Once again Dragon has taken a previously released armor kit and has added Zimmerit, re-releasing it as a new kit. This is a good thing if you don’t feel you want to try to apply the Zimmerit using various types of putties and tools. To achieve this Dragon provides us with 26 plastic sprues of varying sizes. Two Brummbar sprues, four STUG III G sprues and only a few specifically for the STUG IV, most of the sprues are for the Panzer IV. Total part count comes to 751 parts; the number of unused parts is 207 leaving 544 parts to build the model. Several sprues have the same letter; Dragon gets around this by having one letter in black and the second same letter in blue. I mark the outside of the bags to make it easy to find the right sprue when I need it.

This 104-page soft cover book is the fourth title in Casemate’s AIR COLLECTION series about Japanese military aircraft. Like its predecessors, it is an English translation of a Spanish title originally published in Spain in 2008. The book includes 170 full-color aircraft profiles, beginning with a twin-seat 1913 Nieuport NG and continuing up to such naval aircraft in service at the end of the war as the Yokosuka D4Y2 Judy and Model 11 Koo Nakajima J1N1-Sa Gekko. It is obvious the author/illustrator has a great knowledge of the subject and the artistic talent to present it visually. Sixty-nine different aircraft types are represented and the nicely rendered illustrations display the variety of color schemes and national markings that were used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the period. There are no photographs, but they are not necessary.

The Revell 1/32 Panavia Tornado is a nice kit, but now approaching 20 years old, it is somewhat lacking in detail. Various resin and PE detail sets have been created for it, but until now, no-one has tackled the complex exhaust area – Aires have come to the rescue with this new set.

The exhaust detail in the kit is not bad, but the jet pipes are a bit short and the detail overall is a bit soft. The Aires set solves both these issues and then some! Each exhaust comes in three parts – the burners, the jet pipe and the can and externals. Detail is excellent, even deep down in the internals of the afterburners. The jet pipes are at least half as long again, and the external detail is excellent.