The latest journal of Cross & Cockade International - Autumn 2016, features a photograph of a captured Sopwith Baby 8153 on the cover. The rear cover features colorful 3-D artwork by Dragan Saler of Serbian aeroplanes in the Balkan Wars with additional detail of the Serbian officers’ cap badges and the flag of the Kingdom of Serbia. If you check out the web site link above, you can get additional sample pics of the current issue.

Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They also provide a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.

Ginter Books has been producing books geared towards modelers for many years now, starting with various naval aircraft and later branching into Air Force aircraft (hence the Air Force Legends subtitle). There is always a short history on the development of the aircraft in mention followed by test and photos that highlight various aircraft systems that would be of interest to the modeler, ending with a short review of the plastic or resin kits of said aircraft.

Mushroom Model Publications provided this book for review and we thank them for that.

The Gloster Gladiator holds the distinction of being a “first” and a “last”. It was the first RAF front line fighter with an enclosed cockpit and the RAF’s last biplane fighter. Flown for the first time in September 1934, just eight months before the Germans first flew the Bf109, it entered service with the RAF in February 1937, the same month the Bf109 entered service for Germany. The Gladiator did not last long in the air over Europe and England. However, it did see action around the world in the service of many countries during World War II.