Review; Monty's Caravan + Dingo Revell Matchbox 1/76 model kit vehicle afv

Welcome to one of the most singular model kits ever made, the private vehicle of General Montgomery himself.

The Box 

The original box, which is lively, but that green looks a bit strange in what seems apparently a desert road. Maybe it is Italy, but all the same that green colour looks American to me.

The Revell new box is dull, you hardly realize what it is until you read the title, although the black gives a nice sensation of quality.

The Kit 

In the Revell reissue, the flash is quite noticeable, and nearly all parts will require some sanding to look good and fit ok. Some pieces are a bit tiny to handle, as it is again a 1/76 kit. 
The details are slightly thick everywhere, which wouldn't so bad in 1/72, but in 1/76 is more noticeable. What is best of this set are the extras, you get three generals, a big stand, barrels and top to make a table and traffic barriers. This is what I call a good set, and not all these modern kits where you only get exactly one vehicle and nothing else whatsoever. 

Parts fit generally well, the wheels cannot be made to turn without major modification as in most Matchbox kits. I will add that Revell instructions are quite badly done, and you are left wondering what some parts are and how they should be stuck, without help of internet.

The Verdict

For a start  I have to say that I am a Montgomery fan and I love everything related with him  and his campaigns so it is very hard to be impartial here .WW2 specific vehicles are rare to be seen in the modelling world specially in 1:72 (except those standard vehicles that include the militar codes for that general in particular; like Rommel's halftrack) so this italian captured lorry modified as staff lorry for the personal use of Montgomery is a really interesting subject and a must  to complete your 8th army collection.

We cannot also forget the small but very used in combat Dingo light armed vehicle, one of those vehicles that you can't find easily from any other manufacturer  although Britain won the war!!!(if it was german we will be flooded with kits of this vehicle).

For those that also like to make small dioramas or make improvements in interior kits this will be a nice addition for their collection as the interior of the lorry only includes a small bench table.

Accuracy; 6/10, Acceptable.
Mould quality; 6/10, Acceptable. (Revell release)
Difficulty level; 5/10, Moderately easy.
Price/Quality; 7/10 Good, today Revell's reissue should be easy to find and well priced.

My version

This is a particular vehicle, so if you don't modify the lorry to retransform into the regular Italian army version, there is only sandy for North Africa/Italy or green for the european theatre. As you can see in the pics, I went for the sandy version, depicting Italy (as the base is quite difficult to believe it is in North Africa), and I did some interioring work, creating a small bed and a bathroom. I did this many years ago, before knowing the uses of epoxy putty, so I used Patcolor (a self-drying plasticine sold by Jovi) as a putty to recreate the interior.

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Review; Airfix Scorpion / Scimitar Tank 1/76 Model Kit Modern British light tank

Welcome to another modern tank review, today a classic as the Scorpion from Airfix.

          The Box 

Back in the day I always that it was attacking backwards, with the turret turned back. Rather strange box, with very brownish colours all around. Not really very exciting, as I have seen it thousands times and only recently decided to buy this kit (and possibly because I had built everything else in the model shop!). The super reduced small box doesn't help either.

Even if built to regular standard without nothing fancy, I rather better the second box, looks more interesting and shows a nicer camo. 

  The Kit 

It's not the worst of Airfix AFV kits, but of course you can expect that most of the detail is quite basic. All the same it builds quite nicely, much better than others. As all other Airfix AFV kits, it is 1/76, so it builds into a very small kit, which is annoying for wargamers. There is alternative parts to build the Scimitar tank, with different cannon and some turret details. It is a kit that if you feel fast, you could build 4 in an afternoon. Sadly there is no driver nor crew. One of the worst aspects are the tracks, which are quite thick and low in detail, and the wheels, with very simplified details.


                                        The Verdict

A good kit to spend an afternoon, but nothing challenging, not for a superb display piece, maybe for a battle dioramas and good to build numbers in wargaming.

Accuracy; 6/10, Acceptable.
Mould quality; 7/10, Good. (1990s release)
Difficulty level; 2/10, Easy.
Price/Quality; 7/10 (dirt cheap and easy to find).

My version

There is plenty of mild interesting modern camouflages, but I found that the most interesting was the cubist urban camouflage for the Berlin deployed forces. To give it a different I cutted out the metal foil of a tea packaging to represent the glass in the light focus over the turret.



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As alternatives, you can take a look at this other interesting pictures;

Review; Revell Fokker Eindecker Dr. I 1/72 Model Kit WW1 Aircraft Fighter Luftflotte Ottoman Air Force

Welcome to a new kit review, today we'll review a WW1 classic, the Fokker Eindecker.

The Box 

A bit too vintage for my taste, it seems taken from a wartime magazine! the exterior design is quite different.

Quite typical action box, with the strange of addition of the pilot in 1st person which gets your attention.

Typical Revell WW1 box, very finely detailed, made most possibly by the same author. Usually I like Revell boxes, but this one is a bit dull, the Fokker doesn't look as different and unique as it should. This is the version I bought.

The Kit 

Another very old kit from Revell, but it looks as if the mould hasn't been used as much as others, as the flash is still within acceptable levels. Everything fits very well, and there is no problem building the undercarriage, which is something fiddly that could ruin a model. The propeller will turn nicely along the radial engine if carefully built, the same as the wheels. 

Also, and it is very appreciated, you get a pilot, a very charismatic one in my opinion.
Accuracy in this kit is pretty good , I would say that only the machine gun was a bit flat and perhaps you could say that the undercarriage is a bit thick but in my opinion that is good enough as otherwise it will be too fragile for handling.

                                       The Verdict

This is another model kit from Revell that can be bought very cheaply, second hand from ebay / street markets (is easy to see if the rack is complete as it a very small rack) or new from a any respectable model kit shop with Revell kits (as it is has been recently re-released) for roughly 5 € only, or whatever that amount is in your country's currency. 

My version

I really decided to buy this kit in part because it was a different design, easily recognizable from other WWI biplanes, but also and in big part because I had seen pics from another modeller which did a very nice Ottoman version. So, for once, I had already decided how to paint it before owning it! a brief researched proved me there was no better alternative, so I only had to choose what shade of brown I wanted to use (I went for a very reddish one). The pilot looks very Ottoman so it fits perfectly. 

The cabling was rather tricky but I am proud of how it looks, I didn't do all the real cabling, because then it will be very hard to handle, and I must admit I did it rather thick, but that helps in solidness.
I used the original decals painting carefully the black square, just as it was done back at the time by the Ottomans, except for the fuselage logo, which I printed out.

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Review; Heller De Havilland Dragon Rapide 1/72 Model Kit WW2 Aircraft Biplane RAF airfix dominie

The Box 

A rather unexpressive box, with a version shown which I don't care for too much. The artwork is well made but it isn't not in thrilling action or being exceptionally imaginative.

A much improved version in my opinion, making a good use of the perspective.

Not bad, with a very 1950s looking style, even if rather unmilitaristic for my taste.

The Kit 

A very fine kit, at least in it's first Heller releases. No flash to speak about, and very fine parts, everything fitting together nicely and tidily. The interior is a bit basic, and the chairs and other apparatus looks smaller than 1/72. 

The wheels and propellers can be made to turn perfectly.

But albeit looking like a very fine model, I consider in overall it looks wrong. I always thought it was quite a stubby airplane, and I was surprised to see that it was so small and thin in all aspects. Although the measurements are ok, I am nearly sure that the thickness and width of the wings, fuselage and motors should be much greater, it simply looks strange when compared with real photographs. It's a kind of overall feeling, but I can say that at least the engines should be wider and the wheels bigger in overall. I am not picky usually with this kind of small inaccuracies, but in this kit they have built up together to combine in a very perceptible problem.

                                       The Verdict

I would say search for a alternative model kit or wait for a new release, as this kit will possibly leave you unconvinced, at least it is for me. You can always try to fix all the small inaccuracies, but being a problem of overall dimensions you will have a hard time in doing so. The model kit in itself can be slightly hard to find, but nothing that 20 GBP cannot buy.

My version

I was a long time researching information for this kit, hoping to find something to find something truly exciting and operational. I was attracted by the Lithuanian version (which I struggled to find good images) but the overall dullness of the dark green put me off, it wasn't thrilling enough. I googled, googled and googled again, and finally found something new and unusual. Having read that some were delivered to Nationalist China, I googled in that direction, and finally found two pics of those airplanes. The first shows the aircraft in use as aerial ambulances, which isn't very combative and similar have been seen before, but the second one is really different. It shows how it has received markings from the Nationalist Air Force, received the colours in the tail fin and what apparently looks as a sort of camouflage (definitely, not plain white!). I couldn't resist to such an obscure version. I interpreted it as the Nationalists ended up using the ambulances as military transport, or simply camouflaged them as the Japanese weren't respecting too much their air ambulances (as you can see, there is still the red cross on the fuselage). I considered for the upper wing the markings would have been added too, and that it would have been painted green and the wear will have shown the white underneath.

I built this model some time ago, and nowadays I think that perhaps the green would have been applied rashly over the white as a camo, and not painted completely on top of it and later worned off. Maybe the green should have been darker.... anyway, there is plenty of room for interpretation, as the rudder fin looks very worn and faded off.

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