This is part of a series of books by Kagero on warships and I have a few of these and are truly indispensable when building a model of the subject matter.

This book goings into great detail via illustrations of the Royal navy light Aircraft Carrier HMS Invincible –entering service in 1977. It served in the Falkland war in 1972. After the Falklands war it was to be sold to the Australian Navy but that was cancelled and remained in Royal Navy service until 2005. Before this HMS Invincible also served in the Gulf War in 1991 and 1993

The book is lavishly illustrated and shows every aspect of the ship in great detail. The book also comes with two large scale fold out poster size ship outline drawings in 1/400 scale

The illustrations give so much details as one could wish for as a modeler or history buff.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Thank you to IPMS/USA and Kagero for allowing me to review this great book.

Box Art / Packaging

The Tamiya RSO/01 German Tractor is a brand-new tooled release presented in Tamiya's typical rigid top opener with crisp artwork depicting a unit from the 1^st Skijager Division, Eastern Front, 1944.

This 100% newly tooled kit complements the existing 1/35 scale line up of German WWII vehicles in the Military Miniature Series and is also designed to be used with last year's release of the 50mm Pak38, kit # 35392.

The box contains a normal Tamiya instruction manual with clear construction steps, 37 in all, to complete this kit.

Also included is a glossy ‘background information’ leaflet which provides some history and details of the different designs and variants for the RSO through the WWII campaign.

It also contains details of the specifications of this Light Tank, including dimensions, crew capacity, engine (with speed and output) as well as range and armament.

This review has been a long time coming both in build time and in life. I received the kit in October of 2024, coming off my first win at nationals that year and wanting to branch out from aircraft and turrets I quickly sent in my request for this kit when I saw it in the stash list. I was granted the kit and, in a week, or so it arrived. I started digging into it (researching the vessel checking for inaccuracies etc.) and then around Thanksgiving of that year my world flipped upside down. My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Hobbies and the like were put aside and thus Naiad stayed on the workbench. Jumping forward a year and I finally got back to taking some time for myself and got back to working on the ship and review.

This figure kit is produced by Aerobonus and is designed to be used in conjunction with several Korean War aircraft subjects or as a stand-alone figure. It’s nicely cast in 1/32 scale from a medium gray resin. The casting is crisp and clean, and contains four parts which include the main body, a head and a right and left arm. Assembly was very easy and there was no flash present on any of the castings.

Representing a US Air Force mechanic on a winter flight line somewhere, the figure is dressed in typical grab found during this time period in a cold weather environment, A coat with hood and heavy gloves cover the upper torso. A baseball like cap covers the head. And the lower torso has Utility style trousers and boots.

This was a very easy figure to separate and clean up. As mentioned, there was no flash present on any of the four castings, and the only real clean up involved removal of the pour gates. A quick job handled with a razor saw.

UMM-USA has provided four versions of their Wooden Epoxy Stands:

• JH-S04 Wooden Epoxy Stand Durafix 12 & 180 Minutes
• JH-S05 Wooden Epoxy Stand BSI 5 & 10 Minutes
• JH-S06 Wooden Epoxy Stand BSI 20 & 30 Minutes
• JH-S07 Wooden Epoxy Stand BSI 15 & 130 Minutes

The stands are packaged unassembled; they are made up of 7 wooden pre-cut parts that slot together. They can be glued with either CA or White Glue. The instructions are printed on the packaging and are very straightforward.

These are very useful when using Epoxy’s and help to keep them organized.

The front and top parts have engravings showing the information for each epoxy.

In conclusion these are handy for your work benches.

Thanks go to UMM-USA for providing this kit to review and IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it for them.