The Fw-200 was an all-metal four-engine airplane that was originally designed as an airliner. As war broke out, it was modified for use for long-range maritime patrol, reconnaissance and as an anti-shipping patrol bomber in addition to a transport. Revell has modeled this airplane twice in 1/72 scale but recently Trumpeter has added the airplane to their line-up. The Trumpeter kit is a great improvement on the Revell kits in both detail and accuracy, but as always Aires/Quickboost has found some areas to improve the kit.

This set consists of new control surfaces; ailerons, elevators and the rudder. The kit parts for the ailerons and the rudder each consist of two parts that must be glued together. The replacement parts are single items eliminating the glue step. More importantly, the kit parts feature severe surface detailing showing construction details. The replacement parts feature a more subtle version of the construction.

The latest journal of Cross & Cockade International - Autumn 2016, features a photograph of a captured Sopwith Baby 8153 on the cover. The rear cover features colorful 3-D artwork by Dragan Saler of Serbian aeroplanes in the Balkan Wars with additional detail of the Serbian officers’ cap badges and the flag of the Kingdom of Serbia. If you check out the web site link above, you can get additional sample pics of the current issue.

Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They 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.

Ginter Books has been producing books geared towards modelers for many years now, starting with various naval aircraft and later branching into Air Force aircraft (hence the Air Force Legends subtitle). There is always a short history on the development of the aircraft in mention followed by test and photos that highlight various aircraft systems that would be of interest to the modeler, ending with a short review of the plastic or resin kits of said aircraft.