Eduard has recently come out with a new product which will enhance the realism of some dioramas through photoetch. Eduard has come up with a small wired sheet with what looks like tiny pieces of confetti colored brown, red-brown, and tan for their autumn sheet. It is approximately 5 ½ by 9 inches which is attached to a border around the perimeter. This must be cut off and then the sheet can be folded, rolled, crushed, torn, twisted, poked, bent, and cut to any size with a scissor or modeling knife. It does conform to the shape of the object but still not as well as a piece of cloth. Reshaping and bending too much can cause the color to peel but I would guess that touching it up wouldn’t be a great task. The colors do need to be toned down a bit as they are kind of shiny but again no great task.

History

The BMW R75 along with the Zundapp KS 750 was developed in response to a request from the German Army during World War II. It was powered by a 750 cc horizontally opposed, two cylinder engine based on the R12 gasoline engine featuring overhead valves. The rear wheel featured a locking differential (with two gear ratios for road or off road) and power take off (PTO) for a driven sidecar wheel.

BMW and Zündapp upon the urging of the Wehrmacht, agreed upon standardization of parts for both machines. The standardization program meant that machines that were produced by BMW and Zündapp used almost 70% of the same components. This simplifies the supply of spare parts for these vehicles, many of which are still in the hands of historic motorcycle enthusiasts. These vehicles are desirable as collector's items because of their complex and durable technology. Many well restored examples can be found on the road today.

Might as well get this over with right now - THE BEST MUSHROOM BOOK I HAVE READ!!!!

OK, I'll admit it - the Silver Wings era is my favorite, and in that, the Gamecock is high on my list - so I'm a bit prejudiced. But this book is much more than I expected - it is very well written, very well organized, and very well illustrated. The Grebe and Gamecock are 1920's aircraft; built in small quantities, never saw action - so there simply isn't that much around on them. The author has gone to great lengths to dig out that information and then cover it in a complete and well-organized manner.

Here is another aircraft upgrade set from Quickboost. The latest addition is for the Academy P-40 Warhawk. It is up to their usual standards; molded in a grayish resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block because of a nice perforation. It only took me a couple of light passes with my saw blade to make them fall away instead of launching into the air becoming snacks for the carpet monster.

I must admit that I was a little confused with this set because it comes with every antenna that a P-40 Warhawk ever had on it, so you can replace the existing one in the kit or make any other variation including the “football“ housed loop that some warbirds used. I looked through my reference library and found some great walk around photos of these antennas. My reference was from The Aero Series 3, Curtis P-40, Aero Publishers, Inc 1965.

Our friend, Ross McMIllen, has never been one to rest on his laurels and for the month of June, 2011, he has given us 6 new offerings.