Reviews of products for scale miscellaneous models.

Review Author
Steve Zajac
Published on
February 19, 2024
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
Scale
N/A
MSRP
$35.78

A new release from Ammo, the Atom metallic paint set contains 12 bottles (see list below) consisting of nine well-known metallic colors used in virtually all military and civilian scale model subjects, as well as red, green and blue metallic colors. The paints are water-based acrylics, non-toxic and odorless, and can be air brushed or brush painted. Each 20ml plastic bottle has a snap lid and contains a mixing ball. Of note, there are eight different Atom sets on the Ammo website. The Ammo acrylic thinner comes in a 60 ml snap lid plastic bottle.

Book Author(s)
Book Author(s): José Augusto Matos and Zelia Oliveira
Illustrators: Paulo Alegria, David Bocquelet, Luca Canossa, Tom Cooper, and Anderson Subtil
Review Author
Andy Taylor
Published on
February 15, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

This is the second book about Portuguese forces that I have read, authored by José Augusto Matos (he co-authored Sanctuary Lost, Portugal’s Air War for Guinea 1961-1974, Volume 1, with Matthew M. Hurley). Having read both books, I now better understand the author’s style and attention to detail. This is Zelia Oliveira’s first book in the series. As the title states, this book is the road to the Portuguese Coup of 1974 and covers primarily the period from 1961 to 12 March 1974 in amazing detail (there are ten pages of sources, bibliography, and notes).

Review Author
Michael Reeves
Published on
February 12, 2024
Company
ICM
MSRP
$24.95

ICM is once again providing an excellent product despite soldiering on through an intense war to give modelers a unique set of paints focused on Wehrmacht Afrika Korps vehicles. This set spans the entire war and provides a useful palette of paints for armor or vehicles serving in the desert. ICM provides a diagram on the back of the package showing two vehicle profiles (corresponding to ICM kits of their s.E.Pkw Kfz.70 with Zwillingssockel 36 and Sd.Kfz.251/8 Ausf.A WWII German Ambulance) with painting colors for the featured schemes.

This particular set contains six 12ml wide mouth bottles of paint that have the same viscosity to me as Vallejo Model Color paints. I am not a huge fan of the wide mouth bottles here, as I prefer the dropper bottles that companies like Vallejo and AMMO have due to the possibility of messes when transferring from your bottle to your palette or airbrush.

The six included colors are:

Book Author(s)
Ian Baxter
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
February 10, 2024
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$28.95

Founded in 2001, Casemate is a major specialist publisher and book distributor in the North American market. Casemate offers print and digital books to the public and to libraries through a variety of channels, platforms, and vendors, as well as traditional and online retailers.Casemate has grown to become the leading publisher in the fields of military history, defense studies, and military science in the USA. Casemate has a burgeoning publishing list covering subjects as diverse as Roman History and today's current conflicts. This series, Casemate Illustrated Specials is focused on offering focused text and detailed photographs and illustrations into the weapons, equipment, and machinery of war.

Book Author(s)
Linda Rios Bromley
Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
February 9, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

In a follow-up to the Bay of Pigs' attempt to oust Fidel Castro from power in Cuba came the events leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. This 37th book in the Helion & Company Latin America at War series provides daily insights into the identification, escalation, and resolution that took place from January 1961 through December 1962. The author, Linda Rios Bromley, takes the reader into meeting rooms, briefings, and events that took place during one of the most critical events of the post-WW2 world during the 20th century.

Book Author(s)
Authors: Dean Wilson;
Illustrators: Pablo Patricio Albornoz, David Bocquelet, Luca Canossa, Tom Cooper, Micky Hewitt, and Anderson Subtil
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
February 9, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Helion is a UK-based company that 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 over 1,200 books, with 100 or more new titles coming out every year, for readers around the world.

Book Author(s)
Ian Baxter
Review Author
Andy Taylor
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
Pen & Sword
MSRP
$26.95

Ian Baxter has done it again. Not only is he an amazing, captivating author, he once more approached a very difficult topic, and did it well, presenting the horrifying facts in a manner that honors the dead, but doesn’t sugar coat it. This book follows the familiar Images of War format with brief introductions for each chapter followed by a lot of photographs to complement his topics.

Between the covers of this (9.6”x7.4”) paperback book are 144 pages, with over 250 black and white photographs, and two very detailed appendices, is the story of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps during 1944 and 1945. It is composed of the following:

Review Author
Pat Villarreal
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
AMMO by Mig Jimenez
MSRP
$39.95

Ammo isa company founded by Mig Jimenez and based out of Spain. It provides products for the modeling community by way of paints, weathering effects, tools, and various modeling merchandise. Ammo has provided IPMS-USA a twelve (12) bottle acrylic paint set for review.

In the Box

The paint set contains twelve (12) 20 ml bottles with nontoxic and odorless water based acrylic paints.Inside each bottle is an agitator ball to help mix when shaking. These paints are presented in a new clear container featuring a new cap that can be opened and closed with one hand. The following colors are provided:

Book Author(s)
Ravi Rikhye
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Human beings sure like to squabble, and the more history they share, the more enmity they seem to feel. America is little over 200 years old, and has had only one internal conflict during that time, and yet it still impacts the country to this day.Imagine, then, a region occupied for millenia2, and the potential only increases.

India and Pakistan have been at each other’s throats since the day of partition, and the author Ravi Rikhye, does a good job of explaining the incredible complexities of the hostility for the average reader.Suffice it to say that my head was buzzing after reading the introduction. It’s very hard for someone not born in that part of the world to really understand what the grievances are. The author himself states flatly that writing history is a subjective experience, and that there are no “bad guys” or “good guys” in this struggle. After reading the entire book I have to agree.

Book Author(s)
Tom Cooper, Dave Watson and Dimitris Vassilopoulos
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
February 6, 2024
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

I’ve read a number of books about 20th century so-called brush wars, and it becomes fairly obvious over time that these small, relatively isolated conflicts often serve as relief valves for larger nations who dare not directly confront each other. In the nuclear age, such aggressiveness would almost certainly be fatal.