Originally published in Hardcover in 1933 by William Heinemann, this diary immediately became a bestseller, largely due to the incredible WWI in action photographs. The publisher was told that the author had been killed in action in 1918 and that the suppliers of the typewritten manuscript wished anonymity. The diary had no named author, and had no dates or any squadron references that could be checked. The spectacular pictures did create some doubt, but in post war Britain, no one wanted to dishonor a WWI hero. Fast forward to 1983 when a collection was donated to the Smithsonian and the contents were recognized by noted WWI historian Peter M. Grosz, who along with Karl Schneide, deduced what had happened. The book was re-printed in October 1985 by Greenhill Press with an Introduction by Karl Schneide of the National Air and Space Museum revealing the details of the hoax.

Having built many US Navy jets in various scales for over 36 years, I can resoundingly state that the thing I hate most about painting them is masking and painting tailhook stripes. Although some manufacturers have included the striping decals with the kits, the vast majority have not.

Thankfully, AOA decals has introduced a new series of decal sheets in 1/72, 1/48, and 1/32 scales to provide those stripes when the kit manufacturers haven’t. Received for this review was the Combo sheet, which includes all three scales. Individual sheets for 1/72, 1/48, and 1/32 are also available. Decals are simple sets of black stripes of appropriate width and spacing, and are printed by Microscale.

Background

Mortal rivals, the Soviet Il-2m Sturmovik and German Panther Ausf. D represent pinnacles of combat capability for their respective nations in the 1944 timeframe. Often eclipsed by the mighty Tiger tank, the Panther proved to be an extremely lethal and far more maneuverable and reliable little brother to the larger and more finicky Tiger – truly one of the best all-round tanks of World War II. To stop the Panther and other German armor on the Eastern Front, the Soviets relied on the tank-busting Il-2m Sturmovik. The heavily-armed and armored IL-2 family of close air support aircraft proved a reliable and effective gun platform for dispatching the relentless waves of German armor.

The Kit

Academy draws from 2 externally engineered subjects this time – Accurate Miniatures’ Il-2m and Zvezda’s Panther D – to offer a clever boxing of historical combat rivals.