Model Magazine International 127

I've always been fascinated by Israeli armour, especially modern vehicles from the 1990s onwards. The Merkava. Israel's homegrown main battle tank, is a particular favourite of mine and has undergone many revisions and improvements since it was developed throughout the 1970s. The latest version, the Merkava 4. with its large saucer-shaped turret and heavily bolted appearance has an almost science-fiction look about it. Israeli armour has never been particularly well served in 1:72 scale, so the announcement of a range of resin kits from Cromwell Models was exciting news. A number of kits have been released so far covering several Merkava and Magach (M-60) variants, with more' promised for the future. Cromwell Models has traditionally been associated with 1:35 and 1:76 scales, but these kits mark the start of a new line called Combat 72. Another interesting aspect of these kits is that they are composed of only a few parts and this enables rapid assembly.

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FineScale Modeler 12 2002

My first exposure to the B-52 Stratofortress was unforgettable - I felt it in my feet! Three long, low rumbles, barely audible - like distant thunder or an earthquake. ''Arc Light," a staff sergeant casually muttered as he sat across the table from me at the Tan Son Nhut base library in Vietnam in October 1972. I was "in-country" only a week, so he could see I needed more than a two-word explanation. "A cell of three B-52s dropping bombs maybe 30 miles from here.'' Incredible! Thirty miles away and 1 could sense the devastation. Boeings eight-engine heavy bomber, often dubbed "BUFF'' for "Big Ugly Fat Fellow" took the place of the equally amazing Convair B-36 Peacemaker as the Strategic Air Command's ''big stick" in the mid-1950s. The B-36 was never used in combat but stood nuclear alert during the Korean War. Unlike the B-36, the B-52 has seen action in all but the briefest U.S. military campaigns since the mid-1960s.

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