This book traces the early history of Ju-52 combat units and operations. The book is broken up into six chapters.

Chapter one covers the development of Junkers Ju-52 from the lifting of the ban imposed by the Treaty of Versailles on the production of commercial aircraft in 1922. Beginning with the all metal F-13 and moving through the A-20 and on to the G-24 leading up to project “EF 30”. This was essentially a single engine Ju-52 and eventually progressing to the now familiar three engine design. There is a brief discussion of their use by Bolivia in the war with Paraguay that was very interesting. Discussion is also present on the civilian use of the Ju-52 noting that by March 31,1936 839 Ju-52s had been built and orders came from all over Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa for this sturdy airliner.

This is a photoetch exterior set to for the Hong Kong Models B-17 E/F. This set consists of one photoetch sheet and adds detail to mainly the wings.

In the packet is

• 1 photoetch sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

Summary

This is a nice simple set for adding additional detail to the wings mainly and some to the fuselage. The parts are very easy to install and add details not included in the kit.

Thanks go to Eduard for providing this set to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

If you prefer the added level of detail provided by aftermarket resin items, Eduard has recently released a set that you will love for arming your F-14A Tomcat. Consisting of the AIM-9G/H Sidewinder, AIM-7E Sparrow, and AIM-54A Phoenix, this Big Sin set provides four of each missile in glorious resin detail. I would highly recommend the set, and if you have some experience fitting resin parts, and working with fine decals, you should have no problem building and marking these missiles for your Tomcat.

Italeri has put together a set of models to commemorate the anniversary of the Gulf War. The set includes tanks and helicopters from the United States and Iraq. Iraq is represented by the T-62 main battle tank and the Hind-D MI-25 helicopter, while the U.S. is represented by the M-1A1 main battle tank and the Cobra AH-1W helicopter.

Since this is a large box of models, Jim Pearsall asked me if I would like to build the Helos from the set. I was glad to accept because both of these models are on my “Models I want to build list”.

The MI-25 HIND-D Helicopter

The MI-25 is an export variation of the Soviet MI-24 and is denoted with a letter suffix of “HIND-D”. It is a large helicopter that is used as a gunship/attack helicopter. It is also utilized as a troop transport that can carry 8 passengers. It is armed with a turret mounted 12.7 mm gatling type machine gun, 57 mm rockets, and AT-2C/SWATTER ATGMS.

The Curtis SB2C Helldiver was produced to replace the “Slow But Deadly” Dauntless with a larger, faster aircraft. Unfortunately, the plane suffered from many handling issues and a shorter range leading to the nickname “The Beast” being applied by its crews. The Helldiver served aboard carriers for the last 2 years of the war including participating in Operation Iceberg, the Battle for Okinawa.

Academy’s latest Special Edition version includes markings for three aircraft that participated in this operation. A tri-colored plane from VB-3 off the USS Yorktown and two gloss blue aircraft, one from VB-16 off the USS Randolph and the other from VB-84 operating from the USS Bunker Hill.

The kit contains 84 grey parts molded on two sprues, 6 clear parts and 28 photo etched parts for the dive brakes. The molding is very nice with decent panel lines and good interior detail for the cockpits, gear wells, and bomb bay.