This book takes a look at the most famous of the Polish bomber type in WWII and its developments. The PZL 23 was known as the Karas (or Carp, according to Google translation) to the Polish Air Force and, along with its offshoot variants PZL 42, 43 and 46, did the lion’s share of bombardment work for Poland.

The majority of the book (65 pages) gives us a brief history of the main variant, the PZL 23, and its service with both Poland and Romania. There are many previously unpublished black and white photos used to illustrate this aircraft, along with gorgeous color profiles. The Poles had some of the best group insignias I have ever seen. Who could resist doing a model of a Karas with a flying fire breathing dragon with a bomb clutched in his talons?!

“Martin’s Mistake”, “Martin’s Murderer”, “The Flying Prostitute”, “The Baltimore Whore”, and “One a day in Tampa Bay” are all some of the derogatory nicknames and phrases used to describe the Martin B-26 Marauder. This outstanding aircraft was never able to get out from under the bad reputation it got early on. The early versions with the short-span wings and other ticks that come with a new design contributed to the type’s undeserved reputation. A really “hot ship”, it could be difficult for a newbie to handle, but once mastered it then demonstrated its full potential. And when the longer improved wing was installed on later variants, the crews felt that almost all of the ship’s vices disappeared.

Books on the Martin B-26 are not all that common, so it is good to see one that does its level best to dismiss the bad reputation this aircraft garnered in training. As the author state, crews loved the Marauder.

The Saab 37 Viggen was designed to a Swedish air force requirement for an integrated weapon system with high performance, great versatility, and STOL capability. It was intended to replace the Saab 32 Lansen attack plane and the Saab 35 Draken fighter. To meet the requirements of a multi-roll aircraft, Saab came up with a radical configuration for the day. The design used a conventional low-set delta wing extending from mid-fuselage to tail pipe, with small clipped canard wings mounted forward of the main wings and above the intakes. This single-seat aircraft was powered by a single license-built version of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine equipped with a thrust-reverser. This innovative design package created a plane capable of Mach 2 at high altitude and Mach 1 at low altitude while maintaining short-field takeoff and landing capabilities. A total of 329 Viggens were built, and from 1970 to 1990 they were the backbone of Sweden's air defense.

Although the He-111 was designed supposedly as a civil transport prototype capable of carrying 10 passengers and mail, its main purpose was of a military nature. It first flew in 1935. Several modifications were made to improve performance. A major change was replacing the two 660-hp BMW engines with the 1,000 hp Daimler Benz DB 600A engines, which significantly improved performance. The He-111 cut its fighting teeth in the Spanish Civil War, serving with the Condor Legion where it was very successful. That success continued in the early days of World War II. Germany overran several countries with its Blitzkrieg tactics, staring the Ju-87 and the He-111. Its success faded with the onset of the Battle of Britain when the lightly armed He 111 encountered the fast Spitfires and Hurricanes. By the time Hitler lost this battle, he was already planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The He 111 again found success on the Russian Front.

Quickboost now offers a resin 1/48 scale three-piece resin ejection seat to replace the injection molded seat found in the various F-86F kits marketed by Hasegawa (also should fit Academy kits). The Quickboost seat offers a more correctly proportioned seat with superior detail than provided in the kits, plus it includes nicely molded safety belts (the photos below show the level of delicate detail molded into the parts). See the comparison photo below to determine the difference in the Quickboost seat (on the right) to the Hasegawa kit’s rather basic seat part (on the left).