Editions du Barbotin SARL

MINITRACKS 2

by  Author/Editor: Pascal Danjou

Reviewed By  Pascal H. Zandt, IPMS# 44514

MSRP: : €10.95 per issue, or €51.50 (Euros) for a four-editions per year subscription, or about $67.00. US ISSN: 1633-3683 www.minitracks.fr For the small-scale armor modeler, MINITRACKS is the quintessential publication. Like many specialized magazines, the downside is that it is somewhat expensive. That's about the only negative about this magazine in my opinion. I had a chance to review issue #2 in the new format. After the letter by the editor, images of past issues, subscription information, and a summary of the contents, the magazine starts on page 7 with a page of website listings of interest to the armor enthusiast. As a modeler long out of the hobby and only recently returned, what I think is great in all the articles is that the author explains every step of the way, from acquisition of kit, assembly, painting, and final touches. But there are also articles on photography, as in this issue, as well as articles on the real vehicles. The first of eleven articles is found on pages 8-15 covering Patrick Lapalu's diorama called "The Finns go rough" depicting a Finnish Sturmgescheutz III ausf G advancing alongside soldiers passing a knocked out JSU 152, disabled after a hit from a Panzerfaust and abandoned by its crew. This article is an example of kit-bashing two kits (Revell/Esci Stug. III) to come up with one more accurate, better detailed final product. The next article, pages 16-19, is written by the same author listed above and is titled "How to sculpt figures". In this article Patrick describes converting a U.S. modern U.S. military figure from the Preiser collection into a Finnish soldier of WWII, which he uses in the diorama described above. The third article, pages 20-23, called "Battle for Kunduz" describes a scene in the war in Afghanistan where a weathered T55 is used by the moudjahidin to take the city of Kunduz from Taliban forces. The author, David Gervaise, describes the various steps of how colors were mixed to get to the final product. Pages 24-30 gives a brief the history of the Panzerkampfwagen IV SdKfz 161. This is the first of a multi-part article written by Claude Gillono. Page 30 has three color plates of PZIV ausf. C and D (2) in France and Russia, respectively. The above article is a perfect intro to the next article about the Panzer IV Ausf. F1. Philippe Bonnet describes in pages 31-34 how he takes an old Hasegawa Panzer IV F1 kit and improves it with photo etch from Eduard. Karkhov, 1943,pages 35-39, is the name of the next article. Manel Arim depicts the retaking of Karkhov by the Germans during the winter of 1943. The images show a Panzer IV Ausf. G. (Hasegawa) of the Leibstandarte as it passes and abandoned ZIS 5 (PST) supported by grenadiers. The article following on pages 40-43 by Pascal Danjou, explains how to take pictures of finished models. Philippe Bonnet lists in his second article on pages 44-47 how he improved an ESCI kit of the Churchill MK III. I liked how researched the colors and history of the tank he was building. On pages 48-51 is an article also by Pascal Danjou about the AMD Chevrolet 1937 armored car, followed on pages 52-56 by an article by Pascal about the kit version of the armored car by Steelwork. Page 51 has four color plates. Pages 57-60 continue the history of Airfix with the 2nd part of the article by Jean Christophe Carbonel. Page 61 highlights newly released books. Finally, pages 62-70 show latest new releases of kits in 1/72nd and 1/76th scales and in various mediums from injected plastic, resin, white metal, photo-etch, and stone. Overall, the magazine is a great read and loaded with a lot of ideas and tips about building, painting, weathering and diorama building. I would recommend this magazine to any small scale armor enthusiast.

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