Milan Kosek

This new series Inside & Out, Why Don’t I Build Standard Kits? ISBN no 80-86416-32-1 by Milan Kosek’s is one of these. Sub titles A Modeller’s Guide To Improving Scale Model Kits No 2. It is bilingual in English and Czech. Price unknown as it is a review copy, so check out with your local book store.

The Subjects in this edition are all wrecks of tanks and soft skins and armoured cars all are 1/35 in scale, they include the following Tamiya Strumtiger, Italeri Hetzer, Tamiya Jagdpanther, Italeri RSO, Tamiya Tiger old model, Italeri Puma, H.K resin S.W.S Tamiya Marder original 30 year old kit, Tamiya panther again the original kit, Italeri Sd Kfz 234/4, Tamiya Sd Kfz 251/9, and lastly Italeri Opel Blitz.

Each subject is covered in a photomontage of the actual kit after it is built up and painted it truly shows the level of detail and skill that the modeller has for his subject. In each section there is a explanation of what has been done to the kit and the add on details from resin or photo etch used and some brief outlines in text only of the parts scratch built or super detailed.

The modeller has achieved just the right amount of wrecking to make it realistic and more important believable, in many of the models it is in the knowing when to stop to achieve the end result, he has done this superbly in my mind at the right moment in each case.

Each model has been treated to a different approach and style which show the model to its best advantage. This is reflected in the final photographs of the models you can see how his style has altered and improved. If I had to pick one that gives me the most satisfaction it has to be the RSO on page 20.

However there is one down side and I hope the author will take this on board as a constructive criticism, unless you have encyclopaedia knowledge of resin accessories and photo etch. In the completed models it is near impossible to see what is not his work and the work of bought items. I would like to have seen at least half of the photographs devoted to the construction stages to show the level of detail in the models before final painting.… (más)