To start, I’d like to thank Mike West at Lone Star Models. I told him I was reviewing a C-47 kit for the IPMS/USA and wanted to use one of his Arctic ski sets on the model. He had it to me in two weeks, which is a really great delivery time for someone who makes his products “to order.” I also must say thanks to the IPMS/USA leadership for allowing me to present a review of this item.

This R4D/Arctic C-47 Conversion from Lone Star Models was used on my review of the Revell reissue of the Monogram 1/48 scale C-47. I have long wanted to build an Arctic C-47, and when I received the box I was pleasantly surprised to note a USAF version in the kit.

Osprey's Forces of the Hanseatic League is book 494 in their Men-at-Arms series. This book deals with the history of the Hanseatic League from the 13th to the 15th centuries. The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages.

Chapters include:

• Historical Background
• Chronology
• Land Warfare
• Maritime Warfare
• Siege Warfare and Firearms
• The 15th Century: The Cost of Competition

Addendums include a section of further reading recommendations and commentaries on the color plates.

This book is the third in a series by these authors. It was preceded by volumes on the Middle East and Africa. In these pages the authors cover all Soviet/Russian built aircraft used by the various Asian nations from WWII to modern times.

The book has twenty-one chapters and they are laid out alphabetically by country. With the start of the cold war, the Soviets began to try and influence the politics of the Asian continent. This was done in a large way by supplying arms to many other nations not only in Asia but worldwide, not only to their client states but to those that wanted to play both sides as well.