Philip Reed is an accomplished British master modeler of large-scale, museum-quality (or better) ship models. Although web searches and some book selling sites spell his first name with two Ls, his name is Philip with one L. Trained as an artist, and having a teaching career gives Philip the right background for this book. Philip started scratch-building WWI and WWII warships and switched to a long and successful career building sailing ship models. Philip Reed has at least three other books explaining how he builds wooden sailing ships. This book details his return to building WW2 steel warships from scratch – no kit used. Everything was made by hand from raw materials, with a sprinkling of generic photoetch brass. His latest book, Waterline Warships- An Illustrated Masterclass, is from Seaforth Publishing, a venerable British publishing house obviously devoted to nautical books.

This is the second book in the MMP Stratus “Military Collections of the World” series. It begins with a short, 9 page illustrated history of the Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Museum, and the rest of the book is dedicated to a photo documentation of the museum’s exhibits.

The first 9 pages show the Museum’s inside exhibits, uniforms, small arms, small artillery pieces and one or two smaller vehicles, and the rest of the book shows the portion of the collection stored outside. There are at least two views of each vehicle or field piece, and some commentary, in English, about the vehicle displayed.

Often the exhibit’s provenance is given, and some comments about its condition. I found the book engrossing as I had no idea that Aberdeen’s collection was so varied. The photos are of good quality, and will be of use to the modeler, though they do not provide the level of coverage which the super-detailers amongst us crave.

Aires has long been known for their superb resin detail sets. Recently, Aires launched a new detail set line known as Wheelliant. The new line uses a smooth cast resin that captures even the minutest details. Sculpting in multi-piece, highly detailed sets, the new line offers modelers an excellent alternative to kit parts.

Anyone who has ever worked with photo-etched parts knows the most frustrating part is attaching it to the model part. Especially if it is very nice color photo-etch. Well, Eduard, the leading photo-etch maker, has come to the rescue. Eduard started the color photo-etch revolution, and now has taken to making those same color parts self-adhesive. Two new sets in this S.A. (Self Adhesive) line are for the 1/48 Hasegawa SH-3 Sea King helicopter.

The includes the color cockpit details, as well as a second fret containing detail parts for rest of the cabin interior including jumpseat, grab handles, equipment stacks, and various panels. As with all Eduard products, the detail is well rendered, and the parts are cleanly etched and easy to work with.

Contents:

• Mig 29 9-13 Part One (editor: build article)
• Marin [sic] B-26 B55 Marauder Part Two (editor: build article)
• Marin [sic] B-26 Marauder (editor: history of this classic WWII bomber)
• IPMS/USA Nationals (editor: captioned photo spread; no editorial content)
• AVIA B-534 Cover Article (editor: 1/32 resin kit from HpH Models)
• Su-15TM Flagon F (editor: Trumpeter kit build, 1/72 scale)
• Air Born (editor: new releases)
• Messerschmitt Bf.109 E4 (editor: build article)

This publication bills itself as “SHOWCASING THE VERY BEST IN SCALE AIRCRAFT MODELLING”. Believe it! Everything about this publication is Quality (note capital “Q”).