This is not your father’s Me-163 Komet! This first release by Meng Models in their 1/32 scale Quetzalcoatlus Series may be a long waited for item for those who enjoy this scale. Although the venerable Hasegawa kit can still be found, the level of detail in the Meng release is truly in line with what can be accomplished with modern technology. The kit built up well with few issues being encountered during construction, and the model looks great once assembled. Covers may be left off to display ammunition trays, the guns themselves, and fuel lines above the rocket motor. This was my second experience with a kit by the newcomer, Meng, and I will have no hesitation in purchasing more of their kits in the future.

Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, this book offers a creditable account detailing the key rival battles between the Battlecruisers of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine at the height of World War I. This book covers these opposing Battlecruisers and where they first met in January 1915 at Dogger Bank in the North Sea. The author explains why the battle was a tactical victory for British although neither side lost any of its Battlecruisers. He details the main differences in the designs in the British and German ships and how these two sides responded quite differently to this first engagement. In the book you’ll find out how these differences came into play during the battle of Jutland in May 1916, where of the nine of the British Battlecruisers committed, three were destroyed, all by their German counterparts. Five German Battlecruisers were present and only one of these was sunk.

Reid Air Publications has issued a new book and the winners are anyone interested in the F/A-18 A/B/C/D Hornet! For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Jake Melampy has written his series of books detailing specific airframes. F-16's and F-16's and others have been detailed before as well as others but the newest covers the entire series of the F-18's. The format of the books starts with the cockpits and works its way back to the wings, vertical stabilizers, horizontal stabilizers, fuselage and landing gear and finishes with all the ordinance used by the Hornets.