Mikester

LOL, what Dave said!

Petr, welcome! Great to have you on board as a sponsor here at LSM. How about an MPM 1/32 He 177? Dream big!

Nice!

Outstanding!

With the current exchage rate looks like a street price of $80-85 over here, not bad.

This really personifies what a late war Luftwaffe bird should look like, just amazing!

Outstanding, Iain!

All that.....and a bag of chips!

Yeah, what Dave said!

Not really familiar with these guys. What is their quality like? Low pressure injection molding? Had my eye on the MDC kit for a long time but just could never justify the price tag. This is one that I suspect RoG might get around to eventually too.

Nick, Thursday and Friday are invitation only for members of the trade. Unfortunately real life infringed on my trip to Shizuoka, my son dropped the "Hey Dad, I need $1200 for my last college tuition installment" bomb and I just received word that our illustrious Congress is proceeding with a furlough of federal employess so I'm going to have to suck up a 20% pay cut until the end of the fiscal year.

Looks strangely familiar! Are some display cases in the plans as well?

We'll make sure everyone gets along, even if we have to cracks some heads to do ti! As Jim stated, there are sites out there where you can bash each other to your heart's delight, LSM is not one of them. For the record Steve is a good guy and a fount of knowledge on Luftwaffe subjects who has helped me out more than once.

How did I miss this one? Incredible work!

Amazing (as always), Ralph!

It ain't finished until I see some pics!

It's my second one actually! I've been buying quite a bit of armor over the past year, just need to get around to building it!

1/35 Light Tank VK 1602 "Leopard" Amusing Hobby Catalogue # 35A004 Available from Lucky Model for $32.99 My second review is my second review of an Amusing Hobby kit, another "paper panzer", this time the "Leopard". The Light Tank VK 1602 "Leopard" was a planned German recon vehicle designed from March through October 1942, with the serial production scheduled for April 1943, but the project was abandoned before the first prototype was built. It was originally planned to arm the vehicle with the 75 mm Kwk 41, although that was changed to a smaller 50 mm cannon which was used on later Pz Mk. III's. The VK 1602 had largely sloped frontal armor, influenced by the Panther. In order to increase cross-country performance, the VK 1602 was fitted with 350 mm wide tracks. Production was scheduled to begin in April 1943, but the project was cancelled in January of that same year. The reason for this was that the 50 mm L/60 was insufficient for combat against modern Soviet and Western tanks, though it was useful against the British and American light tanks and Soviet amphibious tanks. Also, the Leopard was a heavy vehicle for it's size and the Sdkfz. 234 "Puma" armored car could be used as a scout, though it was more vulnerable and could not traverse rough ground as easily. The Leopard chassis was also planned for use as the base for either a 20 mm "Flakvierling" mount (quadruple 20 mm anti-aircraft guns) or a single 37mm gun in an anti-aircraft turret. Will we see these from Amusing Hobby in the future? I'm sure some of us are already in the process of figuring how to adapt existing kits of these guns to the Leopard! So another really interesting looking vehicle that never progressed beyond the drawing board, the Leopard strikes me as a "mini-Panther" with a Puma turret grafted on and it looks like it means business! So what's in the box? Popping the box top we discover our sprues individually bagged in a reinforced heavy cardboard lower box, which I'm a fan of. Not that I have a closet full of un-built models stacked several feet high and require these sturdy boxes, but I'm told other modelers are guilty of this. I'll remove my tongue from cheek and press on now. Once again the parts are crisply molded in light gray and free of flash and mold sinks, ejector pins marks are located in areas where they should not pose any undue hardship during construction and finishing. Sprue A: The texture on the hull seems to be toned down just a little from the "Löwe" that I reviewed previously and I think it's pretty much spot on. Sprue B: Sprue D (x2): Sprue Dz (x4): Sprue E (x3): Sprue F (x2): Sprue G: Sprue H and J: This time around Amusing Hobby has provided a turret with full interior detail. Sprue N: Here's a nice touch, the cones are provided to shape the P/E antenna array. Sprue P: Sprues R and T: The lower portion of the turret is a clear part, I'm assuming this is to show off the interior turret detail if it's removed? Sprue S (x4): As with their other kits, tracks are assembled as individual links and the suspension is fully articulated. Sprues V and Y: P/E parts are provided for the grill covers and antenna arrays. Schurezen are also provided as separate P/E parts. Turret and Glacis: Hull: Tracks: Instructions: Presented in an A4 booklet, well illustrated and appear to be concise. Although no specific paint schemes are called out (understandable) a short primer on German three color camouflage is included. Color call outs are provided for GSI Creos, Humbrol, Model Master and Tamiya paints. Decals: A small sheet is provided with markings for two Wehrmacht (GrossDeutschland and 116th PD) and two SS divisions (2nd and 12th SS PD) along with Balkankreuz and tactical numerals. So what do we think? In my opinion we have another winner here. The Leopard will build up into a interesting looking vehicle OOB and can also serve as a basis for some cool SPAA conversions. Nice touches like jigs for aligning the tracks and forming the antenna arrays are certainly appreciated. Amusing Hobby has delivered some interesting projects so far and I'm excited to see what shows up next! Highly recommended! Mike O. Our thanks to Amusing Hobby for the review sample. To purchase directly, click THIS Link.

JG 52 - Aces of the Eastern Front Kagero - Units 1 by Marek J. Murawski and Arkadiusz Wróbel Available from Kagero Publishing for €15.71 Following on the success of their popular "Topcolors" series, Kagero has introduced a new line of books, "Units". To quote Kagero: "Units is a new series of small guides on famous units' history filled with photos and colour profiles". The series shares some of the things I loved about the "Topcolors" series, the great color profiles and decals, while introducing wartime photos and a historical narrative of the unit. The inaugural topic for the series is Jagdgeschwader 52 (Fighter Wing 52) and what better unit to start with? The alumnus of JG 52 reads like the honor roll of WW2 air combat, Hartmann, Barkhorn, Rall, Graf, Grislawski, and the list goes on. By war's end JG 52 had claimed the destruction of over 10,000 enemy aircraft at a cost of 678 pilots killed in action. Erich Hartmann and Gerhard Barkhorn would end the war as "triple centurions" netting 352 and 302 aerial victories respectively. Unlike most other Luftwaffe fighter wings who were commonly used in a "fire brigade" role, being frequently transferred to different fronts in response to the latest crisis, after JG 52's transfer to the East for "Operation Barbarossa" they remained there for the duration of the war. The layout is the familiar soft cover landscape, comprising 32 pages. The historical narrative begins with the unit's pre-war origins and follows their trek to the last desperate days in the East. Just to be clear, if you're looking for a comprehensive historical account, this is not it. With 45 photos and four color profiles competing for space in the 32 pages there is only so much historical narrative you can provide. That being said they manage to cover most of the unit's highs (and lows) in the text as well as providing several useful and interesting appendices. Speaking of photos, an interesting mix is provided. Luftwaffe grognards will have no doubt seen most of them before, but I came across a couple that were new to me at least. If Bf 109's aren't your thing you'll be a tad disappointed, JG 52 did not operate the Fw 190 (or any other fighter) during the war so all the aircraft photos are of Willy's original wonder. I'll preface my next statement by telling you that I'm a self-confessed color profile junkie and hoarder of decals, on to the good stuff! Four beautifully rendered color profiles are provided for the following aircraft: Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3; 'Yellow 5' of 9./JG 52, Coquelles, France, July 1940, Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-2, W.Nr. 8165, flown by Oblt. Karl-Heinz Leesmann, Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 52, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, June 1941, Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-4; W.Nr. 19249, 'White 10', flown by Lt. Alfred Grislawski of 7./JG 52, Taman, Russia, late April 1943, Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-10/U4; 'Yellow 11' of II./JG 52, München-Neubiberg, May 1945. I was particularly happy to see "Yellow 11" of II./JG 52 included. I have been fascinated with "Gigi" for some time, an early style tail grafted on to a G-10 airframe. For a comprehensive study of this particular aircraft I'd highly recommend "Bf 109G-10/U4 Production and Operational Service" by JaPo. The other aircraft are interesting as well although I would have like to have seen something from the two foreign Staffeln that served with JG 52, 13./(Slow.) and 15./(Kroat.). Of course I fully realize that no matter what mix of aircraft they provide someone will inevitably wish for something else! Decals are beautifully printed by Cartograf and considering their stellar reputation for high quality they should go down perfectly. So what do we think? I think Kagero has come up with another winner. Fully realizing that you can't be all things to all people, the book should appeal most modellers, casual historians looking for a little background information to go with their project as well as Experten looking for new and unique subjects to model. I'm looking forward to future installments in the series. Highly Recommended. With thanks to Kagero for the review sample. To purchase directly, click HERE. Mike O.

I'm with you here, Steve. This is not an obscure aircraft, really hard to see how obvious things get done wrong. I'll be more forgiving on subjects like the He 219, but with this one there really aren't any valid excuses.

Holy 20 pounds of resin, Dave! That kit looks awesome, can't wait to see it done!

Wow!

That's excellent, Ben! The blue really makes for a striking paint job.

Looks like Brett gave a reasonable assessment of the kit. I'm still not convinced that the spinner is correctly shaped (hard to tell due to the angle though) and the beule do not appear to go up high enough on the fuselage as has been noted.

Short run injection molded usually means low pressure molding which can be a mixed bag, long over due though.