Ron Bell
Reviews By Author
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British Bombers of the 1970s and '80sPublished:
This book covers only the Blackburn Buccaneer and the Avro Vulcan. The author was intimately involved with the Buccaneer as a pilot and instructor, so most of the volume concerns this aircraft. In fact, he states that he spent most of his career avoiding the Vulcan so is not really the man to write about that aircraft. It is not really a reference book as no background, historical or technical information is supplied in the text, and the only text besides that on the five pages of the Foreward, Introduction and Appendix consists of the captions of the numerous photos, which are the real heart of this short work. Many of the Buccaneer photos are from the author’s collection and it is obvious that this volume is an homage to that aircraft, with the Vulcan taking rather a back seat. The… more |
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Scapa Flow: Home of the Royal Navy 1939-1945Published:
This volume is from MMP’s Maritime Series and is a comprehensive description and history of the Royal Navy’s base in the Orkney Islands at the Northern tip of Great Britain during WW II, Skapa Flow. It starts with a complete geographic description and a brief pre-WW II history of the base and then goes into a step-by-step description of the base’s development, facilities and defenses, including several maps of the locations of anti-aircraft defenses, mine fields and, anti-submarine barriers I am sure Germany would have liked to get a hold of. There are chapters dealing with the antiaircraft defenses, coastal artillery and barrage balloons, the RAF’s presence, minefields and wrecks, and everyday operations as well as the eventual fate of the base at the end of the war. There is even one… more |
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Bottled Lacquer PaintPublished:
Tamiya has had lacquer paints in their catalogue for a long time, but until recently, at least in the U.S, they were only available in spray cans, which limited how they could be used and incurred a rather steep price. However, Tamiya has now made their lacquer paints available in .33 fl.oz. bottles in the United States. The color range is limited at the moment, and we can only hope that more colors become available in the future. In addition to this, many products from companies in Asia are in short supply for various reasons, so it may take a while. The paints have to be thinned to be airbrushed and require a lacquer thinner. Tamiya does make it’s own such thinner, but in the case of this review, I used some generic big box store lacquer thinner, which worked fine, but I have… more |
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Flying Flatiron - Gloster JavelinPublished:
This book is from their Orange Series that specializes in particular aircraft types, in this case the Gloster Javelin. There are 208 pages of mixed text, photos, line drawings, charts and tables of info about the aircraft starting with a rather detailed recounting of the conception and initial design of the aircraft and how that design evolved into the final version. It then goes on to discuss the various armaments it carried, including the air-to-air missiles which also includes a brief run down on how the Firestreak missile was developed. Next is a mark-by-mark description of every variant of the aircraft with many illustrations to show the differences. Included in this chapter is a rather detailed technical description of all the various systems in the aircraft, such as landing gear… more |
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World War II British TrucksPublished:
The KitThis one took me by surprise as it was listed as three British trucks. Since it was in 1/35, I assumed that meant it was a kit of a British truck with three configurations to choose from. Imagine my surprise when a rather larger box containing three complete 1/35 British truck kits arrived! They are a 6X6 W.O.T. 8, a W.O.T. 6 and a Leyland Retriever. The parts count is, respectively, 267, 235 and 257. All have GS type bodies, two with the exposed frames for a canvas top and one with the actual top and all have very detailed chassis and engines. The parts are very nicely molded with no flash nor sink or injection pin marks, but there are the usual mold seams to deal with. There are three separate instruction manuals that sometimes have the usual flaw of some… more |
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The Liberation of the Philippines, Images of WarPublished:
This book from the Images of War series, consists of 239 pages of mixed text, maps and black & white photos of the campaign to recapture the Philippines during WW II. There are seven chapters and an epilogue that cover the background to US involvement in the islands, the Japanese conquest of the islands, the terrain involved , the weapons used, brief bios of the principle commanders, the invasions of Leyte and Luzon and the recapture of Manila and the mopping up invasions in the remaining islands. While the historical text is relatively brief, it is only intended to provide context for the pictures. The photographic coverage of the campaign is extensive with over 250 photos of personnel, weapons and vehicles (which usually include a brief description), and pictures during and after… more |
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Mark IV Female British WW I TankPublished:
The KitThe kit consists of 14 nicely cast resin pieces, one fret of PE parts and a small decal sheet. I found no bubbles, voids or “mushy” casting, however, as can be seen in the photos, there is more resin contained in the casting blocks than in the kit parts. These are quite frankly huge and removing them is the single biggest chore in assembly. I used a Dremel tool saw to cut the largest parts off, then a Dremel sander to remove most of the rest and sandpaper and files to finish off the job. The PE parts are nicely done, but are tiny! A good Opti-visor or microscope is advisable when working with them. The model is solid, so there is no chance to “open it up” and add an interior. AssemblyOnce cleaned up, the parts all went together very well requiring… more |
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The Aircraft Carrier HMS InvinciblePublished:
This is another in Kagero’s series of books that focus on one particular ship, in this case the HMS Invincible. The book consists of one column of text about the ship that is like what you would read on a kit’s instruction sheet and 28 pages of line drawings of just about every aspect of the ship from the island down to the various aircraft that served aboard and the individual defense weapons systems. The drawings vary in scale depending on what they are covering, the main island view being in a smaller scale (1/200) than the views of the defensive weapons (1/100 and 1/50) for example. Also included are two separate back printed 27” X 18” sheets. Three sides of these are line drawings of the entire ship in 1/350 scale and one side is a full color three view print of the ship.… more |
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USS Pittsburgh CA-72Published:
The KitAtlantis continues to re-release some of the kits a lot of us grew up with. This example is the 1954 Revell U.S.S. Pittsburgh. The kit was re-released many times over the years as the Pittsburgh, the Helena and with new parts updating it with Terrier missies as the Boston and Canberra. This release is in its WW II guise. You get decals for every ship in its class (Baltimore heavy cruisers), but you run short of bow numbers for some, like the one I did, the U.S.S. Toledo. The model is a member of Revell’s “Flat Bottom Navy” and has no hull detail and a flat bottom. Better for scooting across the floor by young budding captains I suppose. The BuildThere are a lot of parts in this kit for a 1954 kit and unfortunately the molds show their age in that… more |
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Mk.IV Male (Emhar kit)Published:
This set consists of one photoetch fret with parts to detail and/or replace kit parts on Emhar’s 1/72 British Mark IV Male tank. Mainly they are replacement parts for the kit’s un-ditching beam rails, some detail parts for that beam, replacement sponson doors, pistol port covers and parts to enable the modeler to open up the driver’s and commander’s vision ports. There’s also a piece to replace the roof top storage bin. The modeler would benefit from some PE folding experience, especially where the new un-ditching beam rails are concerned, as the folds are long and the pieces quite thin. The instructions for the sponson door parts leave out that you need to cut off the lower part of the kit part and glue it in place as it represents the part of the sponson below the door and… more |