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Introduction: The primary organization of the IPMS/USA Review website is by IPMS/USA National Contest Class. Within each Class there are sub-menus by kits, decals, books, etc. The Miscellaneous Class is for items that are not class specific or that cross two or more classes.

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Book Author(s)
Ralph A. Riccio
Review Author
John Ratzenberger
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$58.00

I am a Rolls Royce Armored Car mega-fan, so I pleaded for this book when it showed on the review list. Also, my real name is Sean O'Ratzenberger ….

The book covers wheeled and tracked armored fighting vehicles used by the armed forces of the Republic of Ireland from independence to the present day. It, of necessity, starts before then, in 1916, and works forward through the civil war as much of the armor was first used by the British and then acquired by the Free State (National Army) or captured by the Republican Army. This story is told in some detail. From there, the book covers the Irish forces during The Emergency (WW2, in which Ireland was neutral) through various UN peace-keeping operations.

Following the general and organizational history, there is a lengthy section which goes one-by-one through all vehicles used, having history, data, pictures, etc., for each. Some of this information duplicates that already told in the historical sections.

Book Author(s)
Steve Davies
Review Author
Ken McDevitt
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$35.00

Description

This is a 7 ½ by 9 ½ inches hard-cover book with 240 pages. All photos are in color and the paper quality is exceptional. Every time I turned the page, I thought that I was turning 2 pages due to the thickness of the individual pages.

Book Theme

The title of the book is “US MULTI-ROLE FIGHTER JETS” and prior to reading this book I only had a vague idea as to what “Multi-Role” meant. In this book Davies describes these jets as having the flexibility to change their mission capabilities (air-to-air, air-to-ground, jamming, protection, missile and AAA suppression, refueling, etc.). Some of the changes are done prior to missions and others are called upon depending on mission discoveries or opportunities.

Review Author
Bill Kluge
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$26.95

Adding to its expanding line of ship detail sets, Eduard has released photoetch ship railings in the popular ship modeling scales. This unpainted stainless steel set represents drooping chain railings founds on the main decks on most all types of vessels (metal bar railings tend to be found more often on the upper superstructure deck levels). This is generic railing, not geared to any specific navy or class of ship.

Review Author
Bill Kluge
Published on
Company
Yellow-Wings Decals
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$13.95

This decal sheet represents another of the Yellow-Wings “complete aircraft packages”, this time concentrating on pre-WWII and early war Wildcats. Covered are F4F-3s from two Atlantic Fleet carriers from early 1941, USS Ranger’s VF 41 and USS Wasp’s VF 72, and an early war F4F-4 from USS Enterprise VF-6 based on Guadalcanal and flown by ace Donald Runyon, complete with “tombstone” kill tally tail markings. The set contains all the details that we’ve come to expect from Yellow Wings, including squadron badges, propeller tip markings, walkways and fine pin stripes to outline the painted cowl colors. There are minimal stencils, as was the case on Wildcats of the era. As always, the printing (by Microscale) is sharp and in perfect register, and there is a bare minimum of carrier film. Yellow-Wings recommends the Hobby Boss F4F-3 or the Tamiya F4F-4 (suitably backdated for the Atlantic based aircraft).

Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$11.90

ICM has a growing line of 1/72 soviet jets and now it is providing modelers with a simple and cost effective way to enhance how to display our models: PAG-14 Airfield plates. I must confess, I don’t know anything about those plates nor I was able to find any online reference so I cannot speak as to their accuracy.

You get 32 individual plates, each one with dimensions of 82 by 27 mm. The plates have some nice texture which gets highlighted with either a wash or drybrushing. The parts have medium size attachment points to the sprue (typical of ICM) and some sanding is required to clean up the parts.