The Table of Contents provides this basic outline:
This is a review of one of the many Alpha products designed specifically for scale modelers.
I have long been a fan of Alpha products in many of their forms. Especially their micro sanding pads which allow me to perform very finely detailed sanding and polishing. With this 5 pack I can use the entire sheet of sanding film or by combining the sheet (or smaller cut pieces) use them in model sanding. I also use smaller pieces cut into strips and held in place with double sided tape and mounted on small popsicle sticks. Alpha Graphics has produced their products for over 75 years and long established their reputation for high quality, long lasting sanding products.
Osprey is renowned for their concise histories of the rarer conflicts around the globe. This edition covering “Armies of the Great northern War:1700-1720) is just such an edition, covering the Great Northern War which was fought in the Baltic region and ranged all the way from Norway to southern Ukraine. In the end, it led to the destruction of the Swedish Empire acquisitions in the war of 1618-48 as well as transformation of Russia under Peter the Great. The book is 48 pages in the standard Osprey size and is illustrated with color plates, maps and text describing all the combatants and battles.
Chapters included are:
Thank you Bill & Phil for all you do for the Reviewers and for the opportunity to review this publication.
Pen & Sword has released another outstanding book belonging to the Images of War series. As with other Images of War publications, it is a photographic essay detailing the pathway of General Paulus’ 6th Army annihilation at Stalingrad.
The book begins with a prelude which provides important information about the movements of the three German Army groups in Russia during 1941, and how and why the command chain changed allowing Friedrich Paulus to be appointed command of the 6th Army. Through four chapters, the reader is taken via photographs and text through the struggles of the 6th Army in their quest to fulfill Hitler’s misguided dream of conquering Stalingrad and ultimately Russia.
Gabriele Esposito is an Italian student of military history with an interest in 1800s Latin America. Giuseppe Rava contributed three two-page and a smaller paintings in color of the pivotal battles of this war.
Osprey’s Campaign 342 covers the war that involved the eastern countries of South America as they joustled their own revolutions with military actions against their neighbors, setting the stage for current countries and boundaries. Like other Osprey Campaign books, this issue is 96 pages (not counting the front/back covers) –enough for a discussion on the war and its aftermath.
This book provides twelve maps of the theatre, individual battles and subsets of battles. Sixteen B&W and twelve color photographs, 28 B&W and 12 color illustrations, three Tables and a two-page Chronology compliment the text. Almost every page has some sort of visual to look at, giving a better feel for what is was like to have fought in this war.
A recent arrival for the Review Corps were Shaders from Ammo by Mig Jimenez, which are a unique addition for modelers of just about anything. For this review in particular, I was provided with five of the colors including Light Gray (0856), Navy Gray (0857), Light Blue (0860), Marine Blue (0861), and Night Blue (0862). The full line consists of 20 different colors. The Shaders are unique to begin with as they are packaged in 10ml bottles, so they are about half the size of a typical bottle of acrylic paint. Shaders do not require shaking prior to use (they are about the consistency of ink), and they can be mixed to create different shades, and may be thinned with water if desired.
Bottom Line Up Front: This most recent addition to the Osprey Men-at-Arms Series does its best to make sense of a confusing subject, to the Japanese civil wars of the 1860s and 1870s period. It is well illustrated and provides rudimentary information that is fairly easy to understand.
Ammo has released a new line of 20 paint effects colors in 10 ml bottles. I am reviewing four of these colors: #0863 Light Green 0864 Light Olive Drab, 0865 Military Green and 0866 Dark Green. These are the four green tones that they offer, along with blues, greys and earth tones. Here is what Ammo’s website says about this new product:
“The AMMO SHADERS are a new type of product designed to create a variety of effects on all types of models in a simple and fast way. The transparent and ultra-fine paint allows all skill level of modelers to apply stunningly realistic effects that seemed impossible before.
Being an aficionado of the history of the aircraft and persons involved in aviation during World War I, this book became a “must have” after reading some of the reviews describing the book. I must say that I was not disappointed in any way, and in fact found this “photo history of the Lafayette Escadrille” one of the most compelling “reads” I’ve experienced in many a year.
The story of The Lafayette Escadrille is laid out in photos, quotes from letters written by the pilots, and historical records of the time. The author spent a year travelling to universities and museums, as well as the actual geographic locations described in great detail in the documentation uncovered during the research phase for the book. The author captured images of some of the buildings frequented by the men of the Lafayette Escadrille and the comparison of historical images and the modern images taken by Ruffin are remarkable.
Helion 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. The 'Africa@War' series covers African military history since 1945.
Peter Baxter is an author, amateur historian and heritage travel guide. Born in Kenya and educated in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), he has lived and traveled over much of southern and central Africa. Peter lives in Oregon, USA. His interests include British Imperial history in Africa and the East Africa campaign of the First World War in particular. He is the author of Pen and Sword's Gandhi, Smuts and Race in the British Empire. You can find out more at peterbaxterafrica.com
