In volume one we followed the exploits of the Police Reserve Air Wings (PRAW) operating in Rhodesia from 1967 to the last 1970s. These units supported the Rhodesian police by providing air support in countering resistance units that were attempting to force independence from British control. Although that goal was achieved in 1980, PRAW operated until the early 2000s. This volume covers PRAW operations from the mid 1970s till they ceased operations. Like the first volume, the story is told in words and pictures that included excerpts from “The Outpost Magazine”, a journal published by PRAW. As the fighting grew more intense, so did the level of weaponry carried by PRAW aircraft. This escalation is advertised on the cover photo showing a Beech Bonanza with gun pods, and inside Cessna Sky masters with over-wing gun pods. Several of the stories reflect just why it was necessary to shoot back. A few aircraft were hit by small arms fire and one gunner died from his wounds.

New from Tempest Publishing is a great book covering the Davis Monthan AFB Scrap yards and this volume focuses on the 1980’s. the book starts with an introduction and Mr. Robson goes into his love of the fields and there is a great overall shot of the many planes stored and dismantled there.

One of the first things I learned was that there are multiple actual scrapping and recovery facilities. The book is actually broken down by these and follows a path around the yards. The chapters include the following:

This is the 2024 Cross & Cockade Calendar published by The Great War Aviation Society located in England. The organization focuses on WWI aircraft and provides more than 50,000 pounds British Sterling toward the maintenance of the British Air Services Memorial at St-Omer, France, through annual calendar sales.

The calendar consists of 12 beautifully detailed artworks of WWI planes. Each painting has been done by a different artist. They include the well-known "kites" in their normal environment - flying, and on the ground. Only two paintings show them in a battle/combat situation. Other lesser well-known aircraft are also featured.

The renditions are superb and the subject descriptions are also good. Each painting will look great framed!

ICM has provided this very midget Submarine for review, in 1/72 scale of the U-boat Type ‘Molch’. The Molch was a single seat ultra small submarine developed for costal operations. With serial production starting in July 1944 with around 393 were produced in the Bremen. They operated mainly in the Mediterranean and North Sea completing round 140 missions.

• One Light grey Sprue
• One Clear Sprue
• Small Decal sheet
• Instructions

The detail quality is excellent.

The Assembly is quick and easy.

Initially developed by the British and used heavily by US Forces, the Landing Craft Tank, or LCT was developed to give amphibious landings the added punch of armor early in an operation. Over 950 MK 6s were eventually built by the US and used any time an amphib operation needed to put ashore tanks. Both the Korean and Viet Nam wars saw LCT’s in action. With a displacement of 284 short tons, with a LOA of 119” and a beam of 32’ 8” these work horses had an incredible draft of 3’ 4” at the bow allowing them to put their cargo right on the beach. Powered by 3 225 HP Gray Marine diesel engines and three shafts delivered a maximum speed of 7 knots with a range of 700 nautical miles. The capacity was rated at 150 short tons of personal and cargo which included tanks, trucks, and towed artillery. The LCT’s protected themselves with two single mount 20MM Anti-aircraft guns and had a crew of 12.

Author Darren Neely in his book’s Introduction,

I opted to try this kit knowing full well it was Italeri plastic with Cartograph decals and Platz boxing - with their instructions.

The box has a great image of a real F-18G on the front When you open the box you find gray plastic with clear for the canopy and taxi lights. Cartograph decals (yay!) and a very well-laid-out instruction manual from Platz. (yay!) The Italeri plastic was the negative.

I purposefully did not read any reviews on the model from either company before beginning. This will be a simple review.

This is the fourth book in Martin Smisek’s Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East series. The previous three volumes were previously competently and eloquently reviewed by Paul R. Brown of the IPMS/USA Review Corps:

The book’s title, Allied Victory Over Japan 1945, is a little misleading as the first, very detailed chapter delves into the strategic overview of the Pacific and Asian War with the Japanese blitzkrieg beginning in December 1941 through 1942. The Japanese victories in China, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaya, New Guinea, the Solomon, Mariana and Marshall Islands and the Philippines set the stage for this book on a long forgotten and neglected theater of World War II. The author does an amazing job simplifying the complex conditions, multi-national components, and the incredible distances encountered. The more one studies the Pacific War, the deeper the rabbit holes; the author’s strength is making it understandable and relatable. The first two maps alone are worth the price of the book and really help the reader understand the complexities of these campaigns with their vast distances.

From the Acknowledgments,

The Kit

This is a reissue of the AFV Club F-5E, first released in 2010. This version includes parts for an early F-5E, with the original nose and short leading-edge extensions (LEX). It focuses on the markings for the Yemen Arab Republic Air Force. There are six marking options, four depicting various schemes used by Yemen, and two schemes from the Republic of China Air Force. The kit consists of seven gray plastic trees, one clear tree, one tree consisting of four polycaps, a small photoetch fret, and one decal sheet. The upper main fuselage and afterburner cans are molded separately and not attached to a parts tree. The surface detail consists of engraved panel lines and rivets. The kit is packaged in a sturdy cardboard box, and a print of the box art is included.

This is another paint set by the prolific Ammo by MiG concern out of Spain. I’m sure many of you already use these acrylic paints and so are familiar with their ease of use with both brush and airbrush. The featured colors come in the familiar yellow-capped 17ml dropper bottles and include the necessary colors to paint the SH-2 Seasprite, SH-3 Sea King or SH-60 Seahawk, and many other post-war US Navy helicopters.

The colors themselves look good for the applications required, and have, apparently, been slightly lightened for scale effect. Each bottle contains a small stainless steel ball bearing to aid mixing, which is a great idea that ought to be copied by other manufacturers. The paints are water-soluble, odorless and non-toxic; they can be thinned using distilled water, but Ammo recommends using their proprietary thinner.

Colors included in this set are:

The Indian Air Force celebrates 90 years of existence in October 2022. As the fourth largest air force in the world, and one of the few with nuclear capability, the subject is interesting and important both historically and in the context of its future role on the global stage. Its position in Asia, sharing a border with China, only serves to heighten the significance of this air service.

HAD Models is a group out of the Budapest Hungary and specializes in decals and masking sets for aircraft kits in the all-major scales from 1/144 to 1/35. They range from WWII to modern era planes. This set is in 1/48th scale and covers F-14A’s from the VF-41 Black Aces. Markings are included for seven unique planes:

Iliad Designs makes a bunch of decals with really great schemes in all the popular scales. The object of this set is the P-38J with several kits being available. I had a Tamiya kit looking for some markings so I jumped at the chance to review the decals.

Inside the package there is a single sheet of well printed decals with two full color instructions sheets with profiles of the plane and details associated with the plane as well as top and bottom profiles. There are markings for five planes covering everything from natural metal, OD over neutral gray and one with medium sea gray and a black bottom. Note that ONLY the markings are included. Stencils and all need to be sourced from the kit or elsewhere. The markings are:

• P-38J, 79th FS, 20th FG June 1944, “Gentle Annie”

• P-38J, 80th FS, 8th FG, New Guinea, Late 1944

• P-38J 7th FG, United Kingdom, Experimental Intruder scheme (Medium Sea Grey and Black) “Miss Ann”

This set supplies drop-in replacement wheels for 1/72 F-16 C/D Block 40 and later kits.

As you would expect from Brengun, the wheels are very finely cast featuring realistic tread pattern, raised lettering and other markings on the sidewalls and sharply detailed brake pads and wheel hubs. I compared them to the wheels of a Tamiya F-16CJ kit and as shown in the photos, the detail on the Brengun parts is a vast improvement over the kit wheels. Each tire also has a flat spot to simulate the weight of the aircraft on the tires, however, it is not overdone so that the tires look flat.

I painted the wheels Tamiya NATO Black and the rims/brake pads Tamiya Flat White, with a black wash to bring out the details. I used a white colored pencil to highlight lettering and markings on the sidewalls.

The wheels have round mounting holes on the back side, so they should be adaptable to just about any 1/72 F-16C/D Block 40 and later kit.

Highly recommended.

ICM has released another combo aviation kit, this one including the ubiquitous Tiger Moth training aircraft and their RAF cadets figure set.

The DH. 82A Tiger Moth is perhaps one of the most common light aircraft in the world to this day and really needs no introduction. First beginning production in 1931, it served as the main basic training aircraft for the Royal Air Force well into the 1950s, and was exported to more than 25 other air forces during that time. Now in demand in commercial venues, it continues to fly all over the world to this day.

The Airplane

This is actually the second iteration of this famous aircraft in 1/32nd scale, the first being the venerable Matchbox variant, which came out in the 1970s. This version featured a host of special features, including floats and the Canadian enclosed cockpit variants. Although ICM’s kit doesn’t feature all of these options, it has much more refined details as befits a kit of the 21st century.

Introduction

The dry brushing technique is a popular and effective method used in scale model building to enhance surface details and bring out textures by selectively applying a small amount of paint onto the raised areas of a model. This technique is particularly useful for replicating weathering effects, highlighting edges, and adding depth to intricate details.

When given the opportunity to evaluate any Ammo by Mig products I jumped at the chance. I received Ammo by Mig’s set number A.Mig-7301 containing Dio Drybrush Medium Green (A.MIG-0606), Dio Drybrush Green (A.MIG-0607), Dio Drybrush Light Olive Green (A.MIG-0608), and Dio Drybrush Medium Olive Green (A.MIG-0609).

David Doyle is well known to historians and modelers alike, with over 200 books to his credit. His Legends of Warfare series covers many of the important machines used in warfare. This latest volume is for the Grumman F8F Bearcat. The F8F was the last and ultimate of the Grumman propeller driven fighters. Too late for combat in WWII and with the dawn and superiority in speed of the jet, the Bearcat order was cut down considerably. The only combat was while serving with the French in Indochina. Like its contemporaries, the Sea Fury, and the La-9/11, the F8F was fast and maneuverable. And like the sea Fury it survived because of that speed and maneuverability making it a favorite on the air show circuit and air racing.

The book is broken down into an introduction and two chapters. Chapter one covers the F8F-1 and Chapter two covers the F8F-2.

This Scale Aircraft Conversions release for the Meng 1/24 kit is a replacement set for the plastic struts that are the kit parts. I am not an expert on the Fokker Dr. 1a by any means - but there is a definite size discrepancy between the kit parts and the white metal parts in the conversion set. The white metal parts are noticeably longer than the kit parts as you can see from my photos. I am not sure which is more accurate - but I can at least say they got the shape dead on from the kit parts and the width is pretty similar.

While this set is labeled “Wooden Corral” it is actually a wooden fence set (it is more of a privacy type of fence as the sections are all closed up, rather than open like a corral fence would be - need to be able to see the animals in a corral). The set consists of 12 resin parts for a wooden fence. It includes 3 long fence sections: 6 posts, two types of gates – a single narrow gate and a double wide gate. The fences and gate sections have a very nice wood grain effect cast in, while the gates also have hinges and latches. I am a bit confused by the texture of the posts as rather than continuing the grain texture shown on the fence sections, the posts have a pebbled texture. I don’t know if this is to suggest they are concrete posts or just a different type of wood. I assumed the latter and painted the posts the same color as the fence sections.

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 WWII German Antenna to fit any appropriate1/72 scale Luftwaffe aircraft kit. The package contains FuG-10, FuG-101 and FuG-227 arrays, as well as an FuBi-2.

This is the 1st volume of a new Key Book Historic Commercial Aircraft Series – Soviet-Era Airliners, The Final Three Decades. This book covers the history of the demise of the great soviet airliner fleet from 1991 to today. The Soviet designed and manufactured Airlines have always been fascinating with me as I watch the changes and downfall happen during this period while working in the airline industry. The chapters are fascination and give way more details that I expected in such an apparently small book.

The chapters most aspects of the decline and changes in the Soviet Airlines and its way through the historic changes happening in the Soviet world. This book does excellent work showing the main airlines world-wide using these aircraft. It goes on to explain the aircraft they used and what western aircraft were used to replace them in many cases.

All the photographs are some of the best I have seen and are great reference material.

This is the 87th book in the Kagero Monographs series covering aircraft in details photos and diagrams. This book covers the Eurofighter Typhoon. The book provides great detail drawings of the Typhoon, mainly from the Spanish Air Force with some coverage of the aircraft in sue with the Royal Air Force and the German Airforce.

I found the drawings in this book to be fascinating and very detailed, ideal for any modeler as reference materials. The photographs are extremely good and many I have never seen and provide great details for super detailing any scale model of the aircraft. The very details Spanish Air force chapter is extremely interesting. I would like to have seen more coverage of RAF use of the aircraft and squadron’s.

Along with the many photos there are outline drawings, schematics, and very nice profile drawings.

I recommend this book to everyone with an interest in the armor and a must for modelers.

THANKS to Brengun for providing more of their expansive line for us IPMS reviewers to address. For the Detail hounds, AMS, whatever among us, Brengun continues to provide really cool items for us to use. And this set holds great promise to upgrade the venerable 1/72 Italeri kit.

Notice I said 1/72. When I was digging through the “Review stash” to see where I could help, I saw this and thought “great, I can finally build the small version (Having the 1/48 model sitting in the box, I made a big assumption.

1/48 and 1/72 do not mathematically convert into equals. “why is this set of screens for the transmission and engine cooling intake too small when held up to the 1/48 model?”

Stupid reviewer. Brengun, I sincerely apologize, you don’t get one of my fantastic, non-sniper reviews with a kit involved, because I don’t have a 1/72 kit. I thought for some reason this was for the 1/48 kit when I agreed to do it.

As the book title states this book is directed to the collector of U.S. Army Service Forces gear, focusing on the European Theater of Operations (ETO). The book is volume #2 of the series.

You will find everything that was used by the Gi's while in Europe! The book is divided into 24 sections with an Abbreviations section, as well as an Index.