For those of you interested in World War One aviation you are probably familiar with Windsock Worldwide, a publication of Albatros Publications, Ltd. out of the U.K. If you are a modeler of World War One aviation and not familiar then you might check them out at your soonest. In addition to their bi-monthly Windsock magazine, Windsock publishes “Data Files” dealing, in detail, with specific single subjects. The bi-monthly Windsock magazine deals with more than one WW-I aircraft subject and always includes at least one highly competent and detailed review and build article. As a modelling publication and reference series on WW-I aviation subjects they are second to none, unequivocally.

The folks at Quickboost continue to add superb detail sets to their growing catalog of items. For this review I will be looking at the exhaust detail set for the 1/72 Hasegawa G8N1 Renzan.

The Hasegawa 1/72 G8N1 Renzan has been on the market for many years, in several different boxings. The molds for each issue of the kit are the same, so this exhaust upgrade set will work with any of the G8N1 kits you may have in your collection.

The Japanese WWII G8N1 Renzan Bomber was a late war Japanese WWII found-engine Bomber project. The initial prototype was completed late in 1944, and several test flights were made before the war ended. Perhaps the most recognized image of a Renzan is the photo in orange paint scheme in captured US Markings.

Deriving its name from its country of origin, the 458 Italia is the latest from the Ferrari stable. All the usual things you would expect from a Ferrari are there including incredible performance (top speed over 200 mph) and styling that makes it look fast just standing still. There are some firsts for Ferrari including no floor shifter and direct fuel injection. The gear changes are handled by paddle shifters coupled to a dual clutch, 7-speed transmission. A former Ferrari team driver Michael Schumacher helped design the interior layout. Cooling air is introduced by some clever intakes around the headlamps and behind the rear quarter windows. Another neat innovation is the airflow vanes in the front grille that actually deflect as speed increases to reduce drag. The 458 has been in the news lately for a rash of fires that destroyed several cars. The problem was traced to a wheel well adhesive that couldn’t take the heat.

The Me-163 Komet is the only rocket-powered aircraft ever seeing combat. The whole combat history of this unique point-defense interceptor is covered by this book of the Aviation Elite Series as it only served with JG400.

The book is structured in five chapters, the first one covering the Me-163 development and the following four covering the operational service of 1.Staffel, 2.Staffel, I.Gruppe, and II.Gruppe respectively. It also has a series of appendixes covering unit organization, selected biographies, operational flight logs for each Me-163 and a very interesting appendix regarding the armament, including the use of SG 500 Jägerfaust, a recoilless mortar-style weapon which was fired vertically.

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.