First, I owe an apology to you and to Dragon for my delay in building and reviewing the “…best dive bomber the Navy ever flew but also the last.” That final assessment came after a difficult start in replacing the Dauntless, “one of the most popular aircraft ever to fly.” In fact, when the first squadrons conducted trials aboard the Essex CV-9, “…the ship departed for the war zone with SBD Dauntlesses instead.” In trials aboard the second assigned carrier, the second Yorktown CV-10, “…the results were so disastrous that the ship’s Commanding Officer, Captain J.J. ‘Jocko’ Clark, stated that the aircraft’s only value was as an anchor.” Though the Helldiver could carry a heavier payload and was faster than the Dauntless, and ongoing improvements ironed out its shortcomings, it became a great aircraft with the moniker the Big Tailed Beast or simply, the Beast. The Helldiver’s combat debut was on November 11, 1943, when VB-17 attacked the Japanese island fortress at Rabaul.

This is my first opportunity to look at the relatively new Osprey series called Command. As the name suggests, this series doesn’t look at hardware or military units, but the commanders. As with most Osprey books, this series provides a broad overview of the commander’s life, command responsibilities, leadership abilities, and legacy. I jumped at the chance to see how the Osprey formula works with personalities.

This is the second book I have reviewed for IPMS that is entirely in Japanese. This time it is on the Ferrari F1 cars made by Tamiya and Fujimi.

I have several Ferrari models at home and thought this would be a nice companion guide to some of my older Ferrari books. This guide covers several Tamiya models and, from what I can tell, a Fujimi and possibly a Hasegawa F1 Ferrari. Like I said, the fact it is missing subtitles is a bit of a hindrance. It does show a bunch of neat tricks, though, that I would not have normally thought of. There are painting tips, wiring tips, and wheel tips. The pictures go into great detail, which helps. You don’t need to read Japanese if you follow the pictures.