One of the latest in Mushroom Model Publications’ White Series, Finnish Aces. Their Planes and Units 1939-1945 follows up earlier volumes on Finnish aircraft: (2021’s Finnish & German Seaplane Colours, Finland 1939-1945; 2018’s Finnish Jet Colours; 2018’s Finnish Bomber Colours, 1939-1945; 2015’s Finnish Fighter Colours, 1939-1945, Volume 2; and 2014’s Finnish Fighter Colours, 1939-1945, Volume 1); MMP is calling this book part of their "Rainbow Series." I'm guessing that refers to their large format camouflage and markings set of books in their "White" series that have addressed Bulgaria, Finland, Hungarian, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Sweden. This series seems to share a commonality of discussing the specific topic of the evolution of a countries' evolution in markings. To that end, this book utilizes many previously un-published pictures and focuses in on individual aircraft to supplement with superb color illustrations.

Detail and Scale has been a cornerstone reference for modelers for decades covering all types of aircraft in great detail. The Color & Markings series does just that, cover the color and markings of a specific set of planes in great detail with superb pictures and detailed test. This book, Part 3, written by Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak, covers the F-14 Tomcat prototypes, test, evaluation and adversary aircraft.

The table of contents is large and gives a great view of things to come:

I was a bit taken aback as the name of the book as stated above gives the impression that the book will be dealing with the air forces of all Latin American countries. Then, upon receiving the book I find that this volume addresses Argentina. There is more clarification on the back cover of the book the title given is Air Forces Series, Volume 1. So more to come and already, Volume 2 covers Columbia. This is a series of books about the various Air Forces of Latin American countries but a little more clarification on the titleon the web site would have been beneficial to the reader/buyer.

The book starts with a brief history of the Argentinean Air Force from its creation in 10/08/1912 until the present. It describes their first planes and ends with the present roster of planes for the six branches of service as follows:

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) is a Texas based company that makes white metal landing gear for a vast number of model aircraft in all scales.

The idea behind the use of metal over the kit supplied plastic landing gear is strength. Over time plastic can give way under the weight of heavy aircraft models.

The metal parts are contained in a clear plastic tray with an attractive color backing showing product details.

While examining each item, it was apparent that masters of the original plastic parts were copied and molded into white metal. Some items needed bending back to shape and straightened a little due to soft nature of the metal.

The general molding was quite clean, but seams would need to be cleaned up. Working with the white metal and cleaning up mold seam lines is detailed on SAC’s comprehensive website.

Once again SAC comes up with a solution to the problem of failing Plastic Landing gear on a “different design” landing gear situation.

The idea of “dead cockroach” landing gear is not new; it is a solution to a problem aircraft designers have had to deal with for years. My personal favorite are all the Cessna’s (Cardinal and Skymaster come to mind) which had the gear partially extend or retract, making for dicey and spectacular landings when the pilot runs out of fuel and absolutely HAS to land. Videos are out there, go to Youtube or whatever to see for yourself.