Having previously built Italeri’s Iveco Hi-Way 40^th Anniversary and the Mercedes-Benz Actros MP4 Giga Space, I had a pretty good idea of what was in front of me building this truck.

All the parts sprues were presented in the same organized fashion, and like the Iveco Hi-Way, the Scania R730 included a fantastic chrome adhesive sticker sheet on top of the gorgeous decal sheet. Italeri mentioned that the chrome plastic sprues were newly tooled, but they were identical to those found in the Iveco kit mentioned above, except for the addition of the sun visor and exhaust pipe panel.

This book covers the Fiat G.55 from WWII to its post war service. At first glance the book is reminiscent of the Ali d’Italia series being roughly the same size and length but with the entire printed portion in English.

The first 62 pages of this book covers the development and use in combat of the G.55 by both the regia Aeronautica, ANR and the Luftwaffe. An interesting story of the one G.55 to appear in British markings is also covered. This aircraft was flown by a defector who also was transporting an escaping OSS agent out.

One of the best sections in my opinion covers the post war use of the G.55. The post war Italian AF as well as those of Syria, Egypt and Argentina all used the G.55 and this is the first English language volume I have seen that has detailed this service. For the modeler this provides many interesting schemes to go along with those of its WWII service.

The HH-60H “Rescue Hawk” was first developed in the 1990s as a rescue variant of the SH-60F “Sea Hawk”. Two versions were developed at this time, the HH-60H for the US Navy and the HH-60J for the US Coast Guard. For its search and rescue role it is equipped with long range fuel tanks, a FLIR Sensor and a few defensive countermeasures. It can also support anti-surface operations by mounting up to 4 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles on special pylons. Since it is based on the SH-60F, the HH-60H retained the ability to operate from small flight decks and be folded up to fit in deck hangars. It’s last year in service with the Navy was 2019. This new kit from Kitty Hawk is the latest in Kitty Hawk’s line of Seahawk variants. The previous version being the MH-60R.

Brengun Models is a scale model and detailing parts manufacturer located in the Czech Republic. Their lines include limited production run multi-media kits and exquisitely detailed photo-etched, turned brass and white metal replacement parts for aircraft in the most commonly produced scales.

Brengun has produced a set of wheels for any 1/72 scale F/A-18E/F or G Super Hornet kit. There are no instructions, but any modeler familiar with resin parts will have no issues installing these wheels in lieu of the kit parts. A close-up evaluation of the parts (see photos), indicates a simple cut and replace installation that provides realistic scale-detailed wheels with significantly improved appearance to molded plastic kit parts. The photo comparison is to the Hasegawa kit. The Brengun wheels have superior hub, brake and tread detail to those supplied in the Hasegawa kit.

In my stash are a couple of old ESCI 1/48 Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets along with the newer Kinetic issue. The Alpha Jet is a beautiful aircraft reminiscent of a dolphin in mid-air, having launched from the water in a playful breach of the surface. The craft was developed as a European trainer jointly by France and Germany. It was perfectly suited for that mission: forgiving, fast, agile and excellent overall vision from the cockpit. The type has served for over 40 years in the training role. Germany used the type as a close support platform. France still uses the Alpha Jet for their colorful demonstration team (Patrouille de France) aircraft, as does Portugal (Asas de Portugal). The Alpha Jet was also used by QinetiQ in the UK by the Test Pilots School, and Top Aces, the German based contract adversary company.