Drone (48289) 1:48 ICM via Hannants Ltd The good old B-26 Marau… hang on. The A-26 Invader? Wait, erm... B-26 Invader. That's it, as long as it's after 1948 as that's when it was re-designated as the B-26 by the US Air Force to confuse us, and later on back to the A-26 just to complete my befuddlement. It was developed a little after the Marauder and despite using the same engines it was designed totally separately from its tubular colleague. It was designed to replace the A-20 Havoc, but it was initially less than popular in the Pacific theatre where its poor cockpit visibility due to the canopy and engine position rendered it unloved by the first users. It was more popular in the European theatre and was accepted as replacement for the Havoc fairly quickly. Two types were designed, The C with a glass bomber nose and the B with a full metal nose filled with either 6 or 8 .50cal machine guns, which coupled with the three in each wing gave it quite a punch, deserving of the Strafer title. It also had a pair of turrets on the fuselage mid-upper and dorsal positions, which were both operated by a single gunner using a complex remote mechanism that flipped between the upper and lower turrets depending on where the gunner was looking through his binocular sights. This trained the guns accordingly and also calculated the correct offset for parallax and lead, but was very complex and caused some delays to it entering service, and even more issues with maintenance in the field. After the war it served in Korea, early Vietnam engagements and other conflicts, ending its days in US service with the Air National Guard in the early 70s. It continued in civilian service as a fire bomber and in other roles, such as actor in the film Always with Richard Dreyfuss playing its brave but ill-fated pilot. The US Navy would also use the Invader originally designating it JD-1, giving rise to the nickname Jig Dog. They were used for secondary roles such as target towing, and drone carriers. The drone carriers had blown clear nose cones and were usually painted in garish schemes to ensure they weren’t blasted instead of the drones. They were usually called ‘Jig Dog’ by servicemen, later officially changing to DB-26Js because, why not? The Kit This is a reboxing of a new tooling from ICM, with extra parts for the US Navy version and a Firebee Drone for under one wing and a fuel tank under the other to balance things out. The kit arrives in the familiar top opening box with a captive inner lid on the lower tray, and inside are twelve sprues in grey styrene, two in clear, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet. A quick look over the sprues reveals that panel lines are very crisp, narrow and restrained, the surface is matt and very neat-looking, with plenty of engraved and raised details on the parts, plus subtly indented flying surfaces mimicking their fabric covering. Construction begins with the cockpit, creating the pilot's seat, instrument panel (with instrument decals) with built-in door to the nose, centre console with throttle quadrant before adding those and the single control column to the floor. The aft compartment is built up around the front wing spar with a set of radio gear hanging from a pair of risers. The port fuselage half is detailed with some side console and panel parts, nose gear bay sides, forward spar with radio gear, rear spar in the centre of the bomb bay, sloped aft bulkhead and another frame behind that, followed by the cockpit floor, so you'll have to do some detail painting as you go. After this the starboard fuselage side is prepped, along with an internal detail panel and nose gear bay side, and a hatch that does a credible impression of a toilet lid. Here's where a little cautionary note about sink-marks on the exterior of my sample needs mentioning. The right side of the cockpit and bomb bay with its detailed ribbing has caused the shallowest of sink-marks on the exterior, which would be best dealt with using a little filler before you get busy building. You could have dismissed it as oil-canning of the skin if it were consistent, and on both sides, but as it isn't you'll need to decide whether you're going to fix it. Happily, the majority of it is in areas that are open enough to allow easy sanding back of filler, so it shouldn't slow you down very much. I'll be using some Tamiya Basic on mine in due course and have no doubt it will be just fine. With that and a quantity of detail painting you can then slide the starboard fuselage over the two spars, and it would be a good idea when fitting those spar parts to let them set up with the starboard fuselage taped in place to ensure they make the correct angle when they're set in place permanently. The instructions then have you building up the tail feathers, with the elevators having separate single-part flying surfaces, plus a two-piece rudder to attach to the moulded-in tail fin. The nose for this version is made up from two halves plus the floor, after which the internal equipment is added and the glass nose is then fixed over the front. A partial bulkhead is fixed between the nose section and the fuselage with a small hatchway for the crew to access the nose, then the nose assembly can then be glued to the fuselage. The wings are next, and the lower parts have a smattering of flashed-over holes ready to drill out for bombs, gun-pods or drop tanks, plus three cartridge ejection chutes to be cut out for the wing mounted .50cals. You’ll also need to open up the holes for mounting the mounting gear for the tank and the drone, which are marked out on a plan diagram of the wings, in relation to the notch in the leading edge that usually accepts the wing gun insert. The faces of the in-line radiator baths are added to the lower wings and then it's already time to bring the halves together. You'll notice that there are fairings and a hump in the upper wing where the engine nacelles will be, and these are separate assemblies to be built up later. First, the separate two-section flaps and the ailerons are prepared and added to the trailing edge of the wings, the latter being of one piece each and slotting into wing via two tabs. The tip lights and underwing landing lights are added from clear parts, and a small insert is glued into the wing that blanks over the wing gun ports. At this stage the instructions have you sliding the wings onto the spars and gluing them in place. Whether you'd rather wait until you've added the engine nacelles though is entirely up to you though. There are of course two engine nacelles and these build up pretty much identically apart from their outer skins, which are handed to fit their respective fairings as you'd expect. They are split vertically, and each half has internal structure moulded-in, with bulkheads added fore and aft of the gear bays, coupled with bay lip inserts that bulk out the edges and also hold captive their bay door. This may require some clever masking and a little care during handling, but it shouldn't hold you back too much, as the hinge-points are relatively robust. The two halves are joined together, the prominent intake on the top of the nacelle is made up from two parts, then is added to the nacelle front which is in turn glued to the rest of the nacelle, with the completed assemblies attached to the wings from the underside, as yet without their engine cowlings or props. The engines are added later in the build, and the Twin Wasps are depicted in their entirety with both banks of pistons, push-rods, ancillaries and reduction housing at the front, plus the collector ring and exhausts at the rear, the latter made up from eight parts each. So that they are fitted correctly and mesh properly with the nacelles, they are attached using a jig that is discarded later, so remember not to glue it in! Again, the engines are identical and interchangeable with each other, and they fit to the nacelles with a teardrop-shaped tab, after which the engine cowling is slotted over them. The cooling flaps are last to be added in four sets around the rear of the cowling. The top of the fuselage is still open at this point, as it has an insert to be fitted which encloses where the turret was, and the gunner's compartment is added along with the new glass area for the top that is made from three sections that are assembled on a disposable styrene template. The canopy is glued over the cockpit, and at the rear an insert is fixed under the very rear of the fuselage with the tail light provided in clear. Attention turns to the landing gear, which is of the tricycle variety as became the fashion in late war. Each of the three tyres are made from two halves with separate hubs applied from either side, then hung on their respective legs, which have retraction jacks and scissor links added along the way. The main airframe is ostensibly complete save for some antennae and the props, and if you've been sparing with the glue when assembling the engines, the latter should still spin once complete. Two pylons under the wings a single part to close the bomb bay tidy up the underside, then a pair of mounts are made up from three parts each and inserted into the additional holes under the wings that are level with the landing lights, and fix on V-shaped legs. The fuel tank is of two parts, and can be fitted under the wing on the unused mount, the other being used to carry the drone. KDA-1 Firebee Drone This part of the kit has been available separately for a while, but is now offered integrated to its carrier. All the parts are found on one sprue, and work starts around the engine trunking with an intake fan on a bulkhead and exhaust fan toward the rear. A bulbous bullet is inserted in front of the intake, and the two fuselage halves close up around the subassembly to be joined by the swept-back wings and tail, with the top covered over by a tapering insert, and the tip fairings made from two halves each then inserted over the wing tips. A pair of chevron vertical tips slot onto the elevators, and the assembly is completed by adding the rudder to a slot near the aft of the fuselage. It is painted garishly so that it shows up in the air, as shown on the main painting drawings. Markings In this boxing there are two options of drone controllers in Gloss Sea Blue with yellow wings & tail, along with orange stripes. From the box you can build one of the following: JD-1D 89075, Utility Sqn. VU-3, US Nav, 1950s JD-1D 140356 US Navy, China Lake 1958 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and consist of all the necessary markings plus, stencils and a few other small decals, with good register, sharpness and solid colours. Conclusion Any boxing of this model should make a fair few people happy, and consign a lot of old Monogram kits to deep stash or eBay, if they’re not there already. Detail is excellent and made so much nicer by the matt surface, and there's a fair proportion of the interior included for what has become a popular kit and the de facto standard in 1:48. Smear a little filler into those light sink-marks before you get started, and no-one will know they're there. Another great Invader from ICM. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

APA-50M ‘ZiL-131’ (72815) 1:72 ICM via Hannants Ltd The military ZiL-131 chassis was a 6x6 general purpose truck chassis that was capable of lugging 3.5 tonnes, developed from the earlier ZiL-130 civilian truck. Its versatility made it useful for many tasks when suitably fitted out with an appropriate cab and load area for the assigned task. The power was provided by a 7 litre V8 petrol engine that gave it a top speed of 50mph under ideal conditions, but it was off-road with all six wheels under power that it came into its own, although 6-7mpg was far from economical compared to a modern vehicle. The cabs were fitted with standard Soviet-era equipment to give the drivers a sense of familiarity, although cost-saving was probably a bigger motivator to those making the decisions. It was often seen around airfields undertaking various tasks, and the APA-50M was a mobile power unit that served in both military and civilian situations. It was fitted with an additional large diesel engine sited in the boxed-in load bed area, which was used to generate sufficient power to keep aircraft running while their engines weren’t burning fuel. It was hooked to its customer via a hefty umbilical, and the chugging diesel would generate the power for starting the engines, or to power the aircraft’s avionics without its own engines having to be started, which was both expensive in terms of jet fuel used, noisy and often dangerous for ground crew venturing behind the aircraft. The driver and crew of the vehicle didn’t even have to get out of their cab to control or adjust the generator, as all the controls were conveniently situated in the cab, possibly because it would often be bitterly cold on Soviet airfields for a good portion of the year, so staying ‘indoors’ was always preferable to avoid frost-bite. The Kit This range of kits was originally started by little-known company Omega-K as a truck with canvas tilt in the 90s, before the tooling was taken over at the turn of the millennium by ICM, since when it has been re-released many times and with various alterations to the basic kit and its chassis. This boxing arrives in a relatively small top-opening box that has a captive lid to the lower tray, and inside are five sprues and two loose cab parts in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a small decal sheet and the instruction manual, with colour profiles on the rear pages showing the decal options. Even though its base kit is of a certain age, the detail is excellent throughout, and small amounts of flash are easily removed to expose that detail. Construction begins with the one-piece ladder chassis, which first has two supports removed from each side that are marked in red for your ease. The underside of the engine, transfer box, drive-shafts and various tanks are installed around the ladder, then the twin axles at the rear and single front axle are both inserted below the rails on leaf-spring suspension with the axles interlinked by numerous drive-shaft elements, and a steering link for the front. Underneath, the twin exhaust pipes merge into a muffler then make their way out to the rear as a single pipe, near to a large towing hitch. The six road wheels are all moulded in two halves with chevron tread, and have a separate hub cap for extra detail, with just the seam to clean up in the middle, conveniently located at the centre of the tread pattern. If you want to add some weighting to them, a quick swipe with a coarse sanding stick should do the trick, after which you can glue the wheels with the flat-spot at the bottom. The cab is a really nice crisp moulding that has a little flash here and there, but it’s well worth the effort to remove it, after which the cab floor with various controls and the wheels are inserted from below, then the crystal-clear windows, windscreen and headlamps are inserted to the front, with cages finely moulded, although suffering a little flash that will take care to remove, but again it’s worth the effort. Door mirrors, a small spotlight and a fire extinguisher on the rear corner finish off the detailing of the cab, after which the load box is begun. The floor panel is bracketed by a front and end bulkhead before the sides are added, then two narrow sections of roof, and an upstand with separate roof and curved sides are attached to the centre section, giving the roof a stepped surface. A pair of rails are glued to the edges of the lower roof section, quickly finishing it off, then the three subassemblies can be mated by fixing the cab and body to the chassis, whilst adding the chunky front bumper iron, a section of treadplate between the outer sections behind the bumper, and adding a couple of towing/tie-down hooks to either side of the radiator. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, with two green examples, and one in bright yellow for a little variation. From the box you can build one of the following: 738th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Zaporozhye, 1982 Unknown Military Unit, Soviet Armed Forces, 1980s Civil Aviation of the USSR, 1980s The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and consist of dials, number plates, warning chevrons, stencils and a few other small decals, with good register, sharpness and solid colours. Conclusion This little kit will look great hooked up to any Cold War Soviet jet or civil aircraft in 1:72, adding a little human scale and interest to your model. Detail is excellent for the size and age of the kit, with just a little flash to work on. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Hello comrades 😃 So, let's get it started! After one not easy work with Amodel short-run kit I want to take something high-quality and easy to assemble and just to build model without big problems, half a kilo of putty and pare meters of sanding paper. After I've have built enough modern Boeing and Airbus aircrafts, I think it's time for something from USSR civil aviation. From the other side, I prefer to make models of machines, that still in service. So, when I've chosen the prototype, I've noticed that in Sheremetyevo you can meet one unique machine.It's IL-62 MGr still flying in small Belarus cargo air-company Rada airlines. The main interesting fact - there is monument near airport with IL-62M mounted there. And it looks amazing for me when I can see one old girl on the monument, and turning my head I can see the same one machine moving on taxiway. The monument of IL-62M near Sheremetyevo in hot evening of July 2022 (some smoke from forest fires in neighbour Ryazan region) And her "sistership" still in service onto parking slot of Sheremetyevo. August 2022. A little info about prototype. EW450TR was produced as usual passenger version of IL-62M in 1985 (wow, it's older than me!). First was delivered to Interflug company in GDR (eastern Germany). This machine was the first one performed flight between Western and Eastern Germany. B/n DDR-SET After Germany became united the machine was returned to USSR Uzbek civil aviation administration. СССР-86576 A year later USSR was disintegrated, machine was re-registrated in Uzbek republic as 86576 (later UK-86576) In 2007 the plane was returned to Russia (B/N RA-86576) and was converted to cargo version. Todays modification IL-62MGr or IL-62МГр means IL-62M "Gruzovoy" that translated as "Freighter" Since 2015 plane was delivered to small private Belarus company Rada airlines with new B/N EW450TR. I can't say certain, how many IL-62 still in service. Maybe some another machines are in a state of airworthiness in reserve of ministry of defence, and maybe some another also still exist in North Korea or Cuba. But doubtless this unique plane is one of last "dinosaurs" still flying. What about kit, there are two good kits of IL-62M are available in 1/144. First is Zvezda, well known for it's ultimate edition, and another one is Ukrainian ICM, also well known for good quality. I've chosen ICM for experimental reasons. I've assembled some Zvezda kits, but never had a deal with ICM aviation kits. So, after reading some positive reviews, I've decided to purchase ICM kit. And there is one intersting thing that ICM IL-62M is available in two versions of livery - Aeroflot USSR and Interflug GDR airlines. And the joke is that GDR version is about 1000 rub (EUR 15) cheaper. Sure I've bought DDR version, besides I'm not going to use out-of box livery. ICM plastic is well-looking enough, I like it. For me, it's something like Revell's plastic, also white and thin enough, with high detalisation. Assemble without glue is also neat and I hope I'll do not need much putty and assemble will be not an exhausting task. So, I've started from protecting windows that will stay transparent. I've used a few masking tape for this purpose. Then I've covered inner surfaces of fuselage and wings with Decorix dark primer from the balloon. This method prevents model of transparency when situated under bright sunshine. To be continued as usual 😎 Respects, tMikha.

Bundeswehr Vehicles & AFVs Acrylic Colours Set (3017) ICM via Hannants Ltd ICM have long been a plastic model company that is well-known to most of us, but until recently they haven’t had their own paint range, and that gap in their armoury has now been remedied. There are 77 acrylic colours in the initial range, plus three varnishes in matt, satin and gloss, all in the same clear 12ml plastic bottles. A conversion chart is available that will give you equivalents in AK, Tamiya, Humbrol, Gunze, Testors, RLM, RAL, FS, Revell, AK Real Color, and even Citadel paints, although there aren’t many direct cross-overs in that last one. This set is intended to assist you with painting your Bundeswehr vehicle and AFV kits, which is particularly relevant after the release of their newly tooled Unimog S404 in Bundeswehr service. The set arrives in a card box with a header tab at one end, and inside are six clear 12ml plastic bottle with white plastic lids and a one-time tear-off safety ring. While they bear a passing resemblance to another brand of paint in a similar direct to ICM’s part of the world, ICM have stated categorically on Facebook that it is not a collaboration, and having now used both brands, they are indeed substantially different in every way other than being acrylic paint that is stored in a bottle and contains pigments. 1026 Oily Steel 1060 Middle Stone 1072 US Dark Green 1039 Rubber Black 1052 Hull Red 1073 4BO The paint is undiluted, so will need thinning by between 40-60% with water or acrylic thinner for use with an airbrush, and they naturally have a semi-gloss finish that can be adjusted later by the use of varnishes, and are waterproof when dry like most acrylics. During my testing I used Ultimate Thinners, my go-to thinners for any acrylic paint, which helps keep the number of large bottles in my spray booth to a minimum. The paint comes out of the bottle quite thick and viscous, so it’s possible you’ll have to dilute for serious brush painting use although I used it neat during testing, so a small bottle will go a long way in either case. It sprays well when diluted, and like a lot of acrylics a light coat is best initially, then followed quickly after by heavier coats until you have the coverage you require. It dries quite quickly, and is touch-dry in 5-10 minutes in those summery 20-23°c temperatures, but as I write this, we’re heading back to the cooler days of Autumn. I have used them to create a number of spray-out cards and spoons for other sets in the range, and they both spray and brush very well, with little issue other than my inexpert application by brush. On the rear of the box are a number of suggestions for using the shades to paint a Unimog from their new kit, unsurprisingly, but the set will be useful for most Cold War West German military hardware that runs of tracks or wheels. Conclusion ICM have created a very nice and economical paint system for their customers, which will increase their income stream and make picking up a suitably themed acrylic paint set along with your next ICM or other branded model more likely. We modellers do enjoy convenience. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

ICM 1/72 The Ghost of Kyiv Straight of the box build Its been some time since I posted here . I should start this build this weekend

The Game Triangle (16211) 1:16 ICM via Hannants Ltd There’s a TV series out there called ‘The Squid Game’, and I’ll be honest and tell you that I’ve not seen it. It’s a South Korean series consisting of 10 episodes that has become a blockbuster on Netflix, that’s insanely popular with Western audiences despite the language barrier, as most of us don’t speak Korean – thank goodness for dubs. It’s about a TV game show that involves hundreds of impoverished players competing in childish games for a huge cash prize that is paid to the ultimate winner, totalling 45.6 billion ₩ (pronounced Won) (that’s £29,129,494.70 or $33,587,701.44 for the Brits and Americans at today’s exchange rates), but the caveat is that these games are deadly. Yousa gonna die if you lose, Ani (do that part in a JarJar Binks voice). Each episode is 55 minutes long, and I have to admit that I’ve picked it up but not watched it yet, so I still don’t know what all the fuss is about. The contestants all wear a loose-fitting jumpsuit in a number of colours to hide their gender and identity, which is further hidden by the black full-face masks that they wear, giving the impression of an ant face, which was deliberate according to the IMDb trivia section. Even the staff wear the same gear, but on the ‘forehead’ of the staff’s masks is a simple white symbol in the shape of a circle, square, or triangle, the reason for which I don’t yet know, as it doesn’t seem to matter which colour jumpsuit they wear. I’d make an awful cryptanalyst. If you’re wondering why it’s called The Squid Game, it’s because the player board is in the shape of a squid roughly scratched into the ground. So I’m told, and no-one has contradicted me yet. The Kits This figure arrives in a small top-opening box with a captive inner lid on the tray, and inside are three sprues in grey styrene, and three in black styrene, a small decal sheet, and the glossy instruction sheet that is printed in colour. The final item in the box is a glossy colour print of the box top art, which you can stick on your wall or not. It’s a simple kit because it’s a figure dressed in a jumpsuit, but it is well sculpted and as detailed as we’ve come to expect from ICM. Construction is carried out according to the same diagram as the painting guide, which uses the same drawings to give paint and part numbers for simplicity. Each figure has a head included in the kit, even though the black mask tends to obscure all the detail, but there it is, so if you wanted to adapt your figure to have the mask off, you can do so by removing the strap with a motor tool or old-fashioned sanding stick. The figure is made up from twenty parts in grey, with separate legs, arms, a two-part torso, two-part hood, a well-detailed head that is wearing a face mask, hands, separate cargo pockets with keyed attachment point, and a single black mask that fixes to the front of the head, which has the retaining strap moulded into it. This figure is armed with a four-part MP5 machine gun with retractable stock, and you’ll need to make the sling for it using your own materials. There is also a camera that is mounted on the figure by a chest rig, the straps moulded into the torso, while the camera enclosure is a separate part. There is also a revolver in a holster included on the sprues, although it isn’t shown being used in the instructions. The gun is moulded into the holster, and a separate pair of parts for an empty holster are also included, but whether that’s of any relevance to the story or not is unknown until I’ve watched the show or someone tells me. The base is moulded in black styrene, and has a choice of four different surfaces for the top and a flat base for the bottom. The choices comprise a flat asphalt surface plus three styles of cobble or paving stones, and is a constant theme of ICM’s 1:16 series of figures, so they’ll all match. Markings The decal sheet includes one triangle decal for the player’s forehead, and you are advised to paint the jumpsuit blood red, with rubber black (dark grey) and black for boots and other accessories. You can change the colour of the suit to your whim if you know what you’re doing and have watched the series, and some simple masks or decal strip could be used to create the other shapes if you have a favourite or wanted to create a new one. Conclusion A nice figure that hits near the height of popularity of the series, according to my 12-year-old son who gets bombarded by spoilers for it at school. You can use it as intended, or tinker with it to portray other players, staff, or even go totally off-piste and use it in another situation entirely. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Hallo Today I need help, for some detailed information on this famous Russian jet. What do I seek for? Which panels in the rear, all views, side, top, and bottom are in pure metal? In my case, please the RBT version. And what do the panels where the probes are attached look like? The AoA panel is probably circular pure metal? The antennas at the bottom of the forward fuselage? Which color? The lenses for camera, and light, how does the sealing look like? What do you suggest for the overall color in Gunze C-range? Anti-glare and cone? The pylons I have in my ICM kit, are basic only. Which color? Grey, pure metal or anything else? The model is already finished, polished with 2400. Before attaching Eduard etched parts for the panels. My nozzles are from Res-Kit. Quite well. I built some time ago the Mig-31. This kit is well designed, but ill designed with a cone on the stubs for attachment of main wheel and tail-plane. Thank you all in forward. Happy modelling

Unimog S404 German Military Truck (35135) 1:35 ICM via Hannants Ltd Unimog was the brand-name used by Mercedes for their truck, tractor and commercial vehicle range that began post WWII as an agricultural brand, initially built by another company for them whilst using their engines. The range broadened in the late 40s and early 50s to include trucks, of which the 404 series was one, entering production in 1955. It is a small (1.5 tonne) 4x4 truck that was driven by a 2.2 litre M180 straight-6 Mercedes engine and has impressive off-road performance due to a change that had been required by a customer, the French Army, who wanted the spare tyre to be stored clear of the load compartment. The designers altered the shape of the rear chassis rails to allow the wheel to sit under the floor, the downward sweep giving the chassis extra flexibility that smoothed the ride on rough surfaces, assisted by coil springs, rather than traditional leaf springs. The four-wheel drive system could be disengaged on smoother ground, leaving just the rear wheels engaged, thereby saving fuel and wear on the front drive-shafts, and generally improving performance all round. The 404 series was the most numerous of the Unimog line, and was available as a short or long-wheelbase chassis, with the shorter option phased out at the beginning of the 70s, while the longer wheelbase continued on for another decade before it too was retired. The nascent West German Bundeswehr were a major customer, buying substantial quantities of the 404S as a workhorse for their forces, taking on many roles in their service. A total of over 62,000 of the 404S were made over its lengthy production run, with many of them still on and off the roads to this day due to their rugged engineering. The Kit This is a brand-new tooling from Ukrainian company ICM of this Bundeswehr pillar of their transport arm. It arrives in a top-opening box with another captive lid on the lower tray, and inside are five sprues of grey styrene, a small clear sprue, five flexible black tyres, a small decal sheet and a glossy printed instruction booklet with colour profiles on the rear pages. Detail is excellent throughout, and includes a full chassis and engine, plus the bodywork and load area, all crisply moulded as we’ve come to expect from ICM. The grille of the vehicle is especially crisp, as are the coil springs on each corner, and the wheels are very well-done with multi-part hubs. Construction begins with the ladder chassis, which is joined together with a series of cylindrical cross-members, plus front and rear beams, the latter braced by diagonal stiffeners to strengthen the area around the towing eye at the rear. The suspension is next, adding an insert to the opposite side of each spring to avoid sink-marks, but care must be taken to align them neatly to minimise clean-up afterwards. Triangular supports for the fuel tanks are added on each side, then attention turns to the six-cylinder Mercedes motor. Beginning with the two-part cylinder block and gearbox, the basic structure is augmented by ancillaries, fan, pulleys and drive-shaft for the front wheels, after which the engine is mated to the chassis and has the long exhaust system installed, adding a muffler insert around the half-way point, and siting another drive-shaft adjacent. Two stamped fuel tanks are each made from two parts, with the forward one having a filler tube and cap glued to the side, sitting on the out-riggers that were fitted to the chassis earlier. The front axle is made up from five parts to capture the complex shape of the assembly, to be installed between the suspension mounts and mated to the forward drive-shaft, plus the stub axles for the front wheels. Two stowage boxes are made for the opposite side of the chassis from the fuel tanks, then the rear axle is made up with similar detail and part count, fitting between the suspension and having larger circular stub-axles that have the drum brakes moulded-in. The front wheels have separate drum brakes, and both front and rear axles are braced with damping struts, while the front axle has a steering arm linking the two wheels together, with more parts linking that to the steering column. With the chassis inverted, the front bumper and its sump guard are fixed to the front, and a curved plaque on the rear cross-member, plus another pair of diagonal bracing struts for the rear axles. Each wheel is made up from a two-part hub that goes together much like a real steel hub, but without the welding, around the flexible black tyres. The front and rear hubs are of different design, so take care inserting them in the correct location. Lastly, the chassis is completed by adding the radiator and its frame at the front of the vehicle. The cab is the first section of the bodywork to be made, starting with the floor, with foot pedals, shaped metalwork around the gearbox cut-out, sidewalls and the internal wheel wells below the floor level. A number of additional parts are glued beneath the floor for later mounting, then the lower cab is built up on the floor, including the front with recessed headlight reflectors; bonnet surround, dashboard with decal, plus various trim panels. The floor is then lowered onto the chassis with a number of arrows showing where it should meet with the floor, taking care with the radiator. Once in place, the bonnet and more interior trim as installed along with a bunch of stalks between where the seats will be inserted. The seats are made from the basic frame to which the two cushions are fixed, much like the real thing, then mounted inside the cab, followed closely by the two crew doors, which have handles on both sides, and pockets in the interior. They can of course be posed open or closed and there is no glazing to put in, thanks to the cabriolet top. More grab-handles, controls and other small parts are fixed around the dash, and the windscreen with two glazing panels are put in place, with a highly detailed steering wheel that has the individual finger ‘bumps’ on the underside, and for your ease, it’s probably better to put the wheel in before the windscreen is fixed in place. The cab is finished off by adding the cabrio top, which starts with an L-shaped top and rear, to which a small rectangular window and two side sections are added, dropped over the cab when the glue is dry and the seams have been dealt with. The load bed begins with a flat rectangular floor that has engraved planking, plus two longitudinal supports and three lateral beams that takes the weight of the bed once complete. The sides of the load area are stamped with raised and recessed detail, and comprise four parts, one for each side, plus raised side framework, and what looks like a spoiler on two short upstands at the front of the load area. Underneath is a rack for a nicely detailed jerry can, a stowage box or three, and the spare wheel on a dropped C-shaped mount, built in the same manner as the road wheels. The number plate holder is hung under the rear, also holding the rear lights for that side, with another less substantial part on the opposite side. I said the cab was finished earlier, didn’t I? Silly me. The front doesn’t yet have a face! The recessed headlight reflectors should be painted with the brightest metallic you can find before they are covered by the clear lenses and their protective cages, joined slightly outboard by combined side-light/indicator lenses, a choice of two styles of door mirrors, and a pair of windscreen wipers to keep the screen clear. Now it’s finished. Markings You might guess that most of the decal options are green, but there is one in NATO camouflage that is so typical of how I remember the Unimog in West German service. From the box you can build one of these four: Bundeswehr, Upper Bavaria, 1970s German Air Force, 74th Fighter Sqn., Neuburg, 1970 5th Artillery Regiment, Idar-Obrestein, 1970s 363rd Tank Battalion, Külsheim, 1980s The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and consist of dials, number plates, stencils and a few other small decals, with good register, sharpness and solid colours. If you don't think you have the correct paint shades in stock for this kit, there is a new Acrylic Paint Set from ICM specifically designed for this model, our review of which we can see here. Conclusion The Unimogs were ubiquitous in Cold War West German army service, so there ought to be a good market for a modern tooling of the type, with many variants probably on the way in due course. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Laffly(f) Typ V15T (35573) 1:35 ICM via Hannants Ltd The Laffly V15T was a particularly niche entry into the French Artillery Tractor roster, with only 100 being made before production ceased at Laffly to be taken over by another company. The type saw limited service in the French army pulling the outmoded 25mm anti-tank guns, and after capitulation, in service with the Wehrmacht as transport or radio wagons, where they bore the suffix (f) to denote their French origin. The unusual aspect of this vehicle was the four apparently ‘vestigial’ wheels on axles spurring off the chassis rails that were intended to increase the off-road abilities of the type. When viewed from the side however, the small balloon-wheels appear to be above the level of the main axles, so whether this actually worked anywhere but in the deepest ruts is a mystery. We don’t see them on modern vehicles, so I’m guessing they were more trouble than they were worth. The Kit This is a reboxing of a brand-new tool from ICM, and I was not wrong when I imagined we’d be seeing a few more boxings, and that’s no bad thing. It’s typical of modern ICM in that it is well-stocked with detail, and arrives in their standard compact top-opening box with captive inner lid. There are seven sprues of grey styrene inside, plus a clear sprue, four flexible black tyres, a small decal sheet and the glossy-covered instruction booklet with spot colour and colour profiles to the rear. It’s a full interior kit including engine, chassis and crew compartment, so there are plenty of parts to get your glue on. Construction begins with the chassis, with an option to remove the rounded rear-end where the towing hitch attaches, which is cut off easily with a scalpel or razor saw using the red outlined section on the drawings as a guide. A number of cross-braces are added, and a jig is placed under the inverted chassis onto which the rear suspension arms are laid, so that they set up at the correct angle, taking care not to glue the arms to the jig. If you have left the rear section on the chassis, the towing eye and other parts are glued in place, then the various leaf springs, ancillary axles and other suspension/steering parts are attached to the sides, with a sizeable transfer box and twin drive-shafts placed in the centre facing aft. The front axles are made up and glued in place with twin springs above them on the chassis, two more drive-shafts pointing forward, and more suspension/steering parts for the small wheels. The little balloon tyres are each made from two halves each, and four are created to affix to the small axles that project from the chassis rails, the front one of which has some limited steering capability. The 4-cylinder 2.3L petrol engine is next to be built, beginning with the two-part block and adding the sump, timing pulleys, transmission, exhaust manifold and finely-moulded cooling fan, plus other ancillaries that should result in a highly detailed rendition that just needs some HT-wires and sympathetic painting to complete. It is laid into the centre-front of the chassis along with the airbox and intake hosing, then is bracketed by a pair of tapered inserts that fill the gap between the block and the chassis rails. The main cab is based on the shaped floorpan, with sides, aft bulkhead and some internal structures added along the way, which later form ammunition storage bunkers around the sides of the rear portion. The front crew have a seat each with separate backs, and there is another optional wider seat in the middle of the rear compartment, which installs over a moulded clamshell door with pull-handles. A set of driver controls are added to the left front of the body, then a firewall with pedals, a breadbin-like compartment and other small parts is fixed to the front of the body, with a steering column and wheel added after the bodyshell is fixed to the chassis. The dashboard with dial decal is added over the wheel, and the area is covered over with a curved scuttle panel. In the rear compartment, the tops to the stowage boxes are fitted, and these have the individual sections and their handles moulded-in. Returning to the engine compartment, the steering column is extended into the lower chassis and a horn is fixed to the trim panels, then the three-part radiator is assembled and glued to the front of the vehicle, defining the engine bay. A loop of hosing joins the radiator to the engine, and the cowling panels are closed over the compartment, although you have the option to leave them open if you wish. Some small parts are added to the lower edges of the cowlings, which has crisply detailed louvers moulded-in. A pair of curved front wings are glued to the lower body over the wheels, and each of the four main wheels have a brake drum part added to the end of each axle, after which the wheels themselves are made from two hub halves that mate inside the hollow tyres and glue to the axles, allowing the vehicle to stand on its own wheels. At the rear, an axe and shovel are fixed to the bulkhead with a stop sign and the towing hook, a folded tilt is added to the rear, and the windscreen is made up from a frame and two individual clear panes. A trio of rolled-up canvas anti-splatter covers are pinned to the fronts of the door apertures and the two headlights have their clear lenses glued on before they are put in place on their mounts next to the tiny wheels at the front. The final parts are a front number plate board and an optional square unit plaque on the left front wing. Markings There are three varied markings options provided on the decal sheet, one more than the original boxing, and they’re painted in differing shades, depending on where they were based and the prevailing colours at the time. From the box you can build one of the following: Unknown Unit, 1941 931st Assault Gun Division, France, Mobile Brigade (West), 1943 Mobile Brigade (West) France, 1943 The decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, and consist of dials, number plates and a few other small decals, with good register, sharpness and good solid colours. Conclusion Until the first boxing of this kit arrived, I had no clue that the type existed, and it’s a curious-looking beast that’s endearing for its unusual shape and design. Detail is excellent, and if you didn’t fancy the options on the sheet of the original kit, these alternative schemes are a lot more interesting, and you have to love those weird vestigial wheels. Highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

Hi All, Whilst my Sunderland build is still chuntering along, I fancied a bit of light relief after marathon sanding and scribing sessions (I also thought it would be polite to give @AliGauld a bit of clear air, as our builds appear to be converging to alarmingly similar stages, and he started first!). Anyways, I've had ICM's lovely Gladiator Mk.II sitting in the stash for at least a couple of months, so I thought I'd run both builds in parallel (what could possibly go wrong?!). Here's the box art: This is my first ICM kit, and initial impressions are certainly favourable. A nice sturdy box, and some jolly nice artwork to boot! Here's the sprue shots: Detail and quality look to be superb. Here's the decals, which also look lovely: I've got a couple of extras for this build - Yahu instrument panel and Eduard harness: I also had some of these sent over from the UK after I'd seen them used to great effect on other builds: I've also invested in a set of Montex masks, which allow for 2 schemes: Now I'd had my heart set on a DE/DG/LE/LG colour scheme, and was surprised when the Montex scheme showed up as DE/DG over B/W, and looked... well, rather dull! Nevertheless, I started to do a little due diligence on the scheme, N5581 of 615 Sqn RAF, which Montex have based at RAF Kenley in August 1939. A quick trawl of t'internet has the same aircraft: This time based at RAF Ford in the same month - hmmmm. Imagine my further confusion when searching on 615 (County of Surrey) Sqn (as noted in the above pic), there appears a completely different squadron code ('KW' as opposed to 'RR'), with one of the box schemes being the former based at St Inglevert (Northern France) in April 1940. Without digging into the history of 615, I am guessing that they vacated St Inglevert in a hurry in May 1940, and presumably remustered in England shortly after? Anyway, here's the box scheme of the France-based aircraft: It does have the 4-colour upper camo, which ticks a box - some rather fetching red hubs too 🤩. Also, I did find this: So, the top scheme is the Montex one, the second is the box scheme (although this time in December 1939), and 3 & 4 are also strong contenders for unusual camo!! Here's a photo I found of the bottom aircraft, which is in standard DFS colours of DG/OG over MSG. Here's a photo I found of said aircraft: I haven't seen a Gladiator modelled in that scheme before, so some marks for originality! I now don't know whether I'm Arthur or Martha as far as the schemes go, so I think I'll just go and throw some primer around and not worry about it for now! Thanks for looking, Roger

OV-10A & OV-10D+ Bronco ‘Desert Storm’ (48302) 1:48 ICM via Hannants The Bronco was conceived as a light attack, long loiter aircraft of modest size, enabling it to operate from unprepared fields and roads close to the combat zone. As so often seems the case, the final design turned out to be much larger and heavier due to the requirements of the avionics and ejection seats, thus limiting its use to conventional airfields. The twin boom aircraft first flew in 1965 and was destined to serve with the US Navy, Airforce and Marines as a replacement for the Cessna O-1 Bird Dog & O-2 Skymaster. The Marines were the first to take the OV-10 into service as a forward air controller platform operating both night and day missions. Whilst the Bronco is best known for its operations in Vietnam, it also served in later conflicts as late as the Gulf War before being retired from US service in 1995. The USAF received Broncos in 1968 and deployed the aircraft in the Forward Air Control (FAC) role, using smoke laying methods initially, and later using laser targeting designators. Eventually after extensive modernisation to the -D model with the addition of a FLIR turret and new avionics, then another upgrade to the -D+ version that involved replacement of much of the wiring loom and further stiffening of the wings to enable it to carry more and fly harder. By this time it carried its own ground attack armament including rockets, machine guns and bombs, plus targeting equipment that gave it the capability of Light Attack Aircraft, and made it a scary prospect for the enemy to see overhead. Seven export contracts were signed with other foreign operators including Germany, Columbia and Indonesia, each having their own letter suffixes, and the very last of which will be leaving service in the near future after long service. The last action of the Bronco in US Marine service was the first Gulf War, where a mixture of As and D+s fought side-by-side bravely carrying out the Forward Air Controller (FAC) task against enemy forces, although they did suffer some losses due to equipment inadequacies and possibly because of its relatively slow speed making it an easier target for the anti-aircraft assets of the opposition. Although efforts were made to keep the bronco in service, by 1995 it was withdrawn from active service and handed-off to other government institutions, with the job being carried out from there on by two-seat F-18s that had speed and plenty of self-defence capabilities to hand. The Kit This is a twin-boxing of ICM’s excellent new Bronco kits, and includes one of each of the OV-10A and OV-10D+ in one fairly compact box that will be stash friendly due to the two-for-one size of it. The kits arrive in a slightly larger top-opening box with the usual captive lid, and inside are twenty sprues in grey styrene, two clear sprues, a decal sheet and a thick instruction booklet that has sprue diagrams at the front, and here a little oopsie occurs. There’s a mistake in the binding of the instructions of my example due to the inclusion of a duplicate leaf in the booklet (pages 3, 4, 41, 42), as some of the decal options were also duplicated at the rear of the leaflet. The correct sprues are used in the instructions however, so just ignore or remove the extra pages if your example is affected, and everything should be fine. We’ve reviewed these kits in great detail before, and because it’s a rebox of two of them, the review would be far too verbose and many of the paragraphs would be almost identical, so we won’t subject your scrolling finger to all that work unless you really want to. You can see the links to the original reviews below, which has a ton of photos of the sprues, detail photos and a full description of putting each one together. Once you get to the Markings section, come back here and have a look at the new decal sheet for this boxing. Review of OV-10D+ Review of OV-10A Markings This boxing depicts two airframes that took part in the Gulf War in 1990/1, all of which were in service of the US Marines in two Marine Observation Squadrons during the period. They all wore the same two-tone sand-brown scheme during their time there, and that differed only slightly between the As and Ds because of slight differences in their nose shape. From the box you can build two of the following, taking into account that you have one of each variant: OV-10A 155428, Marine Observation Sqn. 2, (VMO-2) Saudi Arabia, 1991 OV-10A 155454, Marine Observation Sqn. 2, (VMO-2) Saudi Arabia, 1991 OV-10D+ 155473, Marine Observation Sqn. 2, (VMO-2) Saudi Arabia, 1991 OV-10D+ 155494, Marine Observation Sqn. 2, (VMO-2) Saudi Arabia, 1991 Decals are printed by ICM’s usual partners, with good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. The weapons all have stencils to apply, which are shown next to the profiles, and there are also rear and white tip decals for the propellers, and the T-shaped walkways on the top of the wings in a dark brown, as are the majority of the main markings. Conclusion This boxing is very good value for money, giving you two kits in a one kit sized box that can be depicted on the same runway or apron once complete. Even if you don’t want two desert birds, it’s still good value, and it helps immensely that it’s a great kit. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of

A-26C-15 Invader w/Pilots & GP (48288) 1:48 ICM via Hannants Ltd The A-26 was built by Douglas in WWII as the successor to the A-20 Havoc. Two types were designed, The C with a glass bomber nose and the B with a full metal nose filled with either 6 or 8 .50cal machine guns, which coupled with the three in each wing gave it quite a punch, deserving of the Strafer title. It also had a pair of turrets on the fuselage mid-upper and dorsal positions, which were both operated by a single gunner using a complex remote mechanism that flipped between the upper and lower turrets depending on where the gunner was looking through his binocular sights. This trained the guns accordingly and also calculated the correct offset for parallax and lead, but was very complex and caused some delays to it entering service, and even more issues with maintenance in the field. In 1948 it was re-designated as the B-26 by the US Air Force to confuse us, and later on back to the A-26 just to complete the process of confusion. Development of the Invader was begun shortly after the Marauder and despite using the same engines it was engineered totally separately from its rotund colleague. It was initially less than popular in the Pacific theatre where its poor cockpit visibility due to the canopy and engine position rendered it unloved by the first users. It was more popular in the European theatre and was accepted as replacement for the Havoc fairly quickly. After the war it served in Korea, early Vietnam engagements and other conflicts, ending its days in US service with the Air National Guard in the early 70s. It continued in civilian service as a fire bomber and in other roles, such as actor in the film Always with Richard Dreyfuss playing its brave but ill-fated pilot. The Kit This is another new Invader boxing from ICM, initially released as the Solid nosed variant, this is now the glass nosed type with the inclusion of additional parts (though all the parts for the solid nose are still in the box), plus another sprue that includes five figures appropriate to the era of operation of the early glass-nosed Invaders. It arrives in the familiar top opening box with a captive inner lid on the lower tray, and inside are ten sprues in grey styrene, two in clear, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet. A quick look over the sprues reveals that panel lines are very crisp, narrow and restrained, the surface is matt and very neat-looking, with plenty of engraved and raised detail on the parts, plus subtly indented flying surfaces mimicking their fabric covering. You might also notice that there are parts for an open or closed canopy, the open one having the flat top surface, while the closed canopy has the slightly blown roof that was used after 1944 to improve visibility. That might give you some latitude in case you can't wait to build a WWII aircraft. Construction begins with the cockpit, creating the pilot's seat, instrument panel (with instrument decals) with built-in door to the nose, centre console with throttle quadrant before adding those and the single control column to the floor. The aft compartment is built up around the front wing spar with a set of radio gear hanging from a pair of risers, then a pair of bombs on their racks, the reason for which will become clear in a moment. The port fuselage half is detailed with some side console and panel parts and then has the bomb racks, nose gear bay sides, forward spar with radio gear, rear spar in the centre of the bomb bay, sloped aft bulkhead and another frame behind that, followed by the cockpit floor, so you'll have to do some detail painting as you go. After this the starboard fuselage side is prepped, and here's where a little cautionary note about sink-marks on the exterior of my sample needs making. The right side of the cockpit and bomb bay with its detailed ribbing has caused the shallowest of sink-marks on the exterior, which would be best dealt with using a little filler before you get busy building. You could have dismissed it as oil-canning of the skin if it were consistent and on both sides, but as it isn't you'll need to decide whether you're going to fix it. Happily the majority of it is in areas that are open enough to allow easy sanding of any filler, so it shouldn't slow you down very much. A 0.8mm hole is drilled in the section behind the canopy and the two remaining bomb racks are added inside along with an internal detail panel, nose gear bay side, and a hatch that does a credible impression of a toilet lid. With that and a quantity of detail painting, you can then slide the starboard fuselage over the two spars. The instructions then have you building up the tail feathers, with the elevators having separate single-part flying surfaces, plus a two-piece rudder to attach to the moulded-in tail fin. The glass-nose is appropriate for this model, but as it's a modular part that in real-world situations could be swapped for the gun-nose in a short time. This is built up and added on as a complete unit along with its glazing. The wings are next, and the lower parts have a smattering of flashed-over holes ready to drill out for bombs, gun-pods or drop tanks, plus three cartridge ejection chutes to be cut out for the wing mounted .50cals. The faces of the in-line radiator baths are added to the lower wings and then it's time to bring the halves together. You'll notice that there are fairings and a hump in the upper wing where the engine nacelles will be, and these are separate assemblies to be built up later. First, the separate two-section flaps (oddly with no deployed option), and the ailerons are prepared and added to the trailing edge of the wings, the latter being of one piece each and slotting into the wing via two tabs. The tip lights and underwing landing lights are added from clear parts, and a small insert is glued into the wing that includes three more barrel stubs each and will again need drilling out. At this stage the instructions have you sliding the wings onto the spars and gluing them in place. Whether you'd rather wait until you've added the engine nacelles though is entirely up to you. There are of course two engine nacelles and these build up pretty much identically apart from their outer skins, which are handed to fit their respective fairings as you'd expect. They are split vertically, and each half has internal structure moulded-in, with bulkheads added fore and aft of the gear bays, coupled with bay lip inserts that bulk out the edges and also hold captive their bay door. This may require some clever masking and a little care during handling, but it shouldn't hold you back too much, as the hinge-points are relatively robust. The two halves are joined together, the prominent intake on the top of the nacelle is made up from two parts, then is added to the nacelle front which is in turn glued to the rest of the nacelle, with the completed assemblies attached to the wings from the underside, as yet without their engine cowlings or props. The engines are added later in the build, and the Twin Wasps are depicted in their entirety with both banks of pistons, push-rods, ancillaries and reduction housing at the front, plus the collector ring and exhausts at the rear, the latter made up from eight parts each. So that they are fitted correctly and mesh properly with the nacelles, they are attached using a jig that is discarded later, so remember not to glue it in! Again, the engines are identical and interchangeable with each other, and they fit to the nacelles with a teardrop-shaped tab, after which the engine cowling is slotted over them. The cooling flaps are last to be added in four sets around the rear of the cowling. The top of the fuselage is still open at this point, as it has an insert with the top turret to fit in place, with another for the dorsal turret fitted later on. The remote turrets are both made up together with the ability for the twin .50cals to be left movable if you wish. The top turret has its mechanism and ring made up first, with the two halves brought together on either side of the insert before being glued into the fuselage, closing up that area. Then the gunner's compartment with simple seat and periscope is made up and installed under the glazing that sits behind the top turret. Flipping the model over, the lower turret is added to the insert and glued in place too. Another clear light is added to the very rear of the fuselage, and attention turns to the landing gear, which is of the tricycle variety as became the fashion in late war. Each of the three tyres are made from two halves with separate hubs applied from either side, then they are hung on their respective legs, which have retraction jacks and scissor links added along the way. Happily, these can be fitted late in the build, so the open bays can be masked quicker than if they were present. Speaking of bays, you can depict the bomb bay open or closed by using either a one piece door for closed, or two separate doors with internal detail for open. This is nice to see, as it's always a little tricky to join two doors and get them aligned with the fuselage so there are minimal join-lines. The main airframe is ostensibly complete save for some antennae and the props, and if you've been sparing with the glue when assembling the engines, the latter should still spin once complete. Your final choice is bombs, tanks or gun-packs hung under the wings. The bombs are made up from two halves each with a spinner insert in the rear and their attachment points moulded into the port side, the gun-packs have a handed three-part pod that fits around the central gun-tray, and the drop tanks are simple two-part assemblies with their attachment points moulded into the port side again. They are all mounted on pegs, and fit into their holes that you remembered to drill in the wings before you closed them up, didn't you? Pilots and Ground Personnel Figures (48088) Inside a separate bag is a single sprue of grey styrene and a glossy instruction sheet with spot colour profiles of the five figures that can be found on the sprue in parts. There are three flight crew members, two of which are dressed for flight, complete with their life jackets and harnesses, while the third crewman is wearing just his olive drabs and a leather flying jacket with an officer’s cap and his hands in his pockets. Two of them have large kit bags at their feet, while the guy in the peaked cap is carrying a parachute pack in one hand and a glove in his other. The two ground crew figures are dressed in overalls, one kneeling down with a spanner pack to his side, while the other is reaching up with what looks like a screwdriver in one hand. Sculpting is excellent, with an abundance of crisp detail throughout, even down to the sewn-in ribbing on the underside of the crewman’s turned up cap bill. The poses, breakdown of parts and fabric drape is also beyond reproach, and they should build up into an excellent set of figures to dot around your new Invader kit, or another WWII US bomber of your choice. Markings In this boxing there are three options included on the decal sheet, two in bare metal, the other in black. From the box you can build one of the following: A-26C-16DT, 553rd Bomb Sqn, 386th Bomb Group, Beaumont-sur-Oise, France, March 1945 A-26C-20DT, 86th Bomb Sqn, 47 Bomb Group, Grosseto, Italy Early 1945 (Overall semi-gloss black) A-26C-30DT, 646th Bobm Sqn, 410th Bomb Group, Beaumont-sur-Oise, France, June 1945 The decals are printed anonymously, although they look like DecoGraph's output to my eye. They have good registration, colour density and sharpness, and include a number of stencils that are legible with the right magnification. Conclusion This model should make a good number of people happy and represents improved value with the inclusion of the figures. Detail is excellent and made so much nicer by the matt surface, and there's a fair proportion of the interior included for what is bound to be a popular kit. Smear a little filler into those light sink-marks before you get started, and no-one will know they're there. Very highly recommended. Available in the UK from importers H G Hannants Ltd. Review sample courtesy of