Admiral Eric Janicot, Commander of Aéronautique Navale (French Naval Aviation), summarizes and opens the first chapter of this book with,
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter held several world record “firsts” in 1958: airspeed, altitude, time-to-climb, and becoming the first aircraft to hold all three simultaneously. It was also the first aircraft to be equipped with the M61 Vulcan autocannon, the first production aircraft to achieve Mach 2, and the first aircraft to reach an altitude of 100,000 ft after taking off under its own power. With all these records, it lasted a brief time with the USAF (until 1969 in the USAF and 1975 with Air National Guard). It did; however, serve with distinction with fifteen countries during the Cold War. It was built to intercept, hit with missiles, and run. Born during the end of the Korean War, it was the first aircraft to hit twice the speed of sound with pilot Joe Ozier flying a FY-104A (serial number 55-2955).
The Battles of El Alamein were critical in the fight for North Africa and had the potential to change the course of the war. The German war machine was at the zenith of its power, with Britain and Russia absorbing defeats as they fell back on their lines. When the opportunity to review this book was presented, I jumped on it for several reasons: the history of this crucial campaign, the Images of War series’ reputation and Jon Diamond as the author. It promised to be a powerful book – and it delivered!
Rick Galazzo and Scott Cohen started Tru-Color Paint in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008, based on their experience in formulating paint for the commercial market. They reformulated the former Accupaint formulas and created this paint line. It is refreshing to see that in today’s day and age with model kits and supplies moving overseas, that these paints are made in the USA. They have five paint lines including automotive, aircraft, naval and military colors, including many sets to make a project easier by having all the colors in one box. Another huge bonus for me is that Scott Cohen wrote a personal letter explaining the paints for review, a request for new paint color suggestions, and genuinely supporting modelers and IPMS. Based on all this, I was eager to try these paints for myself.
The author is David Doyle who is an American writer on historic military vehicles, aircraft, hardware and warships. He has written over 100 books published by various publishers. He also sells books through his own website. He has published through Schiffer publications on numerous occasions. David Doyle books can be purchased directly from the author!
This set from Brengun provides parts to build ten 100lb bombs. Each bomb consists of a resin main body and four photoetched parts to represent the fins and the fuse arming prop on the nose. Separating the bombs from the pour gates is quickly done as they have a pouring extension on the front and are attached to a runner of five at the back. Attaching the fin assemblies requires removing three parts from the photoetch fret. These parts are done in brass and are not only thin, but easy to cut off and clean up. The fin assembly requires the builder to cut a cross hatched slot on the back of each resin bomb. The instructions suggest using a knife, but I found it easier to use a very thin saw blade. Interlocking fin legs are inserted into the slot and a fin “box” is formed by folding the PE part into a square and inserting it into the fin legs. The trick is getting all these parts to align. I didn’t get a usable copy till the third try.
I've previously built two of the 48th scale Tamiya tanks: the M-10 Tank Destroyer and the M1A2 Abrams, and they are great for a non-armor buff like me, both in size (not too big for the display cabinet) and part count (low to moderate, can be built in a week or two).
The M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage was a variation of the Stuart M5 light tank, powered by twin Cadillac V-8s with a 75mm M3 howitzer. Production yielded 1788 units from early 1942 to January 1944, and M8s served in Italy, Western Europe and the Pacific theater.
You get decals for two tanks: 106th Cavalry Reconnaissance Group, operating in Germany February 1945, and 758th Tank Battalion, Fifth Army operating in Italy, April 1945.
The book is volume 46 of Helion & Company’s Middle East @ War series and, as noted in the title, is the third volume of its coverage of Czechoslovak Arms Exports to the Middle East focusing on arms exports to Egypt between 1948 and 1989.
Starting in the mid-1950’s and continuing on and off up to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, the Czech arms industry exported a wide variety of weapons to Egypt, including ammunition, small arms, artillery, tanks and aircraft. It was also heavily involved in training many pilots, ground personnel and technicians, conducting courses both in Egypt and Czechoslovakia.
With retirement, I have of course had to seriously curtail spending, and as such, just personally had opportunity to read and learn of this magazine by obtaining it from our reviewer corps. I had read a few kerfluffles online about jealous rivals, and this was an opportunity to find out exactly what this new Mag was about. For Simplicity, I am using PAMI as an abbreviated form of the magazine title.
This set is designed for use with Modelsvit’s Su-17, Su-20 and Su-22 kits and fits both the 2017 and 2014 kits.
The set provides replacement parts for both the nose landing gear and both main landing gear and is comprised of thirteen parts, five for the nose gear assembly and four for each main landing assembly. The nose gear parts include the nose wheel, but the main gear parts do not. The cast parts are designed to be drop-in replacements for the kit parts.
