With just 169 days to go before Christmas, Hobby Master today announced their holiday tidings, which cuts across virtually every segment and sector of the diecast hobby. Here’s what you can look forward to seeing in your holiday stocking:
HG4914 – Republic of China (Taiwanese) 75mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 Tank – 1940s (1:72 Scale)
HG4915 – Free French 75mm Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 Tank – 1940s (1:72 Scale)
HA0197 – East German Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21MF “Fishbed” Fighter – Jagdgeschwader 1, East Germany (1:72 Scale)
HA2121 – USAF North American F-100D Super Sabre Fighter – 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron “Ghost Riders”, Da Nang AB, 1965 (1:72 Scale)
Sample packaging for Corgi’s upcoming Military Legends Series
Ever since they elected to back out of the diecast military vehicle market several years ago, retailers and distributors alike have been lobbying Corgi to make a valiant return, thereby upholding a tradition that stretches way back into the 1960s. As it turned out, 2019 marked the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings and served as a perfect way for Corgi to return to the war front both on the ground and in the air.
Beginning in September, eight repurposed 1:50 scale WWII-era vehicles will be released, each paying homage to the men and machines that fought so courageously towards the closing days of the War in Europe. So, without further ado, here’s what you can expect to see in the latter half of 2019 and hopefully serving as the tip of the spear for the coming year.
CC60418 – The best known American halftracks were the M series made as a standardized design by Autocar, Diamond T, International and White. The M series had a similar front end to the White M3A1 Scout Car but used more powerful engines: a 147bhp 6.3-liter White AX in the Autocar, Diamond T, and White, and a 143bhp 1HC in the International. Each version had four-speed gearboxes with two-speed transfer boxes and drive to the front axle as well as the tracked bogie. The M series halftracks were widely used by US forces in most theatres of the war, and were also supplied under the Lend-Lease Program to Great Britain, Canada and the Soviet Union. A total of 41,170 were made.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale British RAF Bedford QL Supply Truck – RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force, 1943
CC50309 – The Bedford QLD lorry was the most common British-made 4×4 truck produced, with over 52,000 supplied to the British Forces between 1941 and 1945. Many of these later continued in service with the British Army in Cyprus, Korea and Malaya. The first Bedford QL trucks rolled off the assembly line at Vauxhall’s Luton factory early in 1941. They were powered by the reliable GM 3 ½-litre six-cylinder petrol engine.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale German Krauss-Maffei Sd. Kfz. 7/1 8-Ton Semi-Tracked Personnel Carrier/Prime Mover – Unidentified Unit, Tunisia, 1943
CC60013 – Development of the Sd. Kfz. 7 can be traced back to a 1934 requirement for an 8-ton half-track. The vehicle first appeared in 1938 and was destined to be used mainly as the tractor for the 8.8cm flak gun. The Sd. Kfz. 7 was an extremely useful vehicle, employed both as a weapons carrier and prime mover by the Wehrmacht. They also saw service as observation and command posts for V2 rocket batteries. The vehicle could carry up to 12 men and a considerable quantity of supplies, as well as pulling up to 8000kg (17,600 lbs) of equipment. Most were fitted with a winch, which enabled them to pull smaller disabled vehicles out of mud or other quagmires. A mainstay of the German Army, the Sd. Kfz. 7 was even admired by the enemies of the Reich. In fact, the British tried to make exact copies of captured Sd. Kfz. 7s and some vehicles were appropriated for use by the Allies after World War II.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale British Cromwell Mk. IV Tank – 2nd Armoured Battalion, Welsh Guards, 6th Guards Armoured Brigade, 1944
CC60613 – The Cromwell tank was used by the British Army during the later stages of World War II. The Cromwell was ordered in 1941 and intended to replace the lightweight Crusader “cruiser” tank by being more heavily armoured, and, it was hoped, more survivable in battle. Its greater weight was to be driven by a 600-horsepower Rolls Royce Meteor engine, a derivative of Rolls Royce’s line of aircraft engines. Initial models, however, were powered by other engines and were designated Cavaliers and Centaurs when they entered service in mid-1942. The first genuine Cromwells with Meteor engines entered service in early 1943.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale British Churchill Mk. III Infantry Tank – 6th Scots Guards Tank Brigade, Italy, 1943
CC60112 – The “Churchill” began life as a 1939 requirement that envisaged a return to trench-warfare, and was therefore slow and heavily armored like the Russian KV-1 series. That said, the final Churchill prototype was much lighter than had first been thought acceptable, although it still resembled a World War I tank in appearance. Rushed into production at a time when a cross-channel invasion seemed imminent, it suffered early reliability problems and was not fully introduced until 1943. Early combat experience during the ill-fated Dieppe raid in 1942 was disappointing, but the vehicle proved more mobile in the rough terrain of North Africa. The tank excelled in its specialized variants, which include the AVRE, Crocodile flamethrower tank, bridgelayer and more. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the last Churchill was finally retired.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale US M4A3 Sherman Medium Tank – Unidentified Unit, Luxembourg, 1944
CC51031 – By all accounts, the M4 Sherman medium tank was regarded as the workhorse of the US Army during World War II. In fact, virtually all of the Allied armies employed the Sherman in their armed forces, including the British, who developed an upgunned variant called the “Firefly”. Eleven different US plants manufactured six basic models of the Sherman, and by June 1944 over 49,234 battle-ready vehicles had been produced. While it was no match for the German Panther or Tiger tanks, the Sherman soldiered on, using its weight in numbers to wrest control of Europe from the Wehrmacht.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale German Sd. Kfz. 171 PzKpfw V Panther Ausf. D Medium Tank – Panzer Abteilung 2, Panzer Brigade 107, Northern Bavaria, Defense of the Reich, April 1945
CC60215 – In many respects, the Panther tank was viewed as the finest armored fighting vehicle of the Second World War. Based in large part upon the Soviet’s highly successful T-34 medium tank, the PzKpfw V Ausfuhrung G (Type G) was built by several manufacturers including MAN, Daimler-Benz, and MNH. Mounting a fearsome 7.5cm KwK42 L/70 cannon and two 7.92mm MG34 machineguns, the Panther Ausf. G represented the third and certainly the most impressive installment in the Panther series.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale German Sd. Kfz. 181 PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. E Heavy Tank – schwere Panzer Abteilung 502, Russia, 1942
CC60513 – The German Waffenamt issued an order to design the VK4501(H) (as the PzKpfw VI Ausf E was then known) in May 1941, just one month prior to the commencement of Operation Barbarossa. Interestingly, Henschel und Sohn of Kassel was charged with building the heavily armored chassis while Krupp, by far the largest munitionwerks in Germany, was given the task of developing the turret. The PzKpfw VI Ausfuhrung E (type E) was one of the first German tanks to feature a torsion bar with eight interleaved wheels, which was designed to support the mammoth 57-ton tank. The Ausf E mounted a huge 8.8cm KwK36 L/56 cannon and featured two MG34 machine guns for close support against enemy infantry. By war’s end, 1,354 vehicles had been produced, some rolling off the Wegmann assembly line.
The Westland Lysander (nickname the “Lizzie“) was a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft’s exceptional short-field performance enabled clandestine missions using small, improvised airstrips behind enemy lines to place or recover agents, particularly in occupied France with the help of the French Resistance. British Army air co-operation aircraft were named after mythical or historical military leaders; in this case the Spartan admiral Lysander was chosen.
In August 1941 a new squadron, No. 138 (Special Duties), was formed to undertake missions for the Special Operations Executive to maintain clandestine contact with the French Resistance. Among its aircraft were Lysander Mk IIIs, which flew over and landed in occupied France. While general supply drops could be left to the rest of No. 138’s aircraft, the Lysander could insert and remove agents from the continent or retrieve Allied aircrew who had been shot down over occupied territory and had evaded capture. For this role the Mk IIIs were fitted with a fixed ladder over the port side to hasten access to the rear cockpit and a large drop tank under the belly. In order to slip in unobtrusively Lysanders were painted matte black overall (some early examples had brown/green camouflaged upper surfaces and later examples had grey/green upper surfaces); operations almost always took place within a week of a full moon, as moonlight was essential for navigation. The aircraft undertook such duties until the liberation of France in 1944.[citation needed]
Lysanders flew from secret airfields at Newmarket and later Tempsford, but used regular RAF stations to fuel-up for the actual crossing, particularly RAF Tangmere. Flying without any navigation equipment other than a map and compass, Lysanders would land on short strips of land, such as fields, marked out by four or five torches. Or to avoid having to land, the agent, wearing a special padded suit, stepped off at very low altitude and rolled to a stop on the field. They were originally designed to carry one passenger in the rear cockpit, but for SOE use the rear cockpit was modified to carry two passengers in extreme discomfort in case of urgent necessity. The pilots of No. 138 and from early 1942, No. 161 Squadron transported 101 agents to and recovered 128 agents from Nazi-occupied Europe. The Germans knew little about the British aircraft and wished to study one. Soldiers captured an intact Lysander in March 1942 when its pilot was unable to destroy it after a crash, but a train hit the truck carrying the Lysander, destroying the cargo.
Lysanders also filled other less glamorous roles, such as service as target-towing and communication aircraft. Two aircraft (T1443 and T1739) were transferred to the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) for training and 18 were used by the Royal Navy′s Fleet Air Arm. All British Lysanders were withdrawn from service in 1946.
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy Boeing E/A-18G Growler Electronic Warfare Aircraft – 168893 VAQ-141 “Shadowhawks”, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), Atsugi Air Base, Japan, 2017
The Boeing
EA-18G Growler is an American carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft,
a specialized version of the two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet. The EA-18G
replaced the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowlers in service with the United
States Navy. The Growler’s electronic warfare capability is primarily
provided by Northrop Grumman. The EA-18G began production in 2007 and
entered operational service with the US Navy in late 2009. Australia has
also purchased twelve EA-18Gs, which entered service with the Royal
Australian Air Force in 2017.
On November 15th, 2001, Boeing successfully completed an initial flight demonstration of F/A-18F “F-1” fitted with the ALQ-99 electronic warfare system to serve as the EA-18 Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA) concept aircraft. In December 2003, the US Navy awarded a development contract for the EA-18G to Boeing. As primary contractor, Boeing was to construct the forward fuselage, wings and perform the final assembly. Northrop Grumman was the principal air frame subcontractor and they would supply the center and aft fuselage as well as the principal electronic combat system. In 2003, the Navy expected to receive 90 EA-18Gs.
The first EA-18G test aircraft entered production on October 22nd, 2004.
The first test aircraft, known as EA-1, was rolled out on August 3rd,
2006, before making its maiden flight at St. Louis on August 15th, 2006;
it was later ferried to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on
22 September 2006. EA-1 primarily supports ground testing in the Air
Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility (ACETEF) anechoic
chamber.
The second aircraft (EA-2) first flew on November 10th, 2006, and was delivered to NAS Patuxent River on November 29th, 2006. EA-2 is an AEA flight test aircraft, initially flying on Pax River’s Atlantic Test Range (ATR) for developmental test of the AEA system before transitioning to the Electronic Combat Range (ECR, or ‘Echo Range’) in Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California. Both aircraft are assigned to VX-23 “Salty Dogs”. EA-1 and EA-2 are F/A-18Fs F-134 and F-135, pulled from the St. Louis production line and modified by Boeing to the EA-18G configuration. However, since they were not built initially as Growlers, the Navy has designated these two test aircraft as NEA-18Gs. There were five Growlers flying in the flight test program as of June 2008.
Hobby Master’s first look at the EA-18G Growler (HA5150) has now landed.
