I’ll be honest. I’ve never heard of HMH Publications or Duke Hawkins before I had the opportunity of reviewing this book. After having had the chance of reviewing the book I am very glad to have been introduced to them. This book exudes quality.

The quality evident, both in the content that is covered (i.e level of detail) and the quality of the printing. The paper quality is super, with a satin finish. All pictures are in color, with proper exposure and very sharp focus, so all details are crisp.

The pictorial book is split in the following sections: Action, Cockpit, Fuselage, Weapons, Maintenance. As you can imagine, the pictures have very descriptive and relevant captions, helping you understand what detail is being highlighted in each image. Not only are you getting all the walk-around images you need for your build, you are also learning details of the aircraft as you read along.

Brengun, from the Czech Republic, has released a nice set of resin wheels to help dress up any 1/32^nd scale Hayabusa Ki.-43 Oscar. The wheels are beautifully molded in a dark gray resin and are clean and defect free. The product packet includes two wheels with a nicely detailed spoked wheel, as well as two choices of wheel covers. One flat cover features four bolt heads. The second cover has a centerline seam and six bolt heads. There is also a clearly printed instruction sheet.

I built the old Hasegawa Ki-43 and found that when applying the wheels that the molded hole on the resin wheel fit nicely to the axle with only minor sanding. I chose to use the spoked version as I thought them more interesting. In fact, the Brengun wheels were the highlight of this build and much more detailed than the kit wheels.

Highly recommended for any 1/32 Ki-43 Oscar.

Based in Central Europe Kagero Publishing House is the biggest publisher and exporter of English-written publications about military history, release nearly 60 titles every year. Kagero was founded in 1995, and began by delivering military titles in Polish. Their success led Kagero to start releasing books in English in 1998. Authors from Poland, Canada, USA, Australia and Great Britain, who were invited to cooperation, gave a beginning to a new range of products, which have put them on a position of one of the most recognized publishers on the market. Kagero has released more than 550 publications. Kagero is managed by Damian Majsak and his wife Joanna.

Used for air-to-air refueling, Lockheed’s KC-130 and HC-130N, HC-130P series of aircraft came with two air-to-air inflight refuel (IFR for short) pods, one on each outer wing just outboard of the flaps. Later, the HC-130H, MC-130E and MC-130H aircraft were modified with these refuel pods. This conversion set replicates those later modified aircraft and the current KC-130J and HC-130J IFR pods.

This resin modification kit comes with 6 parts, three for each IFR pod, including a small phot-etched fret for the tail end of each pod. My sample came with the sprue runner broken off the nose of one pod, the break being at the sprue-to-pod joint, requiring some sanding and putty to smooth it out.

The hardest part on this resin kit is the IFR pod tail to main body attachment. Careful sanding and squaring off will help immensely. I noticed that the tail section’s diameter was slightly larger than the main body’s diameter. Some putty and sanding took care of that.

Thanks to Casemate Books (an imprint of Pen & Sword Books) & Casemate Publishers for the review copy!

Alexander Morrow received a PhD in European history from Georgetown University, and has taught history at Georgetown, Franklin & Marshall University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Alexander is a prolific writer of military history and fiction.

Agostino von Hassell graduated from Columbia Journalism School and has taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. He too is a prolific writer of military history, but also of food history.