Introduction

The fourth issue of the Super Model International series is once again dedicated to armour modellers. In this volume we will be able to trace building process of four kits in two scales and learn the ropes of few very useful techniques which often cause problems for many of us.

Review

The magazine starts with the small scale world, seventy-two times smaller than the real one. The story begins in The Secret Garden created by Adam Juszczak. this is a small scale diorama with a German armoured car Sd. Kfz. 234/2 from Hasegawa and two soldiers standing in front of the gate and wall. Adam presents all of the major steps of creating this diorama. This includes building a vehicle of course but the author also presents how to create realistic trees with large crowns and make your own parts of wall.

The second article also depicts a 1/72nd scale diorama. The author of this fine work is Radosław Rzeszotarski. Radosław takes us to a Green Island. He uses the Mirage Hobby kit of the tank and Praiser sheep and shepherd figure. The tank crew was assembled from various different figures by Milicast, Italeri and Preiser. Radosław has put more attention on showing the progress of improving and painting a model of a tank and creating base for the scene.

1/35th scale modellers also get two articles on builds to follow. Robert Chmiel shares his patents for making the Trumpeters 1:35 scale KV-2 in German service. As the assembly process is not complicated and Robert made the kit without any aftermarket sets, he focused on presenting painting techniques, like colour modulation, creating effect of colour fading or realistic weathering. His article ends with a short tutorial about making an easy but effective display base.

The last article was prepared by Tomasz Kica, who builds Tamiya's BT-7 in 1/35th scale. This model is also presented on a simple base but this time with two crew figures. Tomasz details the Tamiya kit using Voyagers photo-etched frets. Using this opportunity the author presents his workbench tips and tools for effective working with the PE parts, from cutting, folding, forming up to gluing and soldering. Of course this is not all as Tomasz also describes further steps of completing his scale miniature.

Conclusion

The whole publication is in total 80 pages filled with a great quality scale modelling. Each of the authors has something interesting to share. What is more, their tips and tricks are very universal, and can be used in almost every modelling genre. At the end of each article the author provides very useful list of aftermarket sets, tools and other material used in his work, including brands and catalogue numbers so it's child easy to follow. You can simply use these articles like a modelling manual. The author’s use easy to get and not very expensive kits, so if you really want to learn a lot you can get the same kit and build it along with the author of particular article. Everything is illustrated with many photographs of a large size, which are very good quality and shot from different angles along with many close-ups. It would be rather difficult to miss any important kit detail or step.