Reviews of products for scale miscellaneous models.

Book Author(s)
Massimiliano Afiero. Translated by Raphael Riccio
Review Author
Orlando Reyes
Published on
February 11, 2024
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$28.95

The book is part of the Casemate Illustrated series. This is the second and final book dealing with this unit of the German Army during WWII. The scope of the book extends from Operation Goodwood to April 1945. The book is divided into 9 sections along with an Epilogue, Bibliography, and Index. At the beginning of the book, you will find a section called "The Timeline of Events." This section recaps some of the actions in Vol.#1 and then talks about the contents of this volume. This is a very concise, yet informative section.

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
December 22, 2023
Company
ICM
MSRP
$12.99

ICM is a hobby company based out of Ukraine. They have provided IPMS-USA a six (6) bottle acrylic paint set for review.

In the Box

The paint set contains six (6) 12ml bottles with nontoxic water based acrylic paints. Inside each bottle is an agitator ball to help mix when shaking. The following colors are provided:

  • Dark Blue (1077)
  • Black (1002)
  • Deep Yellow (1003)
  • Chocolate (1054)
  • Offwhite (1028)
  • Silver (1024)

Straight out of the bottle, the paint’s viscosity is thick and purposely prepared for brush painting. The instructions do recommend thinning 40-60% with water or thinner for airbrushing. All surfaces are recommended to have primer applied prior to painting. Volume wise, the paint takes up about 70% of the bottle and has “room” to add thinner if so desired.

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
December 22, 2023
Company
ICM
MSRP
$12.99

ICM is a hobby company based out of Ukraine. They have provided IPMS-USA a six (6) bottle acrylic paint set for review.

In the Box

The paint set contains six (6) 12ml bottles with nontoxic water based acrylic paints. Inside each bottle is an agitator ball to help mix when shaking. The following colors are provided:

  • Grey Blue (1075)
  • Deep Sky Blue (1076)
  • Blood Red (1046)
  • Deck Tan (1055)
  • Deep Brown (1008)
  • Black (1002)

Straight out of the bottle, the paint’s viscosity is thick and purposely prepared for brush painting. The instructions do recommend thinning 40-60% with water or thinner for airbrushing. All surfaces are recommended to have primer applied prior to painting. Volume wise, the paint takes up about 70% of the bottle and has “room” to add thinner if so desired.

Book Author(s)
Bill Norton
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
December 18, 2023
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Given the current situation in the Middle East, this is not an easy review to write; if nothing else, this publication proves that there is nothing new in the World.

The long-standing enmity between Arab and Israeli politicians has festered since the foundation of Israel in 1947. Aside from the continuing Arab terrorism during the period between the 1967 and 1973 Wars, there was a less-known ‘low-level’ conflict, known as the War of Attrition, where nation-states on both sides positioned themselves as best they could for the next war.

Book Author(s)
John Grehan, Alexander Nicoll
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
December 18, 2023
Company
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
MSRP
$34.95

During the early months of 1942, there was much pressure on the Western Allies – especially from the Russians - to ‘do something – anything!’ to relieve the unrelenting bad news on all fronts. The British were struggling in North Africa and the Far East, Japan was running roughshod over the US in the Pacific while the Canadian Government was under pressure at home. The result of these pressures was to lead to one of the most ill-conceived operations of WWII – Operation Jubilee, the raid on the northern French port of Dieppe, which had been heavily fortified by the occupying German armed forces. The resulting operation in August 1942 was an unmitigated disaster, costing the lives of thousands of Canadian and British troops, sailors and airmen with very little to show.

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
December 15, 2023
Company
ICM
Scale
n/a
MSRP
$12.99

ICM is a hobby company based out of Ukraine. They have provided IPMS-USA a six (6) bottle acrylic paint set for review.

In the Box

The paint set contains six (6) 12ml bottles with nontoxic water based acrylic paints. Inside each bottle is an agitator ball to help mix when shaking. The following colors are provided:

  • Gun Metal (1027)
  • Deep Brown (1008)
  • US Dark Green (1072)
  • Buff (1041)
  • Black (1002)
  • 4BO Green (1073)

Straight out of the bottle, the paint’s viscosity is thick and purposely prepared for brush painting. The instructions do recommend thinning 40-60% with water or thinner for airbrushing. All surfaces are recommended to have primer applied prior to painting. Volume wise, the paint takes up about 70% of the bottle and has “room” to add thinner if so desired.

Book Author(s)
Susan Bulanda
Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
December 15, 2023
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$28.95

One of the newest titles in the Casemate Illustrated Series is Military Dogs of World War II by Susan Bulanda

The book starts with an introduction on dogs in the military and their military roles as Ambulance, Communication, Draft/Sled, Sentry, Mine-Detection, and Messenger Dogs.

The second chapter covers Dogs in the United States Military, and the third chapter covers Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Smaller chapters follow covering the USSR, and the Axis, and a chapter titled Going Home. A nice list of Sources gives the reader a place to look for more detailed information and further reading. The book concludes with a good Index to quickly find relevant information for reference.

Review Author
Michael Reeves
Published on
December 14, 2023
Company
ICM
MSRP
$12.99

ICM is one of a few Ukrainian companies soldiering on through an intense war to continuously create exciting new products for the modeler. They have been releasing amazing kits and increasingly useful paint sets that are tied to specific themes. This sample features paints that can be used to paint infantry equipment and weapons from both World Wars. ICM provides a useful diagram on the back of the package showing two halves with painting colors for guns, gear, and tools from WWI and WWII respectively.

This particular set contains six 12ml wide mouth bottles of paint that have the same viscosity to me as Vallejo Model Color paints. I prefer the dropper bottles that Vallejo and AMMO have as these wider mouth bottles can lead to messes when transferring from your bottle to your palette or airbrush. The six colors are:

Book Author(s)
Ian Baxter
Review Author
Orlando Reyes
Published on
December 5, 2023
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$28.95

This book is another offering of the Casemate illustrated Series and in this case deals with the destruction of the German Army Group South by the Soviet forces. The book offers five color maps, one for each section/area where the two armies fought. In addition, you will find 20 commanders’ profiles. Both sides are given 10 commanders each involved in the conflict. The book describes 5 main battles and each has the order of battle for both the Soviets and the Germans. Finally, there are 13 profiles for equipment used during the battle by both the Germans and Soviets.

As in every book of this particular series you will find a timeline of events at the beginning of the book, starting with the retreat of the Army Group South to the Dnieper River during August, 1943, and ending with the participation of the Soviet Army in the Silesian and Prague

Book Author(s)
Henri-Paul Enjames
Review Author
Orlando Reyes
Published on
December 3, 2023
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$69.95

As the book title states this book is directed to the collector of U.S. Army Service Forces gear, focusing on the European Theater of Operations (ETO). The book is volume #2 of the series.

You will find everything that was used by the Gi's while in Europe! The book is divided into 24 sections with an Abbreviations section, as well as an Index.