Hauler is a Czech Republic company that produces high quality resin & photo-etched sets for AFVs, airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, accessories for dioramas and resin kits. Their products are available online or in the US from UMM-USA or from Stevens International through your local hobby shop.

The military provisions set includes various food supplies including wine bottles, several crates with various vegetables, a sack of potatoes, several wicker baskets, several bread loaves, cheese loaf, a ham, and several meats & sausages. The parts are crisply molded in resin with very nice detail. All the parts are attached to pour blocks that will need to be carefully removed with a razor saw.

A new tooled kit from Tamiya. It is the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II in 1/72nd scale. This is one of those “Must Buy” kind of kits.

In the Box

Out of the box, this kit has gray sprues labeled A-B, C-D and are connected by a single sprue frame. There are two (2) F sprues for ordnance and wheels. The upper fuselage-wing is on sprue G and the lower fuselage-wing is on sprue G2. A clear sprue labeled E has the canopy, EOTS cover fairing, and lights.

A pilot figure is included, and ordnance includes two (2) AIM-9X Sidewinder Missiles and four (4) GBU-12 Paveway II Bombs.

A large decal sheet is provided for three (3) schemes: USAF 34th FS, 388th FW (June 2022), JASDF 301st FS, 3rd Wing (September 2022), JASDF 302 FS, 3rd Wing (September 2022). For this review I chose to do the JASDF 301st FS.

The book is another in the great Images of War series. This book covers the history and actions of the Allies during the Italian Campaign from the invasion if Sicily in 1943 to the end of the war in June 1945. The books front cover I think may be incorrect at it states 1941 not 1943.

This is the forgotten campaign as it was later overshadowed by D-Day. In Italy there were over 600,000 Casualties and well over 100,000 dead. Soldiers of many nationals took part in this campaign. The fighting at time was some of the most grueling and hardest fought campaigns of the war.

The book covers all the major battles as shown in the Chapter titles.

The book is from The Latin America at War series volume 32, and is the first volume of the history of El Salvador from 1970 through 1983. The book is divided into 8 main areas with an Introduction, set of abbreviations, Conclusion, Select Bibliography and a small information about the author.

The section dealing with the Bibliography gives you the name of the principal political, military and groups involved in the struggle. The names/abbreviations are given first in Spanish and then in English. This section is important to the book and one that the reader will continuously be checking during the reading of the book. The Introduction then provides you with the reasons for the book

The story of the Normandie (later, Normandie-Niemen) Escadrilles makes for fascinating reading. Originally recruited by DeGaulle himself, these French pilots flew for the Soviets in Soviet-made aircraft at more than typical risk to themselves. The Germans saw this development as a breach of the French Vichy government’s surrender agreement and made it a policy to execute any French pilots downed in their territory. In addition, family and relatives of the downed pilots were arrested back in France and sent to concentration camps, where few survived.

Despite this threat, the small French unit would wind up with over 30 confirmed aces and a total of 273 enemy aircraft downed by war’s end, making them the second highest scoring aerial unit in the Soviet Union. In addition, no Russian bomber under escort by them was ever lost to enemy action.