The birth of the Irish Republic that we know today began in 1916. The leadership and members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (forerunners of the Irish Republican Army) decided that the British parliament had delayed Irish home rule long enough. It was time for action. On Easter weekend in 1916 a group of approximately 1,600 armed rebels seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed separation from Britain and established the Irish Republic. From the steps of the General Post Office a proclamation was read that announced the birth of a sovereign, self-determined Irish Republic. The proclamation established a legislature, a government, a court system, and a police force. At the same time, the Irish Volunteers, a military organization established in 1913 by Irish nationalists, became known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). For the next three years the IRA targeted the British forces in Ireland with deadly guerrilla strikes.
This is my first opportunity to look at the relatively new Osprey series called Command. As the name suggests, this series doesn’t look at hardware or military units, but the commanders. As with most Osprey books, this series provides a broad overview of the commander’s life, command responsibilities, leadership abilities, and legacy. I jumped at the chance to see how the Osprey formula works with personalities.
The September issue of Model Art Modeling Magazine is just another fine example of this publication. The text may be in Japanese, but the pictures clearly tell the story. All this time, people have told me that all I had to do was get a book that had plenty of pictures and I would be set. Well, I may have found my book!
This issue starts out with an article about the IJN Aircraft Carrier Akagi, and if it had survived to 1944, what she may have looked like. We all know that she met her demise in the Battle of Midway in 1942. The modeler (Yamauchi Takashi) used the Hasegawa 1/350th scale model and converted it. All I can say is -- wow! This model is amazing.
The next article is dealing with 1/700th scale model kits of IJN large aircraft carriers. The carriers shown are the Akagi, Kaga, Syokaku, Zuikaku, Tahio and Shinano. There are thirteen pages that review the different kits of each of these carriers.
Having limited exposure to Model Art Magazine except for thumbing through them occasionally in a vendor room, I was more than eager to do a review on this product. Even though the text is in Japanese (except for some English text sprinkled in), the photographs are excellent and really make it easy to follow along. Even though this is a magazine, the print quality and binding is more like a softcover book.
This is a special issue dedicated to airbrushing. It is broken down into four chapters.
The first chapter is further divided into ten stages. In the ten stages you are taken from setting up a compressor through using different diameter airbrush supply hoses and couplings. They also cover setting up an exhaust hood and different types of airbrushes (single action, double action, and a pistol grip type). The last of these stages focuses on getting proper paint-to-thinner ratios and, in conclusion, they cover airbrush cleaning and maintenance.
Osprey Publishing is without a doubt one of the most prolific publishers of military history on the face of the planet. Whether you build models, teach history, or are an armchair historian, Osprey has something for you. This new release is part of their Elite series which tend to focus on particular units or armies. This title has a tight focus – the US Cavalry Groups that fought in the European Theater of Operations during World War Two. The author makes it clear at the beginning of the book that this title provides a focus on the thirteen cavalry groups that fought in the ETO. The coverage does not include the two that served in Italy or Southern France or remained in the states.
- Cutting template A – http://www.hasegawausa.com/product-pages/hsgr1105.html
- Cutting template B – http://www.hasegawausa.com/product-pages/hsgr1106.html
There are many tools on the market, and Hasegawa offers a wide variety of those that many modelers have on their workbench. This review looks at two such items, Cutting Template A and Cutting Template B.
“Special Forces” was a fairly new concept in World War II. There were some who thought outside the military box and saw that another war like World War I would probably destroy Europe, if not the rest of the world, both economically and from population loss. The generals in the military establishment were far from enthusiastic about the idea that a few soldiers with skill and cunning could do what whole battalions couldn’t.
This is the story of twelve of those guys who thought that hitting the enemy in unconventional ways could do more damage for far less cost than huge armies sitting in trenches throwing high explosives at each other.
The twelve chosen as representative for this book are:
Zenith Press has published and excellent read with Boots on the Ground. The book covers the build-up and start of the war in Afghanistan during 2001-2002. The book starts with coverage of the Soviet involvement prior to their invasion, including their poisoning of the Afghani President and his subsequent execution, as well as coverage of the Soviet invasion and their loss of 15,000 troops and thousands of vehicles. There are great explanations of the Mujahedeen philosophy of "Death by a Thousand Cuts" where, in one year, the Mujahedeen conducted 5,236 attacks on the Soviets, one small attack at a time. There are great descriptions and pictures of the weapons used, from Stinger missiles to the Hind helicopter. This background history continues up through 9/11 and the decisions to get into Afghanistan.
Fred Pushies has written a book on MARSOC (Marine Special Operations Command), which was formed in 2006 when the United States committed to build up the special forces after 911. It was made from Marine Force Recon companies and designed to take the war to al-Qaeda and the Taliban to stop terrorism.
The book is divided into 8 chapters:
Hans Halbertstadt has updated his 2006 book titled U.S. Navy SEALS. It has all the great information of the original book, and now includes the operations in Afghanistan, the Osama bin Laden mission, SEALs at war, counter-piracy ops, and weapons and equipment.
The book is divided into 10 chapters: