Osprey is a prolific publisher that has coupled excellent authors with fantastic artists that have combined their talents, mostly under Editor Tony Holmes’ direction, to produce hundreds of mostly soft cover “must have” books for serious modelers and history buffs. Any ‘good’ model show will have someone selling Osprey books and any modeler who has started his own reference library, owns Osprey books. Over the years, Osprey has divided them into several subcategories like ‘Aces,’ ‘Elite Units,’ and so on. One of the newest categories is the “Duel Series” where for example, one famous aircraft or tank is pitted against one of its contemporary enemies. I own many titles authored by IPMSer Steve Zaloga and every one written by Chris Bucholtz. I’m sure many more authors are IPMS members too that I’m just not aware of.

One thing you can never say about Dragon kits is they don’t give you a whole bunch of plastic for your outlay of freshly printed samolians.

I’m sure the aftermarket folks will work their magic in resin and brass for this kit, but in reality, little of it is necessary to the builder who wants a neat, well detailed miniature of the prototype for his collection. It’s all right here in the box.

As we’ve said, if you like lots of plastic, there must be half a dead dinosaur in this box. Beaucoup interior parts including the requisite cockpit goodies are there along with nose cannon bay, multi-part wheel wells and two very nice “bonus” engines, which you do not have to use if the mood doesn’t strike you. There are no corresponding “open” cowling pieces to go along with them, so without modifying the closed covers it’s pretty much an all or nothing proposition if you want to mount one or both Daimlers exposed.

If you attended the Nationals in Omaha and had occasion to stop at the National Office Managers Table, you have probably seen these on display with a notice that they were soon available. Well, soon is now. Fellow IPMS member Ray Beyers has beautifully crafted this set of markings to fit the 1/32nd scale Trumpeter F-100D in both schemes (P32-025 for the 1965 show season and P32-026 for 1967). Each set of markings comes with 4 separate sheets and a partial containing the extremely complex flag markings, as well as the Thunderbird logo. Even a pilot’s helmet decal with the logo and scallops is included. These decals are custom-printed by Microscale Decals.

Every once in a while something nice happens to you. This little photo-etch set is just the sort of thing I’m referring to. I’ve had the major parts of a Hasegawa Ki 48 Lily kit clipped off the sprues for some time in the hope that eventually I would locate enough reference material to guide me in adding cockpit detail when I continue with the build. The opportunity to review this new Platz photo-etch detail set for the Ki 48 was just what I needed to move me from a state of static inertia to critical mass. The kit box was located among the ‘in-progress’ stack, reopened, contents examined, the workbench was cleared and my Optivisor was back in place.

This large book (8 ¼ inches x 12 inches) was originally titled Aviation Modeling Techniques: The Greatest Guide when first published by Euromodelismo.. The book is profusely illustrated with almost 1000 color photos. The book is entirely in French. Each chapter covers the complete building process of one aircraft model. These chapters cover aircraft from WWI up to modern day.

Each chapter features a step by step guide to the building process. From detailing, assembly, painting and decaling each step is thoroughly discussed. Typing some of the captions into Google translation yielded some interesting and helpful information. Some of my favorite chapters include one showing the build of a Ki-43 and another on the F4D.

Beginning on page 160 is a Gallery of other completed models. Some favorites here are a complete but unpainted IL-2 showing the metal and wooden areas to advantage, a super-detailed 1/72 FA-18 and an F7U under construction.