Eduard Model Accessories has produced another fine set of photoetch parts to help complete your Supermarine Spitfire Mk. VIII. The set is for up-detailing the cockpit and you should need to add nothing more to make the cockpit area a highly accurate replica.

As an added bonus the parts in this set are prepainted and have an adhesive backing.

There are two frets, made from stainless steel and a clear film with four marked rectangles to replicate glass faces on instrument panels and gunsight reflectors.

Aires now offers a resin a replacement exhaust set for the Revell F-22 Raptor. This set has very well detailed resin pieces molded in the standard Aires grey resin, and are flash and bubble free; as well as a small photoetch set. They also include a 3-page, blue paper diagram, which is a real help.

The resin pieces include the burner cans, turbine faces and nozzles. There is also a small photoetch for the turbine fans and which really will make the exhaust detail just pop out at you when looking at the model from the rear, especially when it is compared to the original kit parts. One thing about the F-22 is that the exhausts are a very distinctive and major feature.

The biggest improvement in this set over the kit parts is that you get one-piece exhausts, doing away with a seam. Also, the thrust augmenters are one piece, another seam you don’t have to deal with.

The B-24D was the first mass produced model of this aircraft which entered service early in 1943. Along with turbocharged engines and increased fuel capacity, there was a total of 10 machine guns. It was one of the heaviest aircraft in the world at over 59,000 lbs, on par with the British Bombers like the Lancaster and Halifax. Because of its ability to carry large loads of bombs and its capability to fly long distances it was chosen for “Operation Tidal Wave”, its most famous mission, which was a low level air strike on nine oil fields at Ploesti, Romania on August 1, 1943. It was to be a strategic mission to destroy these oil fields in order to reduce the amount of fuel and oil for the German war machines. This turned out to be one of the most costly missions of men and machines. Over 600 crewmen were killed and 50 B-24’s were downed on this mission. This mission was to become known as “Black Sunday”.

I have been a dedicated TreadHead for many a year now. That love also has a few sub divisions of TreadHeadiness. Yea, like that is a word. I have always thought Recovery Vehicles were so neat. Whether they were based on an actual combat vehicle like the M-31 and M-32 or completely their own design like the M-88. They all look so neat! The Russians were just like any other Army in the world. In the event of war or just a simple vehicular break down, combat vehicles need to be recovered and moved back to a location where they can be repaired. The first VT-34 vehicles were simple T-34s with no turret. Over time, they went from simple pulling tractors to very advanced combat recovery vehicles.

This book has nothing to do with models or modeling. If you are into modeling that part of the world, you might find a useful picture of a vehicle or aircraft.

The author, Al J. Venter, is a South African war correspondent who has covered Africa and the Mideast for 40-some years He has about 20 books to his credit, a few of which are on diving. I have read none of them, so this was a first for me. There is no doubt that he is not, and never has been, sitting behind too many desks.

From the publisher's data sheet and the book end covers, I gathered the purpose of this book is the show that it's a dangerous profession -- well, yeah, think Ernie Pyle. It was fortuitous (I guess) that as I was reading this, the Egyptian government was being overthrown -- the media became the target of the "pro-government" forces and there was the scene of Katie Couric almost swallowed by a mob -- all that brought the theme home, maybe as well as the book did.