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Book Author(s)
Peter E. Davies
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$20.00

This is the third book in this new Osprey series authored by Peter E. Davies. The previous tomes include the Bell X-1 (1), North American X-15 (3), and the future book on the North American XB-170 Valkyrie (7). Peter lives in Bristol, U.K. and as authored or co-authored at least nineteen book on modern American combat aircraft, many with Osprey Publishing. He was published by the Naval Institute Press in 1997 with his hardcover book, The Harrier Story, co-authored with Anthony M. Thornborough. His Schiffer Military History hard cover on the Gray Ghosts, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps F-4 Phantoms published in 2000 is considered a must have. Peter published a hardcover book with Crowood Press, North American F-100 Super Sabre, in 2003. He has also covered many aircraft in Osprey’s Combat Aircraft series, Osprey’s Air Vanguard series, and Osprey’s Duel series.

Book Author(s)
Alister McCluskey (Illustrated by Peter Dennis)
Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$24.00

If you are a person interested in the Great War, you will likely enjoy this new release from Osprey as part of their “Campaign” series of books. In this new offering from Osprey Publishing, author Alister McCluskey writes about the late war offensive on what the Allies referred to as “the Hindenburg Line” on the Western Front. The story along with photos (both historical and of the landscape today), artwork, and maps helps to tell the story of the battles that raged from late September into early October 1918.

Book Author(s)
David Doyle
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Squadron Signal Publications
MSRP
$19.95

David Doyle’s latest book continues to expand on Squadron Signal’s long standing In Action series that initiated back in 1971. This is a completely updated and expanded edition over Squadron’s earlier Armor in Action number 23, a 50-pager on the Patton by Jim Mesko that was published in 1987. This 2017 release is essentially a new book, encompassing 80 pages.

Review Author
Keith Gervasi
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$62.99

History

The N1K was originally developed as a floatplane for forward land bases but by the time it entered service Japan was on the defensive. Kawanishi engineers had proposed in 1941 that the N1K could be a formidable land-based fighter too and a land-based version N1K1-j (J indicated land based fighter modification of the original floatplane version) was produced as a private venture by the company and first flew in December 1942. Due to it being a mid-wing design (because of the floats & large prop) a new design was begun just 4 days after the first test flight. The major defects being addressed were the wing and long landing gear. The wings were moved to a low position, which permitted the use of shorter, conventional undercarriage, the fuselage was lengthened and the tail redesigned. The first flight was on January 1944 and production of the N1K2-J "Shiden-Kai" (Kai standing for Modified) started in April of that year.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$24.95

This set is designed to be used on the MiG-29UB kit released by Trumpeter last year. It includes not only the full color set SS593 to upgrade the front and rear cockpits and both ejection seats, but also a second brass fret of external details. The detail on both sets is outstanding and the color set is beautifully printed. Based on the colors used for the cockpit side consoles, it looks like Eduard used a later build MiG-29UB as the side consoles and instrument panels are in a medium grey, not the bright blue-green color seen on many other Russian/Soviet aircraft. Unfortunately, the instructions do not include any painting references for the cockpit or other kit parts, so you must do your own matching. To my eye, the grey looked pretty close to the Testors Dark Ghost Grey (FS 36320) I recently used on a F/A-18E build, so I used this color as the base interior color.