Academy Model Kits is adding to their 1/144^th scale bomber fleet with the addition of a Rockwell B-1B Lancer. Academy's previous foray in 1/144^th scale aircraft kits was with a B-47 kit. This B-1B is the sixth, depending on how you count them, 1/144t^h scale B-1. Lindberg, Minicraft, Panda/Dragon, Monogram, and Revell have all had offerings of this aircraft in this scale.

However, Academy's 'Bone' is newly-tooled and molded in multiple colors of plastic so it can be built without the use of paint. The fuselage and other aircraft parts all molded in gray, with the landing gear in white plastic, and the wheels and engine exhaust nozzles in black. (Operational B-1's are overall gunship gray with white wheel wells and ordnance bays.)

All Phantom Fans have heard of the famous VF-154 Black Knights. This decal set from AOA provides an excellent set of four markings for the F-4J during the 1970’s. This sheet covers one Navy fighter squadron - VF-154 Black Knights - when they operated the F-4J Phantom in the 1970's. From the AOA website:

Marking Options Included:

1. USS Ranger [Vietnam] (1970-71) - standard scheme
2. USS Ranger [Vietnam] (1972-73) - CAG & standard scheme
3. NAS Miramar (1977-78) - CAG scheme

AOA states that there are markings for the centerline fuel tank for the 1972+ period. You will notice that the fuel tank is quite visible on the illustrations of the F-4J provided by AOA in the packaging.

This is the 5^th of the MMP Single series. This book is for the modeler who is going to build this aircraft. There’s no real text, other than the photo captions but there’s a bunch of good information to help build and detail a MiG-17F.

The first 5 pages are line drawings in 1/72 and 1/48 scale. Then 4 pages of detail drawings of canopy, landing gear, instrument panel, and aircraft construction detail.

There follows 8 pages of black/white photos of aircraft details and in service. Finally, 3 pages of color photos, and a large 3-view of a Lim-5 in full color which takes up the last 3 pages.

The photos give a very good idea of what the aircraft looked like when in service, and the color photos are wonderful in that they give good color info on the cockpit interior.

Overall Evaluation: Well recommended. If you’re going to build one of these, this is a low-cost option to get the detail and info you need to do a well-detailed model.

Osprey Publishing just released a new book devoted to the Escort Carriers under British Flag during World War 2. Still this book has a few paragraphs devoted to the first two Escort Carriers under Dutch Flag. They had (Dutch) Fleet Air Arm Flights detached to them, under operational control of the British, so I think they count as ‘British’.

This book is relatively short at 48 pages but don’t let the relatively small thickness of the book fool you. The book is packed with information. It clearly describes the need for air cover for convoys and how out of necessity many merchant ships were converted to operate as a ‘proof of concept’. Once the value of the Escort Carrier was proven, the larger US industrial capacity provided the vast majority of the Escort Carriers under British Flag.

The book is broken down in the following sections.

Launched on the last day in April, 1919, and commissioned just over three years later, on June 3, 1920, this sixth vessel to carry the name Tennessee was the name ship of her class (which included her sister, USS California) and the last US battleship to carry 14” guns. In this Naval edition of his extensive “Legends of Warfare” series, author David Doyle provides another extensively illustrated history of this famous warship. While each chapter - covering Construction; Launching, Fitting Out and Commissioning; To War (with subsequent descriptions of her collision with USS California and participation in the action in Surigao Straight); and The End of the Line - includes a brief introductory written description, the bulk of the written information comes as captions to the hundreds of photos (the vast majority in sharp black & white, with four color photos of her following decommissioning).