The second year of World War II was one of almost unrelieved disaster on the Allied side. The German side was doing very well, except their Italian partners. This 280-page illustrated book tells the story of the war from September 1940 to September 1941. This is the second volume in what I assume with be six book series. Here is the table of contents:

Aires Models from the Czech Republic specializes in aftermarket details; for the most part releasing drop-in resin replacement parts.

This set is intended to replace the wheels of the 1/48 Eduard Spitfire Mk. IX. The parts are molded in grey resin, free of bubbles or imperfections and with great surface detail, down to the manufacturer of the tires molded with enough raised detail that will take dry-brushing fantastically!

The attachment points of the wheels to the casting blocks are miniscule and removal and clean up should be an easy task.

In addition to the resin parts, they include painting masks which are super-handy to have and use. The masks are pre-cut so it is as simple as peeling, placing and you are ready to airbrush.

Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Aires Models and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

Harpia Publishing has been producing very high quality aircraft books for a while. These books are lavishly illustrated and have covered subjects from subjects covering Iraqi MiGs to Chinese aircraft to specific planes like EMB Tucano. The latest volume is Modern USMC Air Power written by Joe Copalman. This is 256 pages of soft cover wonderfulness. The first thing that hits you is that the pictures in the book are amazing pictures all in perfect focus, great flying shots and lots and lots of them. Wow!

I have included a picture of the table of contents. As you can see, there is a brief history and then it moves into the training aircraft, helicopters and all kinds of planes. The table of contents is below: