Bill Kluge
Reviews By Author
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H-34A Pirate/UH-34D U.S. MarinesPublished:
Back in 2012, Italeri released their first Wessex UH.5 in 1/48 scale in what would become a long line of Wessex types and UH-34 variants. This particular boxing is the second UH-34 version, with new parts and decals for a pair of French gunships, a West German utility chopper, and a Vietnam based U.S. Marine Corps bird. With those options, the included new weapons parts tree will provide plenty of useful leftovers no matter which version you choose to build. The extensive decal sheet, printed by Cartograf, uses a very thin carrier film with virtually no carry over beyond the printed image. Even the smallest stencils are perfectly legible. The kit parts, molded in dark olive green, are generally crisp and cleanly molded with no flash or visible ejector pin marks. Only in a few places… more |
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The Royal Netherlands Navy of World War IIPublished:
Much like its European contemporary France, the Netherlands entered the twentieth century with a considerable empire, a strong naval tradition, and a current navy badly in need of modernization and decisive political direction. Being on friendly terms with Great Britain through much of the 19th century ensured that the far-flung Dutch imperial possessions in the East Indies could count on the protection of the Royal Navy. The Royal Netherlands Navy need only keep small, inexpensive coastal vessels on hand for immediate defense. However, by the early 20th century, the Second Boer War with Britain in South Africa, coupled with Japanese naval expansion following Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War changed the calculus in the minds of Dutch naval leadership. The ensuing… more |
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Images of War - United States Marine Corps in Vietnam: Rare Photographs from Wartime ArchivesPublished:
This edition in the “Images of War” series provides a overview of U.S Marine Corps operations in Vietnam, from the initial deployment of a Marine Hawk anti-aircraft missile battery near DaNang in February, 1965, followed a month later by elements of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, to the final withdrawal of Marine ground troops in June, 1971. Marine air was finally withdrawn in September of 1972, with off shore Marine aircraft and security forces participating in the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 (the book’s photo coverage ends with the withdrawal of Marine ground forces). The limited text is arranged chronologically in four chapters:
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Pacific Adversaries Volume 2: Imperial Japanese Navy vs The AlliesPublished:
In this second installment of John Claringbould’s accounts of aerial combat between Japanese and Allied air forces, here he presents Japanese Naval Air Force operations in the Solomons and New Guinea from 1942 to 1944 (Vol. 1 covers Imperial Japanese Army Air Force engagements in New Guinea during the same period). The author takes a unique approach in presenting these accounts, providing insight for individual encounters through the eyes of each protagonist based on thorough research of each side’s official records, eyewitness testimony, personal narratives and diaries, and on some occasions evidence obtained from wreckage discovered years after the events depicted. Instead of being an overview of the Solomons and New Guinea campaigns, each of the 15 chapters covers a… more |
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Flight Through the Ages: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to the Guild of Aviation ArtistsPublished:
The Guild of Aviation Artists, which traces its origins back through several former artists organizations - the Kronfeld Aviation Art Society, the Industrial Painters Group, and the Society of Aviation Artists emerged in 1971 as the repository for the majority of Britain’s aviation artistic talent, and in July of that year held its inaugural exhibition of 95 paintings entitled “Flight Through the Ages”. The Guild has presented an exhibition every year since then, at times encompassing over 400 paintings from its members, now numbering over 350. The Flight Through the Ages anniversary collection showcases some 200 works of art, culled from the thousands of paintings selected to hang in the 50 years of the Guilds exhibitions, representing a variety of styles and mediums… more |
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The Naval Siege of Japan: War Plan Orange TriumphantPublished:
In the final months of the Pacific War, the U.S. Navy unleashed its full fury on the Home Islands of Japan. Beginning with airstrikes to cover the amphibious landings on Iwo Jima in February, 1945 until the day of the Japanese surrender on August 15, aircraft and naval vessels of the American navy (soon joined by the British Pacific Fleet) ranged up and down the length of the Japanese Islands attacking industrial targets, sweeping aside Japanese air power and, with particular relish, devastating the last remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Author Brian Herder brings into focus the final acts of the war, highlighting the range of destructive forces brought to bear on the Japanese. By the summer of 1945, those forces were many and varied. The primary naval weapon was Task… more |
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Bobcat IL-28TPublished:
The long awaited IL-28T torpedo bomber is the first release of what will probably be a series of IL-28 versions from Bobcat Hobby Model Kits (formerly Xuntong Model). The parts are molded in a grey, slightly soft/slightly brittle plastic (more on the drawbacks of this later). Each of the half dozen sprue trees is individually wrapped in a resealable plastic bag. The kit has been well designed, and most of the parts themselves are highly detailed, even if the exterior surface scribing is a bit heavy. The pilot’s cockpit and bombardier’s compartments in particular are very well fitted out, and the landing gear and wheel wells are nicely detailed, as are the two different torpedo types (for a total of four weapons). The ailerons, flaps and rudder are positionable. Extra parts are included… more |
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German Fighter Aircraft in World War I : Design, Construction, and InnovationPublished:
Nowadays, when we think of cutting-edge aviation technology, things like stealth materials, satellite guidance and pilotless flying come to mind. But what was the cutting edge one hundred years ago, at the dawn of aviation? How about hinged ailerons, or steel tubing, or cantilevered wings? For better or worse, warfare spurs innovation, and by the time of the Great War, the needs of the conflicting Great Powers for the decisive weapon, coupled with the cutthroat nature of industrial competition, spurred aviation innovation at an astounding pace. Author Mark Wilkins chronicles the efforts of eight of the major German aircraft production companies that produced fighter aircraft - Aviatik, Albatros, Fokker, Halberstadt, Junkers, Pfalz, Roland and Siemens-Schuckert - with a great… more |
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USS Tennessee (BB-43) From Pearl Harbor to Okinawa in World War IIPublished:
Launched on the last day in April, 1919, and commissioned just over three years later, on June 3, 1920, this sixth vessel to carry the name Tennessee was the name ship of her class (which included her sister, USS California) and the last US battleship to carry 14” guns. In this Naval edition of his extensive “Legends of Warfare” series, author David Doyle provides another extensively illustrated history of this famous warship. While each chapter - covering Construction; Launching, Fitting Out and Commissioning; To War (with subsequent descriptions of her collision with USS California and participation in the action in Surigao Straight); and The End of the Line - includes a brief introductory written description, the bulk of the written information comes as captions to the hundreds of… more |
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US Navy Battleships 1886 - 98Published:
In the 1860s the US Navy led the world with the innovative, turreted ironclad USS Monitor - a vessel that gave rise to a series of warships whose name defined the class. However, within ten years of the end of the Civil War, the US Navy had become a mere ghost of its former size and power. Ships were decommissioned, sailors released from service, and the Secretary of the Navy was returning funds to the Treasury. By the 1880s, British built ironclad battleships of the Brazilian and Chilean navies caused panic within the halls of Congress and along the east and west coasts of the United States. Frustrated officers from the US Navy, along with insightful members of Congress and the Garfield administration determined that major changes were needed to prevent the US Navy from declining into… more |