Osprey is a publishing house in the United Kingdom that should be a household name to the swarms of us. Osprey continues to expand their Fortress series with the 109th book in this installment. The Fortress Series examine the fortifications and defense structures of opposing forces. In this case the Atlantic wall which at the time was the most fortified defense in Europe. This “wall” proved successful in forcing the allied forces to find an alternate route after several scuffles forced them back.

For the Fortress series, the chapters are organized as follows:

About the Company

AOA is a new decal company that for the most part specializes in aircraft from the Vietnam War era. I have reviewed their items in the past and I have always been highly impressed with the quality and the subjects that they are covering.

What’s on the Sheet?

This particular set covers one of my favorite aircraft, the OV-10 Bronco. The twin-boom Bronco has had a long and proud career that has spanned over 50 years now and is still in limited service to this day. Reliability, ease of operation and maintenance has made this aircraft a fond machine among pilots and air crew charged with maintaining it.

This decal set covers about 16 aircraft from 4 different TASS squadrons and you will have enough decals and stencil data to build 2 complete aircraft.

The decals cover the aircraft from the 19-23rd Tactical Air Support Squadrons (TASS)

History Brief

The Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien ("flying swallow") is a Japanese World War II fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. Built to compete with the P-40 Warhawk, the Ki-61-I was the first Japanese fighter to feature a liquid-cooled inline V engine. It was also the only mass-produced Japanese fighter of the war to use a liquid-cooled inline V engine. The first encounter reports claimed Ki-61s were Messerschmitt Bf 109s: further reports claimed that the new aircraft was an Italian design, which led to the Allied reporting name of "Tony", assigned by the United States War Department. The Japanese Army designation was "Army Type 3 Fighter”. Over 3,000 Ki-61s were produced. Initial prototypes saw action over Yokohama during the Halsey-Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942, and continued to fly combat missions throughout the war. Most of the type was tasked with defending the home islands against bomber flights.