The ATR was a joint venture by French (Aerospatiale) and Italian (Aeritalia) to design a short-to-medium haul feeder airliner. The “42” designated that it had 42 seats. It has been a successful and reliable airliner in many countries around the world.

X-Scale Models, from Ukraine, has now released its latest model kit in 1/144 scale with an American Eagle ATR-42-300 that served out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport. X-Scale also included a date of 1996. The subject aircraft in this box, currently flies for Fed Ex.

The model arrived in a small top opening box with the colorful painting of the aircraft flying over what looked like the Grand Canyon. All the dark grey plastic parts, clear parts sprue, instruction manual, canopy and wheel masks, and decals were neatly contained within a single plastic bag. There was just a little scuffing on a couple of parts from two sprues rubbing together. The clear pars were also within their own bag.

A series of books from Kagero that is new to me is the TOP COLOR Series. This issue focuses on the Bf-109 in Combat.

The book comes in a protective sleeve to keep the package safe. This is important because this 8 x 11 book contains 11 full color profiles of various versions of the Messerschmitt. Many of the profiles have four view profiles, but even those that aren’t are quite colorful. There are nine Emils, one Dora and one Friedrich. So, this book focuses on the early versions of the 109. It’s interesting to see the evolution of the markings and camouflage from the Spanish Civil War to the Battle of Britain. My two favorite ones are the desert camouflaged one with different color wings and a Jabo.

Each aircraft is captioned in English and Polish. There is a lot of cool information in there.

This is one of the rare Pacific Profiles books not written by Michael John Claringbould, although it is illustrated by him. Author Kevin Gogler is a son of a WWII Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Beaufort pilot, and this book is obviously a testament to his father and his fellow RAAF personnel who flew, and were associated, with the Beauforts and Beaufighters in the Pacific War.

From the Introduction:

“Amidst the enormous numbers of American aircraft that fought in the Pacific War, it is often forgotten that two British-designed types served operationally with the RAAF in large numbers. A combined total of some 1,280 Beauforts and Beaufighters were delivered to the RAAF and served with fifteen wartime squadrons plus a variety of training and support units.