If you use the Micro Set/Sol combination for decal work like I have for years then you have (if you're honest), tipped the small round bottles they come in. While there are some other holders out there, Charles Plastic Models has given us a truly useful combination holder. Not only are there inserts for the Micro decal solutions, but this product also includes a port for the round Solvaset bottle and two bays for the square decal set bottles from Tamiya or Mr. Hobby. Several panel liner and weather solutions also come in the same size square bottles. Behind these are openings for brushes, tools, and anything else you use for decals and liners.

Each of the openings is sized to allow easy insertion of the bottles and the bottom of the holder is rough textured to keep it from sliding around. This product has solved a problem I’ve battled for a long time. All this for 10 bucks. Check out Charlie’s website for this product and a few other variations of it.

This well-researched book, The Battle for Grozny Volume 1, is part of the Europe at War Series, which contains 46 titles to date. The author, Efram Sandler was born in the former Soviet Union and is a former combat veteran of the Israeli Defense Force Armored Corp. He has authored or co-authored eight books of this amazing series.

In the mid-1990s, the south-central region of the former Soviet Union was in turmoil. The Republic of Ichkeria had declared independence and influence from Chechnya was growing stronger. The Kremlin and Boris Yeltsin, Russian President from 1991-1999, grew increasingly concerned over controlling oil and gas pipelines, which Dzhokhar Dudadev, leader of Chechen opposition, had seized. Yeltsin eventually launched a large-scale military operation on December 9, 1994.

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.

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.

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: