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Front cover

Romanian Fighter Colors 1941-1945
Book Author(s)
Teodor Liviu Morusanu & Dan Alexandru Melinte
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$59.00

The Romanian Air Force in World War II saw extensive combat in the Eastern Front against the Soviet Air Force and against the USAAF and RAF in home defense roles. Later, in late 1944 Romania changed sides and saw combat against the Luftwaffe.

This book covers all the fighter aircraft in the Romanian Air Force during World War II. The fighter aircraft inventory included British, German, Polish, and locally designed airplanes, plus captured soviet airplanes, yielding to a rather varied set of camouflage styles. Specifically, the book covers the Hawker Hurricane, Bf 109E and 109G, He 112, Bf 110G, PZL 11 and PZL 24, IAR 80/81, plus captured Mig-3, I-16 and Fw-190A/F.

Front cover

Waterline Warships. An Illustrated Masterclass
Book Author(s)
Philip Reed
Review Author
Luke R. Bucci, PhD
Published on
Company
Seaforth Publishing
MSRP
$50.00

Philip Reed is an accomplished British master modeler of large-scale, museum-quality (or better) ship models. Although web searches and some book selling sites spell his first name with two Ls, his name is Philip with one L. Trained as an artist, and having a teaching career gives Philip the right background for this book. Philip started scratch-building WWI and WWII warships and switched to a long and successful career building sailing ship models. Philip Reed has at least three other books explaining how he builds wooden sailing ships. This book details his return to building WW2 steel warships from scratch – no kit used. Everything was made by hand from raw materials, with a sprinkling of generic photoetch brass. His latest book, Waterline Warships- An Illustrated Masterclass, is from Seaforth Publishing, a venerable British publishing house obviously devoted to nautical books.

Box Art

Fieseler Fi 156C Storch 'Gran Sasso'
Review Author
Fred Wilms
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$59.95

History: The Fieseler Fi 156 is a fabric and steel tube constructed 3 place liaison aircraft. It is noted for its short takeoff and landing characteristics used by all the German forces. It’s primarily used by German upper echelon personnel including Hitler himself. It also played a major role in a daring rescue of the imprisoned Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.First produced in 1939 the type remained in production throughout WWII. The total production was around 1549 aircraft. During the winter months, it was fitted with skis. It was also produced after the war by France and Czechoslovakia.

It had a crew of 2/3; empty weight 930 kg; maximum speed 175 km/h; minimum speed 51 km/h and a range 385 km. Power was provided by an Argus AS-10C inverted V8, (air-cooled) with 240-hp; takeoff distance 26 meters (no wind).

Book cover

United States Army Ordnance Museum
Book Author(s)
Przemyslaw Skulski
Review Author
Gary Telecsan
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$32.00

This is the second book in the MMP Stratus “Military Collections of the World” series. It begins with a short, 9 page illustrated history of the Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Museum, and the rest of the book is dedicated to a photo documentation of the museum’s exhibits.

The first 9 pages show the Museum’s inside exhibits, uniforms, small arms, small artillery pieces and one or two smaller vehicles, and the rest of the book shows the portion of the collection stored outside. There are at least two views of each vehicle or field piece, and some commentary, in English, about the vehicle displayed.

Often the exhibit’s provenance is given, and some comments about its condition. I found the book engrossing as I had no idea that Aberdeen’s collection was so varied. The photos are of good quality, and will be of use to the modeler, though they do not provide the level of coverage which the super-detailers amongst us crave.

Packaging

F-16N Engine set
Review Author
Robert Folden
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.95

Well known for their exceptional photo-etched parts, Eduard recently crossed over to the resin world with the introduction of the Eduard “BRASSIN” line. The sets under this line consist of high quality resin castings with Eduard’s exception photo-etched parts. [Some sets also contain color photo-etch and/or mask sets.] The latest in this new product line is a 1/48th scale engine set for the F-16N. The set consists of the exhaust and the intake fans for F-16’s powered by the F110 GE-100 engine. While billed for the Tamiya kit, the set can be used for any F-16 featuring this engine.