With every major conflict or war there are new developments on how fighting gets executed. The German use of the Panzergrenadiers is one such development that came along to support their novel Blitzkreig tactics of the Second World War. If a charge was to be ‘lightning’ fast, it could not be done with the traditional walking pace of infantry following fast moving armor. By motorizing troop movements via armored carrier and piggybacking personnel on tanks, German troops could move quickly to take advantage of the rapid changes in the battlefield.

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 almost 1,200 books, with 100 or more new titles coming out every year, for readers around the world.

Javier Garcia de Gabiola, from Spain is a lawyer, and has published numerous articles and books related to legal issues. Always interested in military history, he also regularly contributes to various Spanish military history magazines, for which he has written more than 50 articles and has published multiple pieces with the Universidad Autónoma de México. This represents Javier Garcia de Gabiola’s third title with Helion & Company with his previous two books being Volume 1 and 2 of The Paulista War: The Last Civil War in Brazil, 1932.

By the middle of the 17th century Spain held the largest empire the world had ever known – with territory spanning most of the New World to Italy and beyond. And yet, in an all-to-familiar tale, the enormous expense of maintaining such a long reach was prohibitive, and was quickly bankrupting the country. In addition, wealth was becoming concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, with nobility in one guise or another owning roughly 95% of all land in Spain. The monarchy was so strapped for funds that less than 20% of all taxes actually made it into the national treasury, most going to banks for loan debt, further enriching the elite at the expense of the nation.

While Tamiya has long been a producer of acrylic model paints, they have recently entered the market of bottled solvent-based paints with a line of lacquer paints with the new “LP” prefix heading. As of this writing, there are 80 listed “colors” of lacquer paints in the Tamiya catalog, but that total includes such items as Thinner, a Flat Base, 5 Clears plus a Clear Yellow, Clear Orange, Clear Red and Clear Blue, 6 Blacks and 4 Whites. The colors are not labeled with any other specific description, such as US FS (federal stock) number or Luftwaffe RLM number, although the “pearl”, “mica” and metallic colors are primarily directed towards automotive modelers. The complete chart of available colors is available at the Tamiya website, and is being added to regularly. The paints come in 1/3 fl oz (10ml) bottles, the same as their acrylic line, compared to the 1/2 fl oz Model Master and 1/4 fl oz small bottle Testors enamels.

• LP-1 - Black
• LP-2 - White
• LP-3 - Flat Black
• LP-4 - Flat White
• LP-5 - Semi-Gloss Black
• LP-9 - Clear

I’ve used Tamiya lacquers in spray cans for years and they are my go to paints for the bulk of my car and aircraft models. Their quick drying and smooth coating, especially the gloss lacquers, provide show-level finishes. Now, after anticipating them for almost two years, Tamiya’s bottled lacquers have finally arrived.