Our good friend and supporter Abby Robey of Xuron supplied several new tools to us for review. Up first is this sprue cutter. Like all of Xuron’s tools, this is a finely crafted tool that will deliver years of service if properly used. That means plastic only – the fine cutting edges are shaped to deliver a near-flush cut on soft plastic – use them on metal and you’ll damage that edge.

I did a test cut on a standard sprue runner from the Eduard Spitfire I’m reviewing – take a look at the results in photo 3. Even on a relatively thick piece of styrene, the tool delivers a near-perpendicular cut through the runner. Moving on to “normal” usage, I removed one of the horizontal stabilizers from its tree – note (photo 4) that the resulting cut is almost perfectly flush. Cleaning up parts is my least favorite part of building; these cutters will reduce the magnitude of that tedious task. Highly recommended!

Osprey’s Campaign series of books is a well-established line covering some of the more famous campaigns in military history. The series started 29 years ago with the Normandy landings and with this installment, Smolensk 1943 being one of their latest releases.

Introduction

'General Leclerc' was the nom de guerreadopted by the Gaullist officer Philippe de Hautcloque, to protect his family in occupied France. He became France's foremost fighting commander, and his armored division (the '2e DB') its most famous formation. Starting as a small scratch force of mostly African troops organised and led by Leclerc in French Equatorial Africa, it achieved early success raiding Italian and German positions in co-operation with Britain's Long Range Desert Group. Following the Allied victory in North Africa it was expanded and reorganised as a US Army-style armoured division, with American tanks and other armoured vehicles. Shipped to the UK, in spring 1944, it was assigned to Patton's US Third Army, landing in time for the Normandy breakout and being given the honour of liberating Paris in August 1944.

Introduction

This book is a fascinating account of the Central Pacific campaign and one of the most stunning comebacks in naval history when in 14 months the US Navy went from the jaws of defeat at Pearl Harbor to the brink of victory in the Pacific. The book’s emphasis is on carrier operations and on the air groups of the various fighters and dive and torpedo bombers that were instrumental in sending the Japanese fleet to its watery grave and ensure an end to the Pacific Theater of Operations. The chapters include:

Osprey Publications, the prolific publisher of books related to nearly every aspect of military history imaginable, has in recent years been branching out into more traditional history works. This work is a critical biography of Otto Skorzeny, the man who rescued Mussolini from captivity. The author, Stuart Smith, is a trained historian with a career in business. Using original records and a variety of sources, Stuart has put together a fascinating portrait of a man whose entire career was largely built on one exploit – rescuing Mussolini from captivity in 1943. As his actions in the post-war would indicate, he was also an unrepentant Nazi.