I’ve always been a fan of the iconic silver and blue Hughes H-1 Racer. I was familiar with the long wing variant, but as it turns out, two sets of wings were made for this one of a kind beauty - long wings for endurance flights, and short wings for speed records. You’ll have to decide for yourself which one appeals to you, but no worries - Special Hobby/Planet Models provide both in 1/48 resin.

The kit itself is fairly simple and straightforward - resin one-piece wings, fuselage halves and cockpit, engine “cob” and many, many cylinders, etc. Two vacuum-formed canopy blanks are included, good for those of us who need a spare. (Although I lucked out this time). The kit includes decals and a simple but thorough exploded view of the assembly sequence.

So, before we get into the specifics of the book. Here is a little about the author and illustrator. Dr Nic fields is the author of this publication and many others so he is not a stranger to the osprey family or to my memory. He’s a veteran of the Royal Marines, biochemist and historian so I guess you could say a jack of all trades. He does a lot of his research writing and editorials freelance.

Peter Dennis is another star contributor of the Osprey book family and is a graduate of the Liverpool art college. He’s has illustrated hundreds of books and I have quite a few examples of them , a sharp eye for accuracy and consistency your not going to find a bigger name than Pete when it comes to the historical art community.

Here we breakdown the contents of the book.

From my new, best friends at Wikipedia: The M728 is a full-tracked combat engineer vehicle designed to provide maximum ballistic protection for the crew and is a heavily armed derivative of the M60 series tank. Modified to provide a mobile and maneuverable weapon for combat support of ground troops and vehicles, the M728 vehicle is used for breaching, obstacle removal, transportation of demolition teams, and pioneering operations.