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.

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.

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.

I have heard of Tru-Color Paints probably 18 month ago by now and since then I had the chance to review a few different colors and coats from them. They have an extensive line of railroad and car paints and they are continuously expanding their military line (aircraft, naval, armor).

This time, thanks to the kind support of Tru Paint to IPMS/USA I was able to use them for the review of an Eduard P-400 Profipack (model kit review elsewhere in this website). As I was doing a review of paints, I decided to go for a P-400 which was assembled from parts of different airplanes and sported a mix of USAAF and RAF colors.

This is not a specific set for the P-400 (Tru-Colors has a few packs of paints). It was more like I was able to “make my own” set of paints. Below is the list of paints I used in this review:

Several of my modeling friends have been using Mission Model Paints and telling really good things about them. When I had the chance to review some of them I jump on that opportunity.

The very first thing you notice is the volume you get in each bottle: 1 fluid oz. That would keep you painting for a while. You might worry about the fact that the paint might go bad before you are out of it, but don’t worry. Based on the chemistry of it, it is shelf stable. I don’t know if after 5 or 10 years it will still be as good as pristine, but it should last you a long, long time.

Another thing to highlight is that each bottle has a “mixing ball” inside. I’m not sure if it is truly a ball, but you can shake that bottle and the little “rattle” will help you mix the paint thoroughly.

The Mission Models Paint website has an extensive section on “FAQ” and “Tips”. I would recommend you read it before you use this paints. As they say there “…we are teaching you new tricks”.