The USS Yorktown (CV-5) is one of the important US Aircraft carriers of World War II. Her level of participation in our Pacific Theater of operations is immeasurable in terms of giving as well as taking. With the vast distances involved in the Pacific, it was clear to the military planners of the day a new strategy must be devised. One of the key components of that strategy would hinge on fast carriers and support ships to sustain the island-hopping campaigns that would bring our forces closer to the Emperors front door. Yorktown played a significant role leading up to and into the early days of the war. As the first purpose built, from the keel up aircraft carrier the designers started with a clean sheet of paper and incorporated many of the lessons learned on preceding carriers.

This book traces the early history of Ju-52 combat units and operations. The book is broken up into six chapters.

Chapter one covers the development of Junkers Ju-52 from the lifting of the ban imposed by the Treaty of Versailles on the production of commercial aircraft in 1922. Beginning with the all metal F-13 and moving through the A-20 and on to the G-24 leading up to project “EF 30”. This was essentially a single engine Ju-52 and eventually progressing to the now familiar three engine design. There is a brief discussion of their use by Bolivia in the war with Paraguay that was very interesting. Discussion is also present on the civilian use of the Ju-52 noting that by March 31,1936 839 Ju-52s had been built and orders came from all over Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa for this sturdy airliner.

Mission Models has a new line of ‘airbrush ready’ acrylic paints. These paints are odorless, spray easily to a nice, hard, even finish, and have less ‘tip-drying’ than other acrylic paints. The paints come in 1 oz. dropper bottles to facilitate measuring and contain a BB to help mix the paint.

MMP paints include the following:

PJ Productions from Belgium makes great aftermarket and figures in resin for aircraft modelers in all scales. This set is a resin Mirage Pilot wearing of the 1960's wearing the white suit named "habit de lumière" and the Garneau helmet T312 or the high-altitude helmet EFA T12. The figure is designed to fit either the Mirage IIIC or early IIIE in 1/32^nd scale.

Moebius Models has been a great boon to modeling especially those who like Sci-Fi, Monsters and Super Heroes. A while back they started producing figures based on the 1966 version of Batman. Currently Batman (Adam West), Cat Women (Julie Newmar), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), Robin (Burt Ward) and The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) have wonderfully detail kits out. To really celebrate these, Moebius has issued their Batgirl kit as a 1/5^th scale resin kit. The kit represents the late Yvonne Craig in all here glory with the red wig and green contacts as she was on the 1966 series. The kit is made of resin and housed in a beautiful box with each part in an individual Styrofoam slot so there is no rubbing or issues with broken parts. The finished kit is 16” tall and there are great instructions and painting references. The kit was sculpted by Jeff Yagher and Tony Cipriano, two of the best out there today. A base and nameplate are also included.