There are numerous accounts of the various armoured campaigns that defined the major fronts of WWII from the perspectives of all sides involved. Some are exhaustive accounts filled with places, dates, and names that can be excruciating at times to read with the extensive details. Books by Anthony Tucker-Jones usually are a bit easier to decipher and can be enjoyable without getting too much into the minutiae. This book is a good example of this- to the point of being a bit watered down perhaps. The book looks at the entirety of the war from the Allied view-- with the book covering American, British and Commonwealth, and French armor forces and that is no small feat.

Brengun, from the Czech Republic, specializes in aftermarket details; for the most part releasing drop-in resin or photoetch replacement parts.

This set is intended to enhance the 1/48 Skyhawk A-4 C/E/F/M. This set can be used with any of the 1/48 Skyhawk kits, like the Hasegawa, ESCI/AMT/Italeri, Hobbycraft, HobbyBoss, or Monogram. If I am missing any other maker in the list, it is an honest mistake on my end.

Please note that the instructions list the variant of the airplane to be in 1/72. That is clearly a mistake, this set is molded in 1/48 scale.

The parts are molded in grey resin, free of bubbles or imperfections and with great surface detail. The attachment points to the casting blocks are miniscule and removal and clean up should be an easy task.

I do not think the RATO rockets saw widespread use in the Skyhawk fleet, so you might want to do some research as to which version, or even down to tail number you are modeling.

This volume on painting war gaming figures focuses on Rome’s Northern Enemies - the British, Celts, Germans and Dacians and one of the first things that struck me was how applicable this would be to all war gaming figures. The book is a complete tutorial from soup to nuts on building, modifying, basing and painting figures. A quick look at the Table of Contents shows what I mean: