Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They also provide a free newsletter. Those interested in the newsletter can subscribe by visiting the C&CI website.

PJ Production is well known for its figures and this time has provided another fine example of military pilots for a specific era. Most often, pilot figures covered are US Army or international pilots. This set is specific to the US Navy which is a nice touch to their ever-expanding product line.

The product contains two figures of two different styles with a small amount of flash is on the figures which is simply brushed away while detail is nice and crisp. Both complete figures (less arms), wearing helmets with the goggles up and seat belt harness on. The two have slightly different head positions and the arms only allow for right hand on stick and left hand on a throttle(s).

Test fit is in the 1/72 Azur Vindicator and the figure parts appear slightly under sized for this kit but a little material will be added to raise the pilot up to a correct height. The arms do align very well with the stick and throttles in this test fit.

IPMS/USA extends extreme gratitude to Paul and Susy Fisher for sending us this excellent set to upgrade the Trumpeter AD-2/6 or A-1H to an A-1E Hallelujah! WE HAVE A LARGE SPAD! And thanks to Phil and John for graciously allowing me to review this set.

On the “be patient” side of the ledger, Paul and Susy have had some misfortune by being located in Paradise, California. Although they lost most all their manufacturing capability and personal possessions, they are still here with us, and my last note from him showed he’s temporarily out of the business until they can recover with a new place. I expect they will be back.

On to modeling: This shall be a basic review of the set as received and built so you can see what is in the box.

This book is number 90 in Osprey’s Duel series where they take two opposing forces and compare/contrast them. The two subjects are the Imperial Japanese Navy’s submarines verses the US Navy’s destroyers. The book explains the develop of both these forces before the attack on Pearl Harbor, then goes into greater detail of the next 13 months of fighting until the end of 1942.

The book starts with a four-page introduction detailing Japanese developing submarine tactics of using their force to attack US Navy capital ships in a war of attrition leading up to a decisive grand battle between the fleets. They developed large, fleet submarines that were over 300 feet long and had airplane hangers on them. Whereas, the US Navy’s destroyer force was not training is anti-submarine warfare, but rather using their destroyers surface warfare fighters. These two beginning war strategies did not serve either side well the first year of combat.

The Etruscans are sometimes regarded as the fore-runners of the later Roman civilization, and they certainly appear to have had enormous influence over the development of that empire, and yet despite this, relatively little is really know today about them. Their language has only ever been partially translated and very little written documentation survives except later tomes by Romans and Greeks which are debatably accurate, to say the least. What is generally believed is that the Etruscans were something of an amalgam culture, having some seafaring antecedents as well as people from the Asian subcontinent and other places (which seems to suggest they were very much a merchant culture with extensive trade routes). However, there are other later writers who claimed they were native to the area of Northern Italy, so go figure.