This volume by Osprey/New Vanguard gives an overview of British 8 inch gunned cruisers (heavy cruisers by definition) in WW II. Four major sections deal with the design and development of the ships, the specifications of each class, the service history of each ship and a finally a description of the ships' armament and operation, the last part of which actually should have been a separate section as it is a general evaluation of the ships and their effectiveness.

The text is concise and efficiently written, containing a good deal of information in a small space. There are summary charts on the details of each class with one over arching table with comparative information such as dimensions, performance, armament, etc. There are b/w photos illustrating many of the ships but they are almost all of the entire ship from a distance or an angle, so they are not useful for detail.

Review copy courtesy of Osprey Publishing.

When Steve Collins announced that this book was available, I asked for it to review, because at one time I worked in AF Intel, and got intimately involved with aircraft identification. Especially when a Breguet Alize taxied right past my office window and parked a few hundred meters away. Made my week.

I expected this book to be a comprehensive listing of a lot of aircraft which a lucky person might encounter on a good day somewhere like Oshkosh Airventure or Farnborough International Airshow, or a military base.

I also expected some 3-view drawings and a rather truncated description of the aircraft’s origin, subtypes, and identifying features.

Arriving in a small zip-lock bag stapled to folded card wearing Canadian maple leafs, we find a pair of beautiful seats, complete with molded cushions and the unique “Q” type harness belts, keeping with their high standards Ultracast has produce a high quality resin castings that correctly represents a accurate seat for these two aircraft during the mid to late war time period.

The Typhoon and Tempest, lucky day you score two for one on this deal since you get two seats in the package you can use both of them for the two offerings that are available.

First the Hasegawa Typhoon, and yes it is a beautiful kit, but the kit seat part is weak and featureless to say the least, even photo etch harness belts would not help, in fact years ago Hasegawa themselves released the Typhoon in a “Super Detail” boxing with a complete resin cockpit upgrade produced by “Jaguar” very nice to say the least, well good luck finding one of those (and yes, I have one).

The Parts:

Included in this product are 22 white metal replacement parts for the Zvezda 1/144^th scale 747-800. The Zvezda product number for the 747-800 kit is 7010. These white metal parts replace all but one of the Zvezda gear parts contained in the kit. The only Zvezda gear part not replaced by the replacement parts is E58, a part that attaches to the nose gear strut. Of course, the tires and wheels, themselves are not included as kit parts that are replaced and the builder will use those supplied in the kit.

As usual, the SAC replacement parts can be substituted for the kit parts without interference with the order of construction called for in the kit instructions.

Conclusion:

I have been a customer of the Canadian firm Ultracast for several years, and in the time I have seen their product line increase greatly with the addition of various resin accessories, decals, figures, and metal products for both the aircraft and armor modelers. Their website is quite easy to navigate. I have yet to be disappointed with any purchase from them.

When I saw the 1/48th scale Beaufighter seats available for review, I could not resist volunteering. I had a Tamiya kit squirreled away and these seats would be the perfect complement to an already fine kit.

The kit seats are rather bulky in shape and should be thinned for a more scale appearance, and seat belts needed to be added. The kit’s gunner’s seat is quite incorrect in shape.