MMP Books continues to produce high-quality references that are specifically aimed at the modeler. The latest in their “Orange” Series is this volume on the Reggiane 2001 and 2005 (as well as some further developments in the series).

This book consists of 176 pages, including black and white period photos, scale line drawings, color profiles, original manual pages and more.

The Mistel concept was born in the 1930's, but came into use as a weapon in the waning months of the war. It consisted of a control plane, a war weary Bf-109 or a FW-190, mounted on top of a Ju-88 variant. In the Mistel 1 configuration, it was a Bf-109F and a Ju-88A. When mounted with a 1800 or 2000 lb bomb nose it could destroy bridges and other key targets. There were at least three variants of the shaped nose charge. It was used operationally to prevent the Russians from crossing the Oder and against the Western Allies as well. It was grossly overweight for the Ju-88 landing gear and tires. Because of this it had to operate from improved airstrips and was still subject to blowing out the tires and destroying both airframes before takeoff. Even when it could get off the ground, flying it was not easy. The Bf-109 was a tiny aircraft, and it had to control both aircraft.

New from MMP’s Tank Plans series is this set of scale plans for the British Main Battle Tank, the Challenger I. To 1/35, 1/48 and 1/72 scale, these cover both the standard Challenger I Mk.3 and the modified Desert Version as used in the Gulf War. Each vehicle is covered in four views – each side, top and front. The plans are drawn by Dariusz Karnas and are spread across fold-out pages, some 24 in total.

This is the ideal companion volume to the recent MMP book about the Challenger I, which was reviewed here although that book does contain the basic 1/35 plans inside.

This booklet will be very useful for those who have any of the many 1/35 or 1/72 kits of the type or the Tamiya kit in 1/48. Recommended.

My thanks to the good folks at MMP and Casemate for the review sample.