This third volume of Claringbould’s aircraft profiles, the first of Allied aircraft, highlights the Douglas A-20 Havoc (Boston to the Commonwealth forces). The A-20, and its stablemate the B-25, were the two-workhorse low level attack aircraft of the US Fifth Air Force in the Southwest Pacific.
Artillery has generally been known as the King of Battle for quite a long time and for good reason. The ability to reach out and touch your opponent on a battlefield is an obvious advantage. And if you can do that first, further, with more power than your opponent there’s a strong chance your forces are going to win the day. Battlefield artillery has come a long way since the United States has been in existence, and the US has found itself at the forefront of that development. This book gives that history a quick glance in both text and pictures.
Matthew Willis is a writer of historical and speculative fiction, and non-fiction. Matthew studied Literature and History of Science at the University of Kent, where he wrote an MA thesis on Joseph Conrad and sailed for the University in national competitions. He subsequently worked as a journalist for Autosport and F1 Racing magazines, before switching to a career with the National Health Service. His first non-fiction book, a history of the Blackburn Skua WW2 naval dive bomber, was published in 2007 by MMP. He is the author of the 'Fortress of Malta' series of novellas from Sharpe Books (2019-21) and co-author of the 'Oath and Crown' novels of the Norman Conquest (2017). In 2015 his story Energy was shortlisted for the Bridport short story award. This is Matthew Willis’ second publication in the Warpaint series, following his previous publication on the Sopwith Pup.
Seldom does a military aircraft gain a reputation the way the MiG 25, NATO codename “Foxbat”, did. When it entered service in 1970, little was known in the west other than grainy satellite photos and radar tracks that showed impressive speeds at high altitude. It was originally developed as a counter to the American XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, Western analysts believed the MiG 25 was a highly maneuverable, high-tech fighter based on the limited intelligence they could gather. Fast forward to September 6, 1976 when Lieutenant Victor Belenko took a MiG 25 from Russia and navigated his way to Japan landing at the civilian airport in Hakodate. Belenko was granted US citizenship by then President Jimmie Carter and the MiG was dismantled and studied by US intelligence officials. Some of the speculation was quickly refuted. The MiG 25 was made primarily of steel and required powerful engines to push the airframe to its Mach 2 plus performance.
Frankfurt, Germany-based Das Werk has released another trailer option for their Faun L900 series truck – this time a 5-ton, four-wheeled ‘unit trailer’ or Einheitsanhänger. As with previous releases, Das Werk continues to stick to its roots of providing interesting and imminently buildable kits for a good price.
When Tamiya announced they were entering the Phantom market in 1/48 scale, the Internet buzzed. And now the kit is out, a 1/48th scale F-4B Phantom. Let’s start by taking a looking the box. For starters, there are 14 sprues of perfect Tamiya grey and clear plastic. There is also a set of instructions, a set of Tamiya Tech tips and a background information booklet about the plane. There are two large double-sided four-color pages with markings for the three planes and a drawing for stencil locations. Also included is a set of masks (not precut). Lastly, there are two decals sheets with markings for the weapons, planes and stencils.
Markings are included for the following:
Options included for the modeler to use are:
Ravi Rikhye is an international affairs and military historian with a remarkable academic background. He holds seven master’s degrees and is currently working on his doctorate. His career has also included the completion of more than thirty books. For the first offering in the Helion and Company’s new Asia@War book series, Rikhye has authored a two-part history of the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. This review looks at the first book about the Indian Military Intervention in East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh). The second work addresses the contemporaneous Showdown in the West (along the current Indo-Pakistani border).
This review was originally published on May 4, 2021. Shortly thereafter IPMS/USA received some additional information from Alexander Pawlygin representing "Foxbot Decals". IPMS/USA is pleased to have received this additional information and thanks Mr. Pawlygin and Foxbot Decals for sharing it with IPMS/USA.
Mr. Pawlygin states......
1. The decal 72-004 contains numbers for (a) single seat Su-27S/P and for (a) twin seat Su-27UBM. Masks for Su-27 and Su-27UB are different. Therefore we cannot complete this decal with masks. But we have separate decals for Su-27 and Su-27UB in 1/48 scale and we have sets 48-047A for Digital Su-27 and 48-067A for Digital Su-27UB which contains decals with masks.
This is the 2nd volume in a revived series from Kagero. According to the editor the series was originally launched in 2001, but decal production issues caused the cessation of publication. They have now restarted this series, and so far, have issued 3 volumes (“Eastern Front” armor, “Japanese Fighters”, and the subject of this review).
“Messerschmitt Bf 109 A-F” jumps right in with color profiles on the very first page. This is followed by 38 more pages of profiles, and a final page with a table of RLM colors produced by various model paint manufacturers. The back cover has an additional two profiles.
Using the hull from a Sho’t (itself a modified Centurion), the Puma CEV is a heavily armored combat engineering vehicle and armored personnel carrier used by the IDF since the 1990´s. With a top speed of 45 km/h, the Puma can carry a crew of up to eight people. It has a variety of uses including mine clearing equipment (including the Carpet system) and bridging capabilities. It is armed with three 7.62mm FN MAG machine guns, smoke grenade launchers, and a 60mm mortar.
Inside the durable cardboard box are seventeen olive green sprues, four brown sprues with individual track links, an upper and lower hull, two clear sprues, 24 vinyl tires, a PE fret, and a nicely detailed decal sheet. The kit only features one scheme that uses only two of the decals, so good references are a must to get the most out of the kit.
