I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the IPMS Nationals in Madison, WI, in July and was taken back by the variety of ‘specialist’ vendors providing their tools and techniques to the masses. One of the vendors that caught my eye was UMM-USA (Unique Master Models). UMM-USA is an on-line Store, importing and exporting kits, specialized modeling tools and supplies and consulting services. My main mission at the Nationals this year was to find a few tools I’ve been needing and UMM-USA had several I had been looking for.

Also at the convention, UMM-USA provided a few product review samples to the IPMS Reviewer Corp, so I was able to pick up this JHmodels Biplane-Wooden Jig Stand & Transport and a small hole reamer UMM-USA produces, for review (see the review titled: Micro Pyramid – Shanked Reamer RM (2.5mm))

Author Alan Durkota succinctly explains this book in his Introduction:

The Army Air Force has 36 aviation-related Medal of Honor recipients in World War Two. One mission to attack oil refineries located at Ploesti, Romania, resulted in five Medals of Honor being awarded. making it the most highly decorated mission of the war. Two of the five will be presented in this volume.

James Doolittle’s raid on 18, April,1942 (sic), shocked the Japanese military and at the same time filled Americans with hope. History would show this mission caused the Japanese military to prioritize their effort to eliminate the American carriers which escaped the attack at Pearl Harbor, thereby setting into motion a series of events, including the Battle of Midway.

The PANAVIA Tornado was the RAF’s standard attack bomber from the early eighties until just a few years ago, serving across the World and in combat and proving itself to be one of the finest of Cold War military aircraft. Many kits have been issued of the type, including three 1/32 kits. The initial Revell kit was released in 1985 and was very basic for a kit of its size. This was replaced by an all-new and far better detailed tooling in 1996, one that has been re-released at least 8 times since, including a Revell-Monogram boxing in the US. This has been supplemented since 2020 by a new-tool kit of the GR.4 from Italeri.

The Tornado GR.1 was a sophisticated aircraft and as such was festooned by a large variety of antennas and aerials for its multitude of electronic gizmos. The ones in the kit are rather thick and not always correctly shaped. This new set from Quickboost by Aires solves these issues.

The 76MM Naval Gun developed by OTO Melara in the 1950’s has become the standard medium caliber gun on most western light and medium attack vessels. Pig Models has come out with there 1/35 scale version that has a “stealth cupola” as seen on Norwegian Frigates.