This is another fine addition to Squadron Signal's line of In Action books and is sure to complement your library. The book takes you to Jack Northrop's response to the Army Air Corps‘ call for a secret purpose-built night fighter, and follows it from the drafting table to wind tunnel testing, factory manufacturing, test flying, and finally to combat. The book also covers all production variants and prototypes.

The book comes in either softcover or hardback; it's 80 pages that contain 30 vintage color and 164 black & white photographs plus 4 color plate profiles and a dozen detailed line drawings. It's well written, in-depth, and laid out keeping the modeler in mind. The photos alone are a wealth of information.

With the old 1/48 Monogram kit looking better all the time, the newer P-61 lines in 1/48 from Great Wall Hobby, and the larger 1/32 Hobby Boss Kits, this book will surely come in handy. I highly recommend it.

Detail sets for Edward Spitfires:

• Brassin cockpit # 648100 - $40.00
• PE landing flaps # 48765 - $25.00
• Color PE interior # 49639 - $20.00
• Surface Panels # 48766 - $20.00
• Five-Spoke wheels with block tread tires # 648098 - $8.00
• Exhaust Stacks Fishtail # 648099 - $8.00

Every time I use superlatives to comment on a build, another one comes along to prove there is a LOT of great plastic, resin, and brass out there. This was the case with Eduard’s Spitfire! We at IPMS USA are truly fortunate to have Jan Zdiarsky and the team at Eduard supporting us by providing these most excellent kits and details to review.

Right off the bat, I had the kit on the build table; the sheer number of resin and PE parts was daunting, and it’s back to basics here. The best way to eat an elephant is to…GET TO WORK!

Airscale has been producing some excellent aftermarket items, such as aircraft instrument decals. Until now, you had to punch them out and add them to the kit instrument panel. What if you wanted to build your own instrument panel? Well, until now you had out-of-production Waldron bezels, and that was pretty much it. Airscale now offers you some options…lots of options.

On a single brass photo etch fret is a plethora of levers, handles, and switches. There are actually 72 photo etch pieces. Some of these details will require you to fold them over. Many of the items are for WWII aircraft, but they can be easily adapted to later aircraft.

The instructions are on a two-sided full-color piece of card stock. One side contains the parts breakdown of the fret. The parts are in rows with letters assigned for the individual parts. The key at the bottom of the page will aid the modeler to get the right part and what it was originally designed for.

It is no secret that I love the Zvezda Bf-109Fs. They are remarkably well-engineered kits and the most accurate Fs on the market. There are only two pieces of aftermarket that I use for them, Vector’s correction set and the Eduard Zoom set.

This Eduard Zoom set includes a single fret of self-adhesive pre-painted photo etch. The components are all for the cockpit area. The amount of detail that Eduard puts into the instrument panels and placards is amazing, far superior to anything I can do with a paint brush. A clear acetate piece is included that has the gunsight reflectors on it.

The instructions are straightforward and easy to understand.

I was given Minicraft’s B-17G for a review. Just as I was about to start the project, I was at IPMS Las Vegas “Best of the West” contest, and found a set of 1/144 decals for the B-17G. The decals included in the kit were perfectly OK, but the subject matter of this sheet made me drag out my wallet and buy it.

The first plane on the sheet is “American Beauty”, 2S*G. A friend and co-worker of my father was the top turret gunner and flight engineer on this aircraft. So it has a personal connection to me.

THE DECAL

The decal sheet itself is very good. When you finish cutting out the decals for one aircraft, you still have a solid sheet, not something that looks like a lace doily. Good planning on their part, and I appreciate that.

The subject matter of the other three planes is also very interesting – “Little Miss Mischief” of the 91st Bomb Group, “My Devotion” (an F model) of the 351st BG, and the famous “A Bit o’ Lace” from the 427th BG.