Osprey is a prolific publisher that has coupled excellent authors with fantastic artists that have combined their talents, mostly under Editor Tony Holmes’ direction, to produce hundreds of mostly soft cover “must have” books for serious modelers and history buffs. Any ‘good’ model show will have someone selling Osprey books and any modeler who has started his own reference library, owns Osprey books. Over the years, Osprey has divided them into several subcategories like ‘Aces,’ ‘Elite Units,’ and so on. One of the newest categories is the “Duel Series” where for example, one famous aircraft or tank is pitted against one of its contemporary enemies. I own many titles authored by IPMSer Steve Zaloga and every one written by Chris Bucholtz. I’m sure many more authors are IPMS members too that I’m just not aware of.

Wayne Mutza has written his second book on American Fire Apparatus aimed at the scale modeler. This volume covers Aerial Equipment and, from Don Greer’s paintings on the front and back covers to the more than 300 color and black and white images inside, it is a feast for the eye.

The introduction explains that by the late 1800s the increase in multi-story buildings brought on the organization of the first Hook and Ladder Companies. They arrived at the blaze carrying multiple ladders and pike poles, or “hooks”, for pulling down walls and ceilings. American LaFrance purchased the patent for a wagon-mounted ladder raised by a worm gear and fitted with a tiller seat from Daniel D. Hayes of the San Francisco Fire Department. The Hayes Aerial went into production in 1881.

This is my first experience with Model Art publications. This issue is dated August 2011 and titled Model Art “Auto Modeling” No. 827, Vol. 24. Its main focus is on the spectacular race cars of the ’70’s Formula 1 series. The first few pages are an index of topics and noted cars of 1973-78 in succession. The first noted car is the ’73 Tyrrell Ford from that year’s championship, driven by Jackie Stewart. The kit supplied and meticulously reviewed is a Tameo Kits 1/43 white metal kit. It’s not a common scale for autos, as most are 1/24, 1/25, 1/20, or 1/12. This is the first offering I’ve ever seen in this scale for autos that is a complete white metal cast kit. The next 40 pages cover the same format of various kit offerings from Tamiya, Studio 27, Hasegawa, and E.Jan conversion kits. Each includes detailed pictures of kit components and steps in assembly. Pages 43-50 cover specs on the vehicles, including blueprint-type drawings.