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Book Author(s)
Robert Campbell
Review Author
Michael Scott
Published on
Company
Zenith Press
MSRP
$27.99

The title of this book is somewhat misleading. Very little of it has to do with “handgun skills,” with that taken to mean skill with a handgun. A look at the cover indicates this, showing a target, shooting glasses, and three pistols, but also a couple of cartridges, ear protectors and cleaning materials. It's really a personal look at handguns, attempting to cover all of the bases and not delving too deeply into any of them.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Hobby Collective
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$24.00

New to the modeling world is Hobby Collective. This excellent decal sheet covers the 1/72 JASDF UH-60J helicopter in 40th Anniversary markings.

Included in the bag are one decal sheet and a double-sided direction page.

The decal sheet itself is slightly larger than a standard sheet and includes markings for a single helicopter (UH-60J 28-4556) from the Japanese Air Self Defense Force in markings to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the group. The aircraft is very colorful in white over yellow with markings of a dragon on both sides of the fuselage.

The directions are all in Japanese but, with a few minutes of study, the modeler can determine what needs to be done. One side is printed in color and has FS color callouts and decal placements. The back is black and white and includes the decal placements for the stencil data of the aircraft.

Review Author
Dave Steingass
Published on
Company
MiniArt
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$33.50

MiniArt has released a huge number of diorama and scenic kits, designed with the scratchbuilder and kitbasher in mind. This kit is a simple unreinforced brick building ruin, suitable for almost any era or location in the world that has used this type of construction technique.

This kit consists of 35 parts, including a vacuformed base measuring 238x170mm, one sheet of vacuformed walls, one sprue of injection-molded styrene accessories (the accessory sprue seems to be the compulsory treat included in all MiniArt kits), and a one-page, double-sided instruction sheet.

Review Author
Dave Steingass
Published on
Company
MiniArt
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$33.50

Miniart has released a huge number of diorama and scenic kits designed for universal use. Miniart also includes excellent injection-molded accessory sprues in their kits. This kit includes the same accessory sprue as kit# 35530 Street Accessories.

This kit consists simply of two sheets of semicircle-patterned vacu-formed cobblestone brick streets, a sprue containing parts for a park bench and other accessories in 1/35 scale, and a 2-sided instruction sheet, which is really not necessary.

The streets are in two vacu-formed sheets which, when combined, measure 336x249mm. I only used a 40mm circle of the streets as basing for a scratchbuilt steampunk Walker project of mine, which is really in about 1/54 scale, so it is quite universal for modelers of all genres and multiple scales.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Iliad Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$12.99

This excellent decal sheet contains markings for five aircraft – all Canadian-built Mosquitoes! Included in the package are one standard size decal sheet and a double-sided full color directions page which includes some brief historical data and individual aircraft information.

Aircraft included are:

  • DHC Mosquito B.XX “New Glasgow” KB162
  • Mosquito B.VIII (KB315) “The Spook” US Markings & serial number
  • DHC Mosquito B.XX KB195
  • Mosquito F.B.26 KA406 as the 1,000th Mosquito built by deHavilland Canada
  • Mosquito F.B.26 (FB1) purchased by the Chinese in 1948

The decals are well done, and printed in perfect register.

I highly recommend this decal sheet to anyone looking to build a Mosquito that is a little different than the rest. Iliad Design has done a great job of picking some unique aircraft that will look great on the contest table or in your display case.