Forward view

Be-6 Madge

Kit Contents

Diorama with Brick Wall

External Stores

F-14A “Danger Zone”

5

Mirage III EZ

100_6316

Extra 300L / 330CL Plus Photoetch Accessories Set

keel requires some filling and sanding

USS Richard B. Russell SSN-687

chappel painted

Confession Before the Flight

Re-shaping the casemage

Marder II Mid-Production ’39 – ’45 Series

Exceptional engine part detail and complexity is shown here.

De Havilland Mosquito FB Mk VI - Part 1

Cockpit Interior Right

Pe-2 Peshka

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Cover

Medal of Honor, Volume 2, Interwar Years 1919-1939
Book Author(s)
Alan Durkota & Thomas Darcy
Review Author
John Shimek
Published on
Company
Aeronaut Books
MSRP
$24.99

Volume 2 of the Medal of Honor series documents the 6 aviators who earned the Medal of Honor during the interwar years 19191939. This book of 80 pages has 215 photos and color profiles of 10 aircraft relating to this period.

Only 1 of the 6-aviation related Medal of Honor awarded in this period was for action that involved combat by USMC Lieutenant Christian Frank Schilt in Nicaragua in 1928. 3 of the other 5 men awarded the Medal of Honor were presented for exploration including Admiral Byrd (North Pole flight) and the other 2 awarded were for lifesaving efforts.

It is very interesting that Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr received the army designed Medal of Honor for his solo flight across the Atlantic 20-21 May 1927 even though he was no longer on active US Army duty. Authorized by a special act of Congress in December 1927 Lindbergh was presented the medal by President Coolidge in 1929.

Cover

Encyclopedie Illustree Les Trains Blindes, de notre 1825 a nos jours (Illustrated Encyclopedia of Armored Trains, 1825 to the Present)

Book Author(s)
Paul Malmassari
Review Author
Marc K. Blackburn
Published on
Company
Editions Heimdal
MSRP
$97.00

Heimdal is a prolific French Publisher of military history and is distributed by Casemate Publishing. It is a large book at 520 pages and hundreds of black and white and color photographs as well as contemporary drawings and profiles done by the author. The text and captions are in French, though it appears there was an English version of this work from another publisher. My reading knowledge of French is minimal, but that did not take away from my enjoyment of this work. In many regards, the photographs speak for themselves, but a rudimentary knowledge of French might be helpful in reading the captions. It would have been nice to also see color profiles of the trains. There is a plethora of material, so each page is loaded with photographs.

Box Top

PACV Hovercraft (U.S. Army)
Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
Company
Croco Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$45.00

Croco Models from Latvia produces some very interesting and unusual kits and this one is another great additional to their line up.

The Kit is resin

Included is:

  • 67 resin parts
  • One Photo Etch Sheet
  • One Decal sheet
  • One instruction sheet

The resin casing detail quality is great; The parts are very delicate parts that need careful removal from the resin bases. Some arrived broken so I would suggest improving the packaging.The instructions need a lot of experience to work with to get a great model as they are not very clear. The assembly is good but needs a lot of patience, pre-fitting and time to the build going together correctly. There were a few gaps that needed filling. The PE sheet has some parts that are not for this version, it is also very thick and made it harder to remove parts from it. There are a few decals but no directors for location, so I used online references for this.

Cover

Flying Flatiron - Gloster Javelin
Book Author(s)
Alex Crawford; Illustrator Chris Sandham-Bailey
Review Author
Ron Bell
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$38.00

This book is from their Orange Series that specializes in particular aircraft types, in this case the Gloster Javelin. There are 208 pages of mixed text, photos, line drawings, charts and tables of info about the aircraft starting with a rather detailed recounting of the conception and initial design of the aircraft and how that design evolved into the final version. It then goes on to discuss the various armaments it carried, including the air-to-air missiles which also includes a brief run down on how the Firestreak missile was developed. Next is a mark-by-mark description of every variant of the aircraft with many illustrations to show the differences. Included in this chapter is a rather detailed technical description of all the various systems in the aircraft, such as landing gear, electrical and hydraulic systems, 12 annotated photos of various marks’ cockpits and cutaway photos, diagrams, line drawing and charts about the engines.

Box Top

Panzer II Auf. F North Africa
Review Author
Dekker Zimmerman
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$44.00

Boom. And just like that a Academy Panzer II model kit landed at my door. So The adventure begins. I have built many models of armor but was not a fan of early German subjects. This kit looked interesting and as a new molded kit I was curious what new technologies have been used on this kit. This review will read like bullet points for easy reading.

Un-Boxing

The box itself has very nice art on it. Paint call outs on the side have seven manufacturers listed and are a big plus in my book. The manufacturers are: Humbrol, GSI Creos, Life Color, Model Master, Revell, Vallejo and AK. The kit is a skill level 4 (out of 5) and is clearly marked on the box. The box itself is top opening and very stout.