This tiny, but important tank, is the third venture of OKB Grigorov into the “complete AFV kits” world. The set is completely made up of resin castings (23 parts) and etched metal (two frets with a total of 32 parts). It represents the later variety of the T-60: the road wheels and the idler are identical and maximum armor thickness reached 35mm.
To protect “the precious” the company has placed it in a small, sturdy box – everything carefully packed in bubble wrap.
Inside the T-60’s box
You can see that resin castings and the etched frets are in separate zip-lock bags to prevent loss, bending and scratching.
A member of the “Golden Wings” series from the early 90s this kit represents a Luft ’46 aircraft. Me-1101’s partially completed prototype was captured by US forces at the end of WW2. It later flew in The States as Bell X-5, the first aircraft with variable wing geometry. The radar-and-missiles equipped night fighter you see below must only have been a paper-only project…
Me-1101 Nachjager, Dragon 5014 – box top
The original aircraft did not feature a T-tail, it might as well have been a Dragon invention. Anyway – liked the look of the thing and when opportunity came I snatched the kit off EvilBay. It arrived in excellent condition and revealed a curious packaging pattern – all sprue bags and the decals placed in a big bag stapled to the side.
After so much waiting the new Mi-24 by Zvezda is finally in my hands. Probably one of the most awaited models in the 72nd scale, this impressive offering has no less than 284 parts and allows you to build the most accurate “Crocodile” in the scale to date.
One of the perks you get with the kit is the complete engine/gearbox setup that allows you to build your Hind all opened up (you’d still need to make the compartment plumbing yourself or wait for Eduard’s go at it though). Pick a V version with the YakB-12,7 Gatling gun, or a GSh-23-2 armed VP. Hang some serious firepower under the wings, pop the two pilots in the cockpits and let it rip!
The HobbyBoss effort has been on the market for some time already and it really retired the previous kits in the scale. A detailed cockpit, a pretty serious and well-detailed arsenal that could actually fill the pylons of 4 Hinds, better shapes, more adequate rotor heads, engraved panel lines and decent surface details. Most modelers also notice it’s a good fitter, so for about 10 euros it came as a notable bang for the buck.
The few issues noted on The Net are the overrepresented raised lines on the main rotor, the single-detail canopy (common for both cockpits) and the seam line going down the middle of it. But it still started a new era for the fans of the feared “Crocodile” – the biggest, toughest, most popular attack helicopter in the world.
