Thank you to Osprey Publishing for providing a review copy of their new release, World War I Seaplanes and Aircraft Carriers, number 238 in the New Vanguard Series. As always, I appreciate all of those in the IPMS Reviewer Corps, whose work is critical to sharing new and exciting modeling products with the world.
The M1113 is one of the most famous armored personal carriers in the history of military vehicles. It entered service in the beginning of the 1960’s and was the most widely used armored vehicle of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps in the Vietnam War. Capable of Carrying a fully equipped infantry squad, it proved its mobility, reliability and efficiency in the very difficult operational environment of Vietnam characterized by swamps and jungles. The “armored cavalry assault vehicle” or “ACAV” version was developed very soon to improve the fighting effectiveness of the M1113. The new features implemented on ACAV version were a circular turret armor for the commander’s M2 12.7mm machine gun and two additional 7.62mm M60 machine guns, protected by shields, and fitted on either side of the top cargo hatch.
Quickboost is known for producing high quality, resin replacement parts for many model kits from most manufacturers. One of their newer offerings is a set of resin replacement propellers for Revell’s B-17 Flying Fortress.
Revell’s kit propellers are typical of what you’ll normally find, four three-blade propellers molded in plastic. They look alright, but lack that extra level of detail resin molding can produce. Not to mention, the kit parts have a thin piece of flash running around the length of each blade, which will require some delicate clean up prior to assembly and painting.
Quickboost;s replacements pieces include four spinner hubs, and a dozen new propeller blades, as well as a small jig to ensure proper fit. There is a simple drawing to show how to prepare the jig, and how to properly use it for aligning and building the propellers.
One of the latest offerings from Academy is their new tooling of a Super Hornet in 1/72 scale. Academy is known for well-designed and sharp tooling, and this kit is no exception.
The kit comes molded in 3 colors: gray, white and black. The gray parts include most of the airframe and other parts. The black parts include the vertical stabilizer, burner cans, tires, seat and instrument panels. Don't fret over the black verticals, however, as they are included in gray as well. The white sprue includes intakes, main gear wheel hubs and landing gear struts.
Exactly 100 years ago the Battle of the Somme raged. Trenches, the first tanks and an air war all helped raise the bar in terms of death and destruction on an unimaginable scale. The Somme still holds a certain fascination for many people. Many of them visit these Fields of Honor to see where it happened, or maybe trace the paths their family members trod in the past. Whatever the motivation, to be able to go there and accurately locate the very site great granddad went over the top is important to many people.
Note: This book is also available in two other formats, eBook (Pub) and eBook (PDF).
Osprey Publishing in their Duel Series and Mark Stille, along with illustrations by Jim Laurier, have published an excellent book on US Navy Ships vs Kamikazes 1944–45. Mark Stille, a retired US Navy Commander., has a BA in history and a MA from the Ward College.
What you get is a softcover book covering 80 pages with high resolution black and white glossy, detailed historical photos. Cockpit images and illustrated maps in color are also included. The book is divided into11 sections.
This Eduard Brassin set is for the Eduard Fw 190A-5 kit. The set includes detail parts to add to a highly detailed kit. The resin and photoetch parts inside the box looked great and very well molded and etched.
In the box is:
All the resin parts are very well detailed, and are extremely well molded.
The assembly instructions are very clear and detailed.
Stage 1 through 6 is the fuselage gun bay structure, ammo boxes, and engine mounting structure. This all went together very well with no problems on fix or location.
Tom Cooper and David Nicolle's Arab MiG series is an incredible history that addresses the Arab air forces of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria and from 1955 through 1973. Although MiG aircraft dominate the story, all Post-WWII Arab aircraft are included. The authors have been able to access official archives as well as the combatants involved to provide a unique perspective of the Middle East conflicts. Volume one in this series, published November 19, 2009, covered the background of the Arab air forces from 1955 focusing on MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters. Volume two, published October 19, 2011, addressed the Arab air force supersonic fighters from 1956 through 1967. Volume three in the Arab MiGs series focuses on the Arab air forces in the June 1967 War. Three additional volumes follow in this series, all with the same thick 256 glossy page count. I counted 148 black and white photographs, 28 color pictures, 17 color side profiles, and three maps.
Most of us have seen at least one photograph of a Polish Air Force MiG-29 in recent years with a large multi-color circular badge adorning its upper surface. I know I had seen a couple of MiG-29’s with the special marking, but I assumed they were one-off special markings.
Recently I was given the opportunity by IPMS USA to review Quickboost's Messerschmitt Bf 109G Exhaust for the 1/48 Eduard 109G series of kits. One of the first things to notice with this product is the excellent presentation of the packaging with the sealed flap on the back of package to allow for easy access to parts.
Upon removal of the resin exhaust you will notice the great detail that we have come to expect from Aires Quickboost products. The molding on the exhaust is excellent and they come off of the resin block with little effort, I tried a couple of different methods of removal, on the first one I removed with razor saw and the second on I was able to score with a blade and remove easily.
