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Book Author(s)
Vladimir Glazkov
Review Author
Michael Reeves
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$61.97

From the publisher’s website:

This book describes the machine guns, automatic rifles, handguns and revolvers, including both the official weapons in service in the Russian Army in 1914-1917 and other weapons not officially approved but nevertheless used by the troops such as obsolete Russian and non-Russian arms both supplied by the allies or captured from the enemies.

Book Author(s)
Vladimir Kotelnikov
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$45.00

Historical Background

This is one of the first historical accounts of the Lend-Lease program designed to aid the Soviet Union in its war against Nazi Germany. The backgrounds are rather confused, because in the late thirties, the Soviets and the Nazis, along with the Italian Fascists, seemed to be working together to dominate nearly all of Eastern Europe. In 1939, The Germans invaded Poland, but they didn’t do it alone. They were aided by the Soviets, who attacked from the east. The Poles resisted, but the Germans and Russians were just too powerful, but for a while, it appeared that the Germans and Russians were allies.

Review Author
Tom Choy
Published on
Company
Foxbot
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$20.00

The Su-25 (NATO name: Frogfoot) is a subsonic, single-seat, twin engine aircraft developed in 1975 by Sukhoi. Designed to provide close air support for the Warsaw Pact ground forces, the Grach (or Rook) has seen much action over the years, from Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Ukraine and as recently in Syria. This decal sheet focuses on Ukrainian aircraft.

The sheet is printed in Ukraine by Decograph on blue backing paper, clearly printed and in register. Carrier film is minimal. The sheet provides markings for two schemes – one in a tan-medium green and dark green splinter scheme circa 2004, and another with medium green with dark green “clovers,” circa 2008-2015. Some of the aircraft in the latter scheme were involved in the 2014-2015 conflict with Russian-backed separatists, and includes a few that were shot down. There are decals for eight planes, but nine schemes over all (one of them have both paint schemes for the same airframe).

Review Author
Bill Kluge
Published on
Company
Tamiya
MSRP
$2.50

While Tamiya has long been a producer of acrylic model paints, they have recently entered the market of bottled solvent-based paints with a line of lacquer paints with the new “LP” prefix heading. As of this writing, there are 80 listed “colors” of lacquer paints in the Tamiya catalog, but that total includes such items as Thinner, a Flat Base, 5 Clears plus a Clear Yellow, Clear Orange, Clear Red and Clear Blue, 6 Blacks and 4 Whites. The colors are not labeled with any other specific description, such as US FS (federal stock) number or Luftwaffe RLM number, although the “pearl”, “mica” and metallic colors are primarily directed towards automotive modelers. The complete chart of available colors is available at the Tamiya website, and is being added to regularly. The paints come in 1/3 fl oz (10ml) bottles, the same as their acrylic line, compared to the 1/2 fl oz Model Master and 1/4 fl oz small bottle Testors enamels.

Book Author(s)
Dariusz Paduch
Review Author
Hub Plott
Published on
Company
Kagero Publishing
MSRP
$46.95

This book comprises twenty-two segments each covering a different aircraft design. The heavy fighter concept was one that was tried out by many different nations. In theory these aircraft were to perform a variety of missions such as ground attack, bomber protection/escort as well as reconnaissance without the aid of single engine fighters. More often than not it was found that the heavy fighters needed their own single engine fighter escort for protection on missions.

Many of the aircraft covered in this book are by lesser-known designers and thus the aircraft themselves are lesser known as well. Many of these designers struggled within Stalin’s government where failure was almost certainly to catch the ire of the communists in charge. The communist government and Stalin’s purges lead to an exodus of many bright technicians and engineers. This in turned caused issues with the ability to design reliable engines thus requiring many to be imported.