Number 59 in Osprey’s ‘Duel’ series provides a trip back in time to an era when flying machines began serving as platforms for continuing warfare above ground level. In this volume of ‘Duel’ author Jon Guttman presents the story of how exchanging rifle and revolver gunfire rapidly evolved into aerial duels between aircraft mounting machine guns. War in the air became serious business when, in the summer of 1915, the Fokker E1 appeared on the scene with a forward mounted machine gun and interrupter mechanism that permitted a pilot to aim and fire upon an enemy without concerns of shooting off his own propeller. The result of this game-changer was a period that became known as the ‘Fokker Scourge’. In an attempt to counter this technological advantage and level the playing field, the Brits introduced various pusher Scouts and the French mounted forward firing machine guns on the top wings of nimble Nieuport Scouts that fired above the propeller arc.

Osprey Publishing has released another new title in the ever-expanding Aces series, Morane-Saulnier MS.406 Aces.

As the title reveals, this time around the subject is the French Morane-Saulnier MS.406 and the aces who flew it. This book is slightly different than most others in the series, as it covers not only MS.406 aces of the French Air Force, but also those flying for the Finnish Air Force. Additionally, as several MS.406 pilots went on to become aces while flying different aircraft with the RAF or the Russian Air Force, this area is also touched upon.

Eduard has previously issued “Remove Before Flight” tags made out of colored photoetch. This fresh set capitalizes on the new fabric material used in conjunction with their photoetch components. This set is for 1/48 scale planes, and it has one sheet of 16 fabric tags with two styles: one with a square end and one with a tapered end. The photoetch fret contains 20 of two types of attachment hangers.

To give these tags a test run, I pulled a Kinetic A-6E out that had FOD covers on it. Removing the fabric tab from the backing is easy. They are, however, very fragile and want to tear almost like vinyl. The backing sheet is adhesive, and the tags come off a little sticky. If you set the tags aside for a little while, they’ll lose most of their stickiness and will be easier to handle. They have an excellent fabric look as you can see from the pictures. I attached one to each FOD cover.