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.

The Summer 2021 journal of Cross & Cockade International features a nice sharp colorized photograph of a Nieuport VIH, N.3, at Monaco in April 1914. The rear cover displays three black and white photographs of Bentley Camels of 204 Squadron, immediately after the end of the war. You can see that all three are fitted with bomb carriers. The center section, The Gazetteer, consists of seven black and white photos, and thirteen black and white maps. Also included is a separate folded color 1/100,000 map consisting of eight pages when folded up.

Bill Yenne has authored over 75 historical books and ten novels to date. He grew up inside Montana's Glacier National Park where his father was the supervisor of backcountry trails. Bill is also a nationally recognized artist and illustrator with his work being showcased in many national magazines and some of his paintings on display in the official collection of the US Air Force. Bill graduated from the University of Montana in 1971 and founded the American Graphic Systems company. He later graduated from the Stanford University Professional Publishing course in 1989. The AGS BookWorks division has produced some 200 large-format, illustrated books. He has contributed to encyclopedias of World War I and II (for you young’ns, this was Wikipedia before the internet came along). He has appeared on The History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, C-SPAN, and ARD German Television.

There is probably no more well-known figure from the Great War, or more written about or discussed, than the infamous Red Baron- Manfred von Richthofen. The original ringmaster of the Flying Circus, his record stands for itself and no plane from that war stands out more from historians down to watchers of Snoopy and his antics in his Sopwith doghouse. This thin book at 157 pages is filled with excellent clear photographs of von Richthofen from his childhood up through his career to his bitter end over enemy lines. More on that later.

TwoBobs has been producing decals for modern planes for a long time and has tons of superb decal sheets available. Several of the latest sheets deal with the 1/48^th scale A-10 Warthog and this sheet, 48274 is titled, “A-10A/C Brrrrt to the Future”, and provides markings for three A-10’s- two A versions and one C version. The markings cover:

Brengun Models is a scale model and detailing parts manufacturer located in the Czech Republic. Their lines include limited production run multi-media kits and exquisitely detailed photo-etched, turned brass and white metal replacement parts for aircraft in the most commonly produced scales.

Brengun has produced a set of wheels for any 1/72 scale F/A-18E/F or G Super Hornet kit. There are no instructions, but any modeler familiar with resin parts will have no issues installing these wheels in lieu of the kit parts. A close-up evaluation of the parts (see photos), indicates a simple cut and replace installation that provides realistic scale-detailed wheels with significantly improved appearance to molded plastic kit parts. The photo comparison is to the Hasegawa kit. The Brengun wheels have superior hub, brake and tread detail to those supplied in the Hasegawa kit.