In this new offering from Casemate Publishing, authors Thomas Newdick and Tom Cooper, provide the modern aviation enthusiast with two-hundred full color aircraft drawings and forty photographs of everything flown today by squadrons around the globe. In the one hundred and ninety-two informative pages, there are some fifty-thousand words of text providing information on not just the aircraft themselves, but also on the branch of service for the country using them. The book is logically divided up by regions for the chapters, and then by countries within the regions. The opening page for each chapter shows a color line-drawing map for the region with the counties being covered within shown, making the book educational for geography as well as for the aircraft.

The chapters, as mentioned, are broken into regions as follows:

In this new offering from Osprey Publishing, author Brad Elward (and Illustrator Paul Wright) introduce the reader to the fascinating world of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers of the United States Navy. Having served aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), I quickly volunteered for this review when the book came out in a review list. As I possess a fair amount of knowledge on this subject myself, I am always looking to learn more about these magnificent ships, their history, and where the Navy plans to go in the future.

Master Model is known for producing high quality brass armament for aircraft and ship models. This new offering, AM-24-004, Hispano 20mm brass cannon for the AM-24-004, is another fine addition to this line of products.

The Master Model parts replace all four of the 20mm cannons that are included in the Airfix kit. It is necessary to remove and use the breaches from the kit parts but the barrels can be discarded. Assembly is straightforward and documented on the instruction card contained in the Master Model package.

One begins by removing the breach from the original Airfix cannons and by drilling a receiving hole in each breach. The depth and diameter of the receiving hole can be determined by identifying the locating pin on the brass barrel part that butts up against the breach.

One of the most tedious, but necessary tasks to aircraft modelers is masking canopies for painting. This is further complicated with modern aircraft, as many have an additional light yellow or gray rubber seal around the canopy glass. Trying to cut strips of tape, parafilm, or foil is tedious and time consuming to line everything up just right.

Eduard has come to the rescue for the past several years with sets of canopy masks made of Kabuki tape that is thin, flexible, and very easy to apply. Tamiya tape is the same material. Keeping up with the latest releases, Eduard put out a set for the new AFV Club 1/48 F-5E. This set would also work for the recent F-5N release as well.

For those of you that do any scratch building or those that super detail kits, you are well aware of punch sets. For the rest of us, a quick explanation is needed. Roll Models Sub-Miniature Punch and Die set includes a series of series of metal punches and a guide to allow you to replicate small discs. The Sub-Miniature set comes in sizes 0.063, 0.058, 0.053, 0.048, 0.043, 0.038, 0.033, 0.028, 0.023, 0.018 inches. It can be used for punching out plastic card to replicate bolt heads or used to punch paper to make masks.

The process is simplicity itself. You select the size punch you need. Slip your material to be punched between the guide bars, insert the punch and strike sharply. Out the other side comes a perfect little disk. You can do this over and over and it remains the same size.