Cross & Cockade has released their 2018 calendar and it is quite an edition to one’s Man Cave. As in past years, you are advised to order your copy now, and not wait. There may be a limited supply of these calendars and you do not want to miss out because you waited until the supply ran out.

According to Roger Tisdale of Cross & Cockade, the profits from the sale of the 2018 Cross and Cockade International Calendar are once again going to assist in the upkeep of the British Air Services Memorial at the St-Omer airfield in northern France”. This is a very worthy cause and deserving of your support. One can check out the St-Omer Memorial.

David Doyle’s latest book is with a brand new publisher, G-104 Press. Founded by Scott and Kim Taylor of London, Ontario, this volume follows the Visual History format previously seen from David Doyle’s books from Ampersand. David Doyle has acquired the use of the former Ampersand format along with the inventory and website: http://www.AmpersandPubCo.com . This book is presented in landscape and includes 112 gloss pages. G-104 Press does not yet have a website, but they are planning on one. Presently, the book is sold through David Doyle’s website. Scott and Kim Taylor can be reached through their Thachweave Products webpage at thachweave.tripod.com where they sell some unique modeling products or you can often find them at IPMS and AMPS conventions.

Kitty Hawk Models has already released a 1/48th scale kit of the French Super Etendard. They are now gracing the shelves of your local hobby shop with an earlier version of that aircraft: the Dassault Etendard IVP/IVM. This model represents the maritime strike (IVM) or photo reconnaissance (IVP) version of the aircraft.

Upon opening the box you will encounter five sprues of light gray parts and a sprue of clear bits for the canopy, clearance/anti-collision lights and photo-recon camera windows. There is a fret of photo etch parts for some of the finer details. Among those photo etch parts are seat belts, speed brake detail, flame holder for the Atar 8B engine, and wing spoilers.

The decal sheet has markings for five aircraft, one of which is for White 118. White 118 was the commemorative aircraft for the final flight ceremony of this mark with the French Navy. There is also a small decal sheet for the instrument panels and side consoles in the cockpit.

The AIM-9 Sidewinder has been a mainstay of the US Air-to-Air arsenal since the 1950s. The AIM-9G/H was used extensively in the Vietnam War by US Navy. Most of the Navy kills during the war were with the AIM-9G. The later AIM-9H was a navalized version of the AIM-9G and had the highest kill ratio of the Vietnam War. The difference between the two missiles were all internal with the H having solid state electronics. The AIM-9H missiles were used well into the 1970s when they were superseded by the AIM-9L.

Eduard has combined three wonderful resin sets into a combo set called the BigSin set for the Tamiya F-14A. I would think it would also work with other F-14’s but watch the variant so you could match it to the missile variants. The set comes in an excellent box with a full set of four AIM-54A Phoenix missiles, four AIM-7E Sparrow missiles and four AIM-9G/H Sidewinders with launch rails and seeker head covers. Each set comes with full stenciling and individual instructions in color including the color call outs for painting. Let’s look at the sets individually.