Kagero Publications, a publishing house in Poland, has continued their series of top drawings of military equipment. This edition, number 129, covers the Russian cruiser, Moskva. In the spring of 2022, the Moskva made the news. The ship was a casualty in the recent war between the Russia and the Ukraine. The ship was hit by two anti-ship missiles and was sunk, though the Russians denied it. The top drawing series provides two double sides sheets with color profiles and drawings of the ship in 1989 and 1998. The book provides a series of black and white drawings of various parts of the ship. The modeling plans and drawings are crystal clear. Captions and text are in English and Polish.

As I sit writing this review, the invasion of Ukraine has been ongoing for approaching seven months, and the Ukrainian forces are currently making gains in their eastern territory against their invaders. This recent and timely release from the folks at CMK was kindly provided to the IPMS USA at the Nationals this year in Omaha, Nebraska. Consisting of polyurethane and 3D printed parts, along with a small decal sheet, this is a relatively easy build that nearly any modeler can enjoy. If you are looking for a symbolic kit of a current conflict, I would highly recommend this offering.

In the spring of 1999, NATO intervened in a conflict in Serbia. This effort called Operation Allied Force (OAF) was undertaken to stop what the NATO nations said was systemic ethnic cleaning by Serbian forces of the Albanian population in Kosovo directed by Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic. Several books have been written about this intervention, but they tend to favor the NATO side of the story. This volume is an attempt to tell both sides of the story. It written by two Serbians, one a historian with high level government experience and the other commanded a missile defense unit for Serbia during OAF. Make no mistake, OAF was a remarkable military achievement. Fought solely from the air, NATO air forces with the United States in the lead, forced the eventually surrender of Milosevic. NATO suffered no combat deaths even though some NATO aircraft including an F-117 were brought down.

Key publishing specializes in books covering aviation, transport history and sport. This book is a fairly compact, paperback full color book. There are two primary sections, U.S. Customs and Border protection in the first section and U.S Coast Guard in part two. In each section are two chapters further breaking down into further sub groups.

Most of the aircraft featured are currently use with each organization but a few notable aircraft that have been retired are covered. With each aircraft covered, detailed information on the aircraft, capabilities and missions performed are discussed. Locations for each group is also covered along with a thorough description of each air station. I did not realize how large of a variety of aircraft the Dept of Homeland security operated and the unique marking on some of the aircraft. Aircraft from UAV’s, small fixed wing aircraft (Cessna 206) up to the C-130 is all covered.

Phoenix Scale Publications is a new publishing company in the world of scale models but the team is made up of several veterans of the business. They have released two modeling magazines, one on all types of models and this one which is just on the aviation side of builds. They also have released several aviation modeling books.

Do we need another scale modeling magazine about aircraft? The more the merrier I say but Phoenix has put together a quality product that covers a lot in its 82 high quality, glossy pages.

The first quarter of the book covers news and what’s new information starting with the Newsstand and the Czech News. In The Box looks at what comes in one kit in detail and then we have Accessories, Decals and Bookshelf. The end of the magazine has a section providing news from IPMS (UK).