The David vs. Goliath nature of the inception and survival of Israel in the Middle East provides an element of fascination to those interested in military history, especially the air war component. Israel came into existence at a time when technology was taking giant leaps forward, but due to mixed support of the birth of the small nation, restrictions and embargoes played heavily into the Israeli Defense Force’s ability to build up its air arm. In this alone it battled great odds to piece together a hodge-podge of aircraft in their early years, but understanding the value that air warfare brought to them in their tenuous geographic and political situation, they continued to spend significant resources to develop a competent air force.
“In far Alaska’s icy spray, I stand beside my binnacle
And scan the waters through the fog for fear some rocky pinnacle
Projecting from unfathomed depths may break my hull asunder
And place my name upon the list of those who made a blunder
Volcanic peaks beneath the waves are likely any morning
To smash my ships to tiny bits without the slightest warning
I dread the toll from reef and shoal that rip off keel and rudder
And send our bones to Davey Jones – the prospect
makes me shudder
The Bering Sea is not for me nor my fleet headquarters
In mortal dread I look ahead in wild Aleutian waters
Where hidden reefs and williwaws and terrifying critters
Unnerve me quite with woeful fright and give me fits and jitters.”
A new release from Ammo, the Atom metallic paint set contains 12 bottles (see list below) consisting of nine well-known metallic colors used in virtually all military and civilian scale model subjects, as well as red, green and blue metallic colors. The paints are water-based acrylics, non-toxic and odorless, and can be air brushed or brush painted. Each 20ml plastic bottle has a snap lid and contains a mixing ball. Of note, there are eight different Atom sets on the Ammo website. The Ammo acrylic thinner comes in a 60 ml snap lid plastic bottle.
Illustrators: Paulo Alegria, David Bocquelet, Luca Canossa, Tom Cooper, and Anderson Subtil
This is the second book about Portuguese forces that I have read, authored by José Augusto Matos (he co-authored Sanctuary Lost, Portugal’s Air War for Guinea 1961-1974, Volume 1, with Matthew M. Hurley). Having read both books, I now better understand the author’s style and attention to detail. This is Zelia Oliveira’s first book in the series. As the title states, this book is the road to the Portuguese Coup of 1974 and covers primarily the period from 1961 to 12 March 1974 in amazing detail (there are ten pages of sources, bibliography, and notes).
ICM is once again providing an excellent product despite soldiering on through an intense war to give modelers a unique set of paints focused on Wehrmacht Afrika Korps vehicles. This set spans the entire war and provides a useful palette of paints for armor or vehicles serving in the desert. ICM provides a diagram on the back of the package showing two vehicle profiles (corresponding to ICM kits of their s.E.Pkw Kfz.70 with Zwillingssockel 36 and Sd.Kfz.251/8 Ausf.A WWII German Ambulance) with painting colors for the featured schemes.
This particular set contains six 12ml wide mouth bottles of paint that have the same viscosity to me as Vallejo Model Color paints. I am not a huge fan of the wide mouth bottles here, as I prefer the dropper bottles that companies like Vallejo and AMMO have due to the possibility of messes when transferring from your bottle to your palette or airbrush.
The six included colors are:
Founded in 2001, Casemate is a major specialist publisher and book distributor in the North American market. Casemate offers print and digital books to the public and to libraries through a variety of channels, platforms, and vendors, as well as traditional and online retailers.Casemate has grown to become the leading publisher in the fields of military history, defense studies, and military science in the USA. Casemate has a burgeoning publishing list covering subjects as diverse as Roman History and today's current conflicts. This series, Casemate Illustrated Specials is focused on offering focused text and detailed photographs and illustrations into the weapons, equipment, and machinery of war.
In a follow-up to the Bay of Pigs' attempt to oust Fidel Castro from power in Cuba came the events leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. This 37th book in the Helion & Company Latin America at War series provides daily insights into the identification, escalation, and resolution that took place from January 1961 through December 1962. The author, Linda Rios Bromley, takes the reader into meeting rooms, briefings, and events that took place during one of the most critical events of the post-WW2 world during the 20th century.
Illustrators: Pablo Patricio Albornoz, David Bocquelet, Luca Canossa, Tom Cooper, Micky Hewitt, and Anderson Subtil
Helion is a UK-based company that produces books on many aspects of Military History from the Late Medieval period through to the present day. Helion was established in 1996, and since then they have published over 1,200 books, with 100 or more new titles coming out every year, for readers around the world.
Ian Baxter has done it again. Not only is he an amazing, captivating author, he once more approached a very difficult topic, and did it well, presenting the horrifying facts in a manner that honors the dead, but doesn’t sugar coat it. This book follows the familiar Images of War format with brief introductions for each chapter followed by a lot of photographs to complement his topics.
Between the covers of this (9.6”x7.4”) paperback book are 144 pages, with over 250 black and white photographs, and two very detailed appendices, is the story of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps during 1944 and 1945. It is composed of the following:
Ammo isa company founded by Mig Jimenez and based out of Spain. It provides products for the modeling community by way of paints, weathering effects, tools, and various modeling merchandise. Ammo has provided IPMS-USA a twelve (12) bottle acrylic paint set for review.
In the Box
The paint set contains twelve (12) 20 ml bottles with nontoxic and odorless water based acrylic paints.Inside each bottle is an agitator ball to help mix when shaking. These paints are presented in a new clear container featuring a new cap that can be opened and closed with one hand. The following colors are provided: