Fifty years ago, the world stood at the edge of the abyss and stared nuclear annihilation in the face. During a two-week standoff, there was a very real chance that the US and the USSR could initiate a nuclear World War III over missile sites placed in Cuba. For the most part, written accounts of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, are told from the diplomatic or political point of view. These usually involve President Kennedy and his advisors struggling to find a diplomatic solution to persuade the Soviets to remove the missiles that were being placed on the island nation of Cuba, just ninety miles from the southern coast of the United States. Blue Moon Over Cuba offers a different perspective…one from treetop level at high speed. It is the story of Operation Blue Moon, undertaken by the Photographic Reconnaissance pilots of VFP-62, also known as the Fightin’ Photos. It is based on the memoirs of US Navy Captain William B.

Xuron Corporation makes a number of hand tools useful for modelers. One, the Professional Sprue Cutter, is the subject of this review.

Often, sprue cutters (diagonal cutting pliers) are hard on plastic parts, especially small ones, when removing them from their sprues. The compression forces they impart can damage small parts, especially when cutting the first of two or more sprue connections.

These Professional Sprue Cutters are designed to shear, rather than compress (or pinch) the plastic, reducing the compression force. Xuron calls this a Micro-Shear®. To quote Xuron, “Shear cutting reduces cutting effort (as compared to traditional compression cutting) and extends blade life because the sharp edges are not meeting edge-to-edge. Shear cutting also produces clean, flat cuts.”

Another finely detailed aftermarket upgrade from Eduard on their Brassin product line, these 1/72 wheels are made of resin and are more detailed than the kit parts. They come packaged with an instruction sheet and wheel masks for easy painting. The wheels fit perfectly onto the landing gear of the new Eduard kit. All you need to so is detach the excess resin and, with a little cleanup, you’re all set. I would have liked to use these on the new kit but that would defeat an out-of-box review. The only thing I would have liked to see was tires supporting a load. But what the heck, these are pretty darn good as they are.

I would like to thank Eduard and Steve Collins of IPMS/USA for the chance to review this product, and thanks to you for reading this article.

In my opinion, Eduard makes some of the best decals on the market, and this set for the BF-110 looks superb. In this set of decals, you get color plates for 4 different 110’s – a 7/ZG Z6 Mediterranean 1941/42, a 1/ERG.Zerst. GR. Debln-Irena, Poland December, 1942, a 5./NJG1, Deelen, Holland, spring, 1941, and lastly for W.NR.3866, Hans-Joachim Jabs, Staffel/Kapitan, 3/ZG76, Argos 1941.

Of the decals for these four aircraft, only one of them is for a E variant. Two of them are D-3 versions, and the last is for a D-1 night fighter. This isn’t really a problem since Eduard is releasing a C/D version kit and the E kit # 7083 has an optional fuselage and Dackel Bauch belly tanks included.

Overall, this decal set gets two thumbs up from me. I would like to thank Eduard and Steve Collins at the IPMS Review Corps for a chance to review these decals, and you for reading this article.

With this figure kit, sculpted by A. Gagarin, Master Box has added another fine set of figures to an already impressive list. Molded in a light tan color, the semi-soft plastic is flash-free and needs only minor clean up. The set features four figures, a work table, a tire pump, and a tool pouch. Each figure has around 6-7 parts that fit nicely and is well balanced. I had the whole set completed in 30 minutes.

Bottom line, I highly recommend this to any armor modeler old enough to use a hobby knife safely. My thanks to Master Box, Dragon Models USA, and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review such a fine product.