The non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society, that publishes their journal, Cross & Cockade International, four times a year. Issues are available as printed as well as digital copies (or both). A new magazine, Contact!, is now available in both print and digital download. The Society also provide a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.\The Autumn 2024 journal of Cross & Cockade International features a color painting by Dugald Cameron of a pair of BE2as and a Maurice Farman Se.11. All are with 2 Squadron RFC in 1913 at Upper Dysart aerodrome, about 3 miles south of Montrose, Scotland.

The Chevrolet Nova was everywhere in the late 1960s. Your grandma may have had a 4-door sedan for getting the groceries, your parents may have had a station wagon as the family car or a 2-door for your dad’s daily commute, and the high school down the street may have had one with a raised rear suspension and Keystone Classics. They could be had with everything from a basic in-line 6-cylinder to a powerful V-8. As a result, many people of a certain age have fond memories of these vehicles, and kit manufacturers have done a fine job providing us modelers with numerous kits of this subject. One of the latest is this 1/32 scale offering from Atlantis Models of a 1969 SS 350. The 350 V-8 was the largest engine you could get on the Nova that year, and it was rated at 300hp.

I came back to the hobby during COVID. One thing I hated, and still hate doing is sanding putty.I am just not that good at it. I am always looking for something to help me. The UMM-USA series of sanding bars are one solution to a gritty problem.

The bars come in various sizes; fine, small, medium, large, extra-large and extra-extra-large. I reviewed the Extra-Large version. They come as a six-sided polished aluminum bar, with the ends being pointed.

My initial take on the block was one of curiosity, a large flat good for sanding large flat surfaces, or so I thought; something most aircraft and ship models do not have. I then took a closer look and realized that the angled/pointed ends would be great for small tight surfaces, or if a very narrow area needed to be sanded, which is how I have been using it. Ironically, my son printed a sandbag wall and used the long flat bottom to clean it up.