Once again, extreme appreciation and thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us another of your expansive line of metal landing gear, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me.

And a special note on SAC customer service: Ross’ manufacturing team noted they had some “short shots” on their nose gear, whereby the axle itself was missing on one side. Ross offers a replacement to anyone who purchased the set with this minor defect, free of charge. GREAT service! This review set was one of those, and I noted it only when I opened the package…

The Rangers are an elite arm of the United States Army that ostensibly traces its roots back to Roger’s Rangers of Revolutionary War fame. More plausibly, this unit was created shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and has served as a highly trained mobile strike arm of the U.S. Army ever since.

This most intriguing book delves into their operations, training and equipment during the tumultuous latter portion of the 20^th Century into operations taking place right now, showing a snapshot of a force which utilizes the very latest in technology and techniques to keep them in the forefront of elite military forces around the world.

Developed in the late 1960s, the M60A2 was an ambitious attempt to create a multi-tasking battle tank to accompany the M60A1, one capable of firing both conventional 152mm rounds or the new Shillelagh anti-tank missile. It featured a rotating command cupola with integral machine gun and a distinctive low-silhouette turret. Because of its technologically advanced design it was nicknamed “The Starship” by operators. It went into service in 1972, and all told, 526 were manufactured.

Despite the hype, the vehicle proved to be a major disappointment, as the new anti-tank missile lacked both range and armor penetration capability. Consequently, it was phased out of service rapidly, the hulls being converted to M60A3 standards or being used as the basis for bridgelayers. The gun system, however, was incorporated into the M551 Sheridan air-droppable tank after revision due to its light weight.

This book covers the British/Canadian offensive to close the Falaise Pocket. After D-Day, the Allies were in a pocket surrounded by German troops and the ocean, and pretty much stuck in Normandy. The Wehrmacht, thinking the British forces in the north part of the pocket to be more likely to go on the offensive, moved their spare forces north to block a breakout.

The Allies were planning dual offenses in late July, having brought reinforcements in across the beaches and through the ports they held. Bad weather postponed these until Operation Cobra, the attack by the Americans in the south began. Cobra effectively destroyed the German defenses in the south, but left the center and northern forces intact.

The armored force continued to advance, and began to encircle the German forces opposite the center.

The Mk. 82 is a 500 lb. general purpose bomb used extensively by the United States and its allies since the 1960s. The Mk. 82 is the smallest bomb in the Mk. 80 family of weapons, but it also the size most commonly used. The bomb can be fitted with either low-drag or high-drag tail assemblies and can be configured as a laser guided bomb with the appropriate guidance and tail fins.

Once again, extreme appreciation and thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us another of your expansive line of metal landing gear, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me.

And a special note on SAC customer service: Ross’ manufacturing team noted they had some “short shots” on their nose gear, whereby the axle itself was missing on one side. Ross offers a replacement to anyone who purchased the set with this minor defect, free of charge. GREAT service! This review set was one of those, and I noted it only when I opened the package.

History

Enough has been written on the Lancaster that I’ll just cover 617 Squadron with a link from the Royal Air Force web site. It is quite an interesting history and for me very informative as other than the “Dambuster” raid I knew very little about this squadron.

The Kit

Upon opening the box you are presented with a lot of plastic! 16 grey injected plastic sprue of various sizes and 5 sprue of clear, an 8 page fold out instruction sheet and a large, well printed decal sheet make up this kit. The plastic is cleanly molded with recessed and raised detail and not much flash to deal with. The clear parts are very clear with crisp detail and the decals look great and in register.

The Portuguese Air Force might have been modest in size before the jet-age, but certainly was rich in the variety of fighter airplanes they flew. Their fighter aircraft inventory included French, British and American designs, some of them acquired and pressed into service through very colorful circumstances!

The book has chapters for each aircraft type in detail, including an introduction to the aircraft type and their service in the Portuguese Air Force, before having a section on camouflage and markings for the given aircraft being depicted in the chapter. After the section on camouflage styles and markings, the main feature of each chapter follows: numerous and gorgeous color profiles (sometime even 3-view) of different aircrafts, next to a historical picture of the airplane.

Furball Aero Designs continues its fine efforts to bring modern, current plane markings to the masses with their latest release, Air Wing All Stars: Super Hornets Part II. This set includes six markings for the F/A-18E Super Hornet and one for the F/A-18F. The set is printed by Cartograf and is in perfect register.

The markings included are for the following air frames:

The Loach, tiny, maneuverable and deadly to the enemy. This little helicopter was loved by its pilots, crew and maintainers. The mission was deadly serious and many helicopters never made it to their first maintenance inspection.

This sheet from AOA is a welcome addition for the Dragon/Italeri kit and the anticipated Kitty Hawk Loach. Having only flown in this legendary helicopter once with a Vietnam hero, Hugh Mills, I can say that this sheet is awesome. While Hugh Mills and the Dark Horse aircraft have been done a lot for their colorful sharkmouths it is refreshing to see some new markings. Vietnam aircraft sported some colorful markings and until recently they have gone unnoticed. Thanks to AOA that is no longer the case.

This book is very unique in the sense that it covers one century of aviation history, but selected in a particular way: French airplanes in Peruvian Service. Let me be clear, from reading the book you learn -in great level of detail- not just about that topic in the title, but about the overall history of Peruvian Air Force (PAF), with a strong emphasis on French airplanes in the PAF.

The book is broken down in four main sections

• Early Years (up to 1920s)
• InterWar Years (1930’s)
• The Deltas (1960s-Today)
• Alouettes and Falcons (Today)

The first chapter covers mainly the history of aviation entrepreneurs and fledging military aviators in Peru. Well illustrated with period photos it helps to set the tone for the book. The second chapter covers the 1930’s years, after the Peruvian-Colombian war, a period of high tension and military readiness.

One of the best looking aircraft of WWI, in my opinion, is the Albatros series of fighters. This streamlined plywood aircraft was widely used during the war. Flown by many of the great aces such as Manfred von Richtofen it proved itself a worthy warplane. Despite this, the Albatros had a fatal flaw, in that the lower wing would twist and occasionally fail.

The kit contains two sprues of light grey plastic. The plastic has fine engraved panel lines and raised access panels. It is beautifully detailed. There are two frets of photo etch. One is pre-painted, and the other is brass. There is also a set of masks to aid in painting the wheels, an oil cooler, and the red surround on the tail surfaces, should you decide to use that marking option. Decals are printed by Cartograf, so you know they are perfect. There are markings for four aircraft, plus lozenge decals for the wings, along with a sheet of stripes for the ribs.

Tony Buttler was born in 1956, and joined High Duty Alloys in Redditch in 1974 as a metallurgist. For nearly 20 years he was closely involved in the testing of aluminum and titanium airframe and engine components for many of the world’s most important airplanes. It was during this timeframe that his interest in military aircraft grew into a passion. Since 1995, Tony has been a freelance aviation historian, with this book being his eighteenth major release. He has also written many titles for the Warpaint series of monographs as well as many articles for most of the popular historical aviation magazines.