Staff Cars in Germany WW2 Vol. 2, is number 23 in the “Camera On” series published by MMPBooks/Stratus. The author, Alan Ranger, has written over 20 books in the Camera On Series dealing with German and Japanese armour specializing in soft skin and armoured vehicles. With Volume 1 Staff Cars in Germany WW2 # 9 published in 2019, the author presented photographs of passenger cars used by the German armed forces namely the line of Opel vehicles including the Admiral, Kadett, Kapitän and others. A lengthy article on the history of the Opel was presented in his first volume.

Background from the website: "In 1941, Packard introduced a new model of car - the Packard Clipper. It was created by the talented designer Howard Darrin, who had previously collaborated with this company and significantly influenced the appearance of all Packards in the second half of the 1930s. The new car had a powerful 125 hp engine with a displacement of 4.7 liters, was wider than its predecessors, and had an extremely elegant design. By the end of the year, Packard had produced 16,000 such cars, but the US entry into World War II completely changed subsequent plans. The military high command issued extraordinary production orders for its requirements, and many purely civilian manufacturers, including Packard, were repurposed to produce military equipment.

Named after an 18^th century winning racehorse, the Mitsubishi Eclipse was a compact two door car with a design meant to appeal to younger buyers. When coupled with a four-cylinder engine capable of up to 210 hp, the car found success and its production ran from 1990 to 2014. During that time, over 900,000 units were produced and the power maxed out at 265hp. This history alone would justify the car’s success, but in 2001 the first Fast and Furious movie was released. In it, Brian O'Conner (played by Paul Walker) drove a lime green modified 1995 Eclipse. That car and a few others in the subsequent movies because icons of the street car world. AMT first released this kit to capitalize on the success of the movies and now Round 2 Models has reissued the kit with a new decal sheet that allows the modeler to create variations on the original theme. Note that you will have to find some instrument decals for the dash as there are none in the kit.

There is an old proverb, or maybe it's an English idiom, that states:” give credit where credit is due.”

It is thought that Samuel Adams might have been the first to coin the phrase. Giving credit where due applies to the Ukrainian company, ICM Holding. Having persevered a 'commie invasion' of Eastern Ukraine, packing up their entire manufacturing facility and moving it to the Western Ukraine they also seem to get the most from a particular model kit’s mold, in this instance the Soviet Military truck ZiL-131.

The Jaguar E-Type, British Motoring Masterpiece is the latest volume from automotive writer Lance Cole. Other books in his series of classic automobiles include the Bugati, Porsche 911, and the soon to be released Citroen DS.

While all three of those cars are iconic, the Jaguar E-Type still holds sway as the premier automotive design from the 1960's. An argument can be made that that design may still be the metric by which newer cars are measured.

The 11.5” x 8.5” soft cover volume from Pen and Sword books contains sixty-four pages with a myriad of photographs, drawings and profiles of the Jaguar E-type. Author Cole has divided his book on the Jaguar E-Type into: