Through Adversity is a detailed account of the British and commonwealth air war during the Second World War. The book covers every aspect from the RAF foundations to the Far east. It is written in a very engrossing way by providing all the facts interweaved with personal accounts.

The chapters cover the following:

• Antecedents
• Air Superiority
• Strike
• The Air War at Sea

The book is full of extremely good and rare photos that were another highlight for me. I read this book over three nights as it pulled me in and was very informative. This book impressed me from the moment I flicked through the pages when I got it. I recommend this book to everyone with an interest in WWII and the Air War.

Thanks go to Casemate Publishing for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy!

This book is a second edition, with three new chapters. Martyn R. Ford-Jones is the historian for No. XV Squadron Association, Royal Air Force (http://www.xvsqnassociation.co.uk ). His wife, Valerie, is the Treasurer and would have been a co-author but declined the honor. Years were spent interviewing the participants in this book, their families, and careful gleaning of historical records to weave a compilation of human stories set in WW2 of a squadron of British bombers.

The Book

This book is intended as a reference for anyone building a 1/72 or 1/48 scale model of a production Messerschmitt ME-163B. It contains entirely visual references, and does not tell the developmental or operational history of the type, but this information is covered in so many other references, so that is not so important. The modeling information, however, is extremely well done. The scale drawings are very useful, and whoever made the photographs did a very good job of accessing the aircraft and picturing the details, especially the interior. There are several ME-163’s on display in museums, so with some cooperation with the curators, good photos are certainly obtainable. There are some period photos included, some showing the equipment used by the crews during operations. The cockpit interior views are especially good, and I think with these, a pilot could get in one of these and fly it, if he was that suicidal.

Brengun brings a very welcome addition to the model aircraft market with this Extra 300L / 330 CL aerobatic plane. I have always wanted to build one and this release is most welcome.

In the box is:

• 2 x light grey sprues
• 1 clear canopy
• 1 decal sheet
• 1 instruction booklet

The sprue is well molded with very little flash and very good detail. The only issue is the plastic is very soft.

Construction

First is the construction stages A & B assemble parts of the cockpit. In Stage A where the seats and instrument panel are built, the PE set adds improved instrument panel and also seat belts. These are welcome additions to this very simple layout.

In stage B builds parts to the cockpit floor. The part numbers are missing from two parts which are in fact parts 21 and 23. At this stage the PE set replaces the pedals.

This book is one of MMP’s Spotlight series and deals with the Me 163 Komet.

The book begins with a brief two-page history of the development and deployment of the Me 163.

The bulk of the book consists of 40 color plates illustrating many of the color schemes used on the Me 163 with a couple of plates for the DFS 194 development aircraft and the Me 263. The Me 163A test aircraft and many of the Me 163B prototypes were painted in overall RLM 76. Several of the plates show different prototype configurations and some of the aircraft have dark red anti-corrosive paint patches on them evidencing either repairs or places where the paint has worn through to the underlying primer. The plates also include Me 163B V41 in overall RLM 23 Red flown by Maj. Wolfgang Spate.