Book Author(s)
Jean-Christophe Carbonel
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Crecy Publishing, Ltd.
MSRP
$44.95

Jean-Christophe Carbonel was born in 1959 and wrote his first modelling article in 1977. He graduated from the University of Paris I: Pantheon-Sorbonne in 1979 and followed up with a diploma from Sciences Po in 1981. He currently is a senior auditor at Le Groupe La Poste. His first solo work in English language was in 1991 for the British magazine Collecting Scale Models. He admits that part of his knowledge of the English language came from reading the Airfix instruction sheets, which were, at the time still English-only. Since then, he has pursued a writing career specializing in model kit history and in the history of aviation projects, prototypes, and early experimentals. Jean-Christophe has more recently specialized in French designs of all eras. Writing for various magazines on both sides of the Channel, French Secret Projects 2 is at least his thirteenth book.

Book Author(s)
Yefim Gordon & Dmitriy Komissarov
Review Author
Hub Plott
Published on
Company
Hikoki Publications
MSRP
$56.95

Growing up during the Cold War which encompassed the red scare and fight against global communism, photos and information on aviation in the USSR was pretty skimpy! A short video of a plane flying over a parade in Red Square or a few grainy, slightly out of focus black and white photos Were all there was. A little bit more was available on export models as they were used by Soviet Client states and thanks to the September 6, 1976 defection of Viktor Belenko flying his Mig-25 to Japan a bit more was available on that aircraft.

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain and communism much more information is readily available to the modeler and aviation historian on Russian aviation designs and tactics. The authors are the go to folks for this information. I have had the pleasure of reviewing several of their books and like past volumes, this one does not disappoint!

Review Author
Max Welliver
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$62.99

Dragon, in its Six-Day War series, has already produced a 1/35 scale kit of an Israel Defense Forces M3 halftrack, and now another interesting variant is available for modelers. This new kit features an M3 with Nord Aviation SS-11 wire-guided antitank missiles, which was done to strengthen the offensive capability of IDF halftracks. This kit will attract a lot of interest when sitting in your model display.

Opening the Box

This sturdy Dragon box is filled with lots of plastic, a lot of it going to the spares bin.

The kit includes:

  • 15 sprues molded in light grey plastic
  • One sprue molded in clear plastic
  • One small square of photo-etch parts
  • Small brass length of chain
  • Slide molded drive and idler wheels packaged in a separate baggy

The kit also includes decals for two vehicles:

Book Author(s)
Kinzey and Rock Roszak
Review Author
Rob Benson
Published on
Company
Detail & Scale, Inc.
MSRP
$9.99

Thank you to Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak for continuing to bring back a tremendous resource for the modeler, in a digital format. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to test out this new and exciting method of researching history, details, versions and markings of the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger. The official title is Colors & Markings of the F-102 Delta Dagger in Detail & Scale, by Rock Roszak, Colors & Markings Series, Digital Volume 2.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$12.95

The CBU-97 is an unguided cluster bomb unit used by the US Air Force. The CBU-97 weighs around 1,000 lbs. and consists of a munition dispenser which contains ten BLU-108 sub-munitions. Each BLU-108 is an independent unit with its own sensors and projectiles which are designed to kill armored or soft skinned vehicles by attacking from above where the armor/skin is thinnest, or non-existent. The CBU-97 can be carried by all of the USAF’s current fighters and bombers.

Review Author
Ben Morton
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$13.96

Brengun has come to the modelers rescue, once again. This time with a set of photo-etched details for all of those that enjoy building 1/72nd scale World War One aircraft. If you are one of those folk then you already know that the finer details are often missing from the manufacturer’s kit. Gun sights, control horns, propeller details, and seats belts can be substandard or, more frequently, have just been omitted by kit manufacturers..

Brengun's World War One detail set includes:

  • Two sizes of wire wheels
  • Pitot tubes
  • Three varieties of gun sights
  • Steering controls
  • Boarding steps
  • Control horns
  • Throttles
  • Generator propellers
  • Two varieties of propeller hubs
  • Seat belts

In short, this set includes all the cool looking, fiddly bits. This new detail set from Brengun will definitely add piazza to your next aircraft project from the war to end all wars.

Review Author
Ben Morton
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$5.95

According to an on-line dictionary, fug is a warm, stuffy, or smoky atmosphere in a room. If you capitalize certain letters you get FuG, which is an abbreviation for Funk-Gerät radio set.

That radio set was part of the Lichtenstein radar (that) was among the earliest airborne radars available to the Luftwaffe in World War II and the first one used exclusively for air interception. Developed by Telefunken, it was available in at least four major revisions, called FuG 202 Lichtenstein B/C, FuG 212 Lichtenstein C-1, FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 and the very rarely used FuG 228 Lichtenstein SN-3.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$24.95

This set is designed to be used on the MiG-29UB kit released by Trumpeter last year. It includes not only the full color set SS593 to upgrade the front and rear cockpits and both ejection seats, but also a second brass fret of external details. The detail on both sets is outstanding and the color set is beautifully printed. Based on the colors used for the cockpit side consoles, it looks like Eduard used a later build MiG-29UB as the side consoles and instrument panels are in a medium grey, not the bright blue-green color seen on many other Russian/Soviet aircraft. Unfortunately, the instructions do not include any painting references for the cockpit or other kit parts, so you must do your own matching. To my eye, the grey looked pretty close to the Testors Dark Ghost Grey (FS 36320) I recently used on a F/A-18E build, so I used this color as the base interior color.

Review Author
Keith Gervasi
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$62.99

History

The N1K was originally developed as a floatplane for forward land bases but by the time it entered service Japan was on the defensive. Kawanishi engineers had proposed in 1941 that the N1K could be a formidable land-based fighter too and a land-based version N1K1-j (J indicated land based fighter modification of the original floatplane version) was produced as a private venture by the company and first flew in December 1942. Due to it being a mid-wing design (because of the floats & large prop) a new design was begun just 4 days after the first test flight. The major defects being addressed were the wing and long landing gear. The wings were moved to a low position, which permitted the use of shorter, conventional undercarriage, the fuselage was lengthened and the tail redesigned. The first flight was on January 1944 and production of the N1K2-J "Shiden-Kai" (Kai standing for Modified) started in April of that year.

Book Author(s)
David Doyle
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Squadron Signal Publications
MSRP
$19.95

David Doyle’s latest book continues to expand on Squadron Signal’s long standing In Action series that initiated back in 1971. This is a completely updated and expanded edition over Squadron’s earlier Armor in Action number 23, a 50-pager on the Patton by Jim Mesko that was published in 1987. This 2017 release is essentially a new book, encompassing 80 pages.