A huge “thanks!” to our friends at Aires; they continue to provide IPMS USA with plenty of review opportunities for upgrades to our favorite aircraft…!

This is a simple conversion to the Hasegawa kit parts. Included are augmenter burner cans, turbine faces with integral mounting pegs to fit the Hasegawa kit, flameholders in photoetch, and the nozzles themselves. Instructions are clear and clean on the standard blue folded sheet, showing exactly what is needed to install the parts. The nozzles, a major feature of the F-22, are intended to be shown in this case in the “open” position.

This allows one to look directly down the exhaust and view the excellent detail provided by this set.

As you can see in the composite kit provided parts photo the kit turbines are not detailed other than having the flameholders; no turbine detail is provided. The kit augmenter cans are two-sided items requiring the usual filling of a seam as would be expected in the case.

Given the tactical organization of the Regia Aeronautica during World War II, this book covers the story of all the different Gruppi that were part of the 53 Stormo during World War II. The Regia Aeronautica organized their units in the basis of a Squadriglia, (Squadron) with strength of 9 to 12 airplanes. Two or three Squadriglie would form a Gruppo (Group) and two or three Gruppi would form a Storm (Wing). Often there would be autonomous Gruppi and sometimes even Squadriglie assigned to different front or sector.

The Gruppi described in this book are the 150 Gruppo “Gigi Tre Osei”, 151 Gruppo “Asso di Spade”and 153 Gruppo “Asso di Bastoni”. Also 157 Gruppo was attached to 53 Stormo briefly and therefore included in the book.

Titanic, no other ship’s name can conjure up so many images in one’s mind. The ship was the epitome of luxury, affluence and status. The tragedy of the loss of over 1500 souls; the love of Ida and Isador Straus, who would not be separated and chose to go down with the ship together rather than one should live apart from the other; or of the ships remains broken and battered on the ocean floor.

The world’s most famous ship is also one of the most modeled ocean going vessels of all time. This book covers one man’s journey building a scratch built 1/48 scale 18 foot long model of RMS Titanic. The book opens with a brief history of the loss of the ship and a discussion of builder’s models of the Titanic and her sister’s Olympic and Britannic before launching into the meat of the subject.