Thank you to author James Lyman, and to Hill Country Hobby for the sample book. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to review a new independent, self-published book that will be a great resource for many modelers at all skill levels.

This excellent compendium of methods and techniques is produced and published using an independent (indie) publishing house, Create Space, an Amazon Company. I was unable to verify how the book is produced, but Create Space publications are often printed and bound on demand. Wholesalers often receive significant discount on bulk purchases. Modeling clubs, chapters and hobby shops may be able to take advantage of this format and discounts.

It’s that time of year again. That time of year to think about purchasing your 2017 Cross & Cockade International Calendar. “But”, you say, “it is only June of 2016! What’s the hurry?”

Well, first, you should realize that there may just be a limit to the print run for these calendars. I honestly don’t know if there is such a limit, but if there were you’d rather be on the “I got mine” side of that line.

Secondly, “the profits from the sale of the 2017 Cross and Cockade International Calendar are once again going to assist in the upkeep of the British Air Services Memorial at the St-Omer airfield in northern France” according to Roger Tisdale of Cross & Cockade. There is always a need for support for this fund, so why wait until closer to the New Year to provide some financial support to this very worthy cause? One can check out the St-Omer Memorial at http://www.webmatters.net/txtpat/?id=258

From the MRC website listed above,

Da Vinci was fascinated by how timepieces operate. Based on one of his sketches, it uses the laws of motion and a vertical “flying” pendulum escapement to keep accurate time.
The pendulum’s weights, in a bucket suspended from a crane-style arm, act as the clock’s power source. The weights propel the pendulum from vertical post to vertical post. As it “flies” it turns precision gears, which in turn keep time. To speed up or slow the clock, adjust the weight-balance of the pendulum by adding or removing weights.

Kit

The kit comes packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with 2 bags of parts and the instruction manual.

One of the bags contains the parts molded in brown plastic that resembles wood grain. Included in this is 1 sprue containing 6 parts, 1 loose base, 1 loose top piece (C2) and 2 loose clock faces.

This book covers the British/Canadian offensive to close the Falaise Pocket. After D-Day, the Allies were in a pocket surrounded by German troops and the ocean, and pretty much stuck in Normandy. The Wehrmacht, thinking the British forces in the north part of the pocket to be more likely to go on the offensive, moved their spare forces north to block a breakout.

The Allies were planning dual offenses in late July, having brought reinforcements in across the beaches and through the ports they held. Bad weather postponed these until Operation Cobra, the attack by the Americans in the south began. Cobra effectively destroyed the German defenses in the south, but left the center and northern forces intact.

The armored force continued to advance, and began to encircle the German forces opposite the center.

The Rangers are an elite arm of the United States Army that ostensibly traces its roots back to Roger’s Rangers of Revolutionary War fame. More plausibly, this unit was created shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and has served as a highly trained mobile strike arm of the U.S. Army ever since.

This most intriguing book delves into their operations, training and equipment during the tumultuous latter portion of the 20^th Century into operations taking place right now, showing a snapshot of a force which utilizes the very latest in technology and techniques to keep them in the forefront of elite military forces around the world.