How many times have you sanded away the detail on a model and then had to rescribe it by hand? Well over the past several months Eduard has released several photo etch templates of different shapes to make your scribing a little easier. This set is one of those and it is used for access panels.

The set comes on one photo etch fret, but then can be cut down into three separate templates that will then conform to the rounded surfaces of your model kit. To get the examples of what the different panels look like, I chucked a needle in my pin vise and just started working around the template lightly at first and increasing pressure to get depth in the scribing. Once this was accomplished I sand the raised edges and then applied a wash to show off the new panel.

I knew that Canberras had been used in the 1956 Suez Campaign, the 1990-91 Gulf War, the 1995-96 Bosnia affair and the Operation Telic, the 2003 Iraq war. This book showed me a number of facets of the Canberra’s career as the longest lasting RAF aircraft, from the first production in 1951 to the retirement of the PR.9s in 2006. Yes, 55 years. The Canberra replaced Lancasters, Lincolns and Washingtons (B-29s) and was itself superseded by Jaguars and Tornadoes.

There were actually three Canberra missions; tactical bomber, nuclear bomber and photo-reconnaissance.

This book follows only the RAF Canberras, not the American (B-57), Argentina, Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Ethiopia, France, India, New Zealand, Peru, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sweden, Venezuela, West Germany, or Zimbabwe.

I learned that Canberras had been deployed to protect Kuwait from invasion by Iraq, but this was in 1961.

Mini-Art continues to expand its 1/35 line of figures this time with a “French Civilian” set, with a total of 53 parts for 5-figures. One of the figures is a priest, another one a middle-aged business person, a French policeman, one young man carrying some bread in a basket (or is it a member of the resistance?) and an old man, with a raised arm, like if it were to be celebrating the liberation.

You get two sprues, plus a small sprue map in the box. Color instructions are called on the back of the box. There is no flash in the figures, but some line molding removal will be needed.

Most figures are multipieces, with several having two or more parts for the torso and in most cases the hats are molded separately from the head.