ModelWarships reveiw

1/400 Operation Husky Sicily 1943

Reviewed by Timothy Dike

Here's a paper model that should appeal to the aircraft, armor and of course ship modeler in you. This one is titled Operation Husky and includes virtually everything shown in the illustration above. Operation Husky was the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. This assault was designed to deny Italy and Germany bases in the Mediterranean that could threaten Allied shipping. Included in this kit is the Polish liner Batorycas she was during WW2 when she served as an Allied Troopship. A full load of landing craft and even tanks and troops are included. You get LCP, with and without ramps, LCM, LCT Mk 4 and Mk 5 landing craft to help get your equipment ashore. DUKW and Sherman tanks will help protect your troops. An Airspeed AS-51 glider and two Hawker Hurricanes provide air cover to the invasion.

The pages of the kit are illustrated below, they are printed on heavy cardstock. The tanks and smaller landing craft are printed on lighter paper. All external parts are printed in color so no painting is necessary. The instructions are numbered and it looks like the assembly should go pretty easy.

You even get a large folded up sheet simulating a water base. Please note that I have scanned these images at different scales and low resolution to prevent anyone from copying them. The quality of the print is much better than will show up on your monitor anyway.

I have heard many paper modelers say that it is best to laminate these pages onto heavier card to make them even more rigid. There is nothing to stop you from laminating it to styrene for the ultimate plastic scratchbuild.

The beauty of this type of model is that you can use a copier to reduce or enlarge the pages to produce most any scale of ship that you like. In fact I would recommend that if this is your first ship that you begin working with a copy of the ship. As a devoted 1/700 waterline modeler I find myself computing the how much I will have to reduce this kit to get to my scale!

This kit is priced at 8,95 EUR which is about $11.00 US a pretty good price for a complete 1/400 diorama. Check out the e-papermodels.com website for even more ships and detailing accessories to enhance your kit.