The second year of World War II was one of almost unrelieved disaster on the Allied side. The German side was doing very well, except their Italian partners. This 280-page illustrated book tells the story of the war from September 1940 to September 1941. This is the second volume in what I assume with be six book series. Here is the table of contents:

Aires Models from the Czech Republic specializes in aftermarket details; for the most part releasing drop-in resin replacement parts.

This set is intended to replace the wheels of the 1/48 Eduard Spitfire Mk. IX. The parts are molded in grey resin, free of bubbles or imperfections and with great surface detail, down to the manufacturer of the tires molded with enough raised detail that will take dry-brushing fantastically!

The attachment points of the wheels to the casting blocks are miniscule and removal and clean up should be an easy task.

In addition to the resin parts, they include painting masks which are super-handy to have and use. The masks are pre-cut so it is as simple as peeling, placing and you are ready to airbrush.

Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Aires Models and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

Harpia Publishing has been producing very high quality aircraft books for a while. These books are lavishly illustrated and have covered subjects from subjects covering Iraqi MiGs to Chinese aircraft to specific planes like EMB Tucano. The latest volume is Modern USMC Air Power written by Joe Copalman. This is 256 pages of soft cover wonderfulness. The first thing that hits you is that the pictures in the book are amazing pictures all in perfect focus, great flying shots and lots and lots of them. Wow!

I have included a picture of the table of contents. As you can see, there is a brief history and then it moves into the training aircraft, helicopters and all kinds of planes. The table of contents is below:

Historical Background

The author presents a brief history of the development and operational career of the Messerschmitt Bf-109 series, but the main emphasis of this book is the explanation of the development of colors and markings used for these aircraft. Granted, this topic has been addressed before in many publications, and the Bf-109 has probably had more written about it than any other combat aircraft from the World War II Era.

Beginning with a brief description of the origins of the aircraft, a brief account of the development and service career is presented. Following this is a short section entitled “Camouflage, Markings, and Heraldry”, which explains how the Luftwaffe fighter groups were organized, and the color coding that was used to identify sub-groups within units. The author also explains the development of the specific colors used for overall camouflage schemes, as well as individual unit variations used for different climatic conditions.

The book covers the Tanks that played a key role in the battlefields of World War II and how they were used and utilized. The book goes into great detail of the tank’s role in all the major campaigns of the war, how the tank was used, the way its role evolved over the war, the different locations it was used in. It goes into great details on unit use and tactics which help you understand how it was used. The unit strengths and makeup are very interesting.

This book increased my own knowledge of tank warfare a lot and helped me understand more its role in battle and tactics of all sides in the conflict. The information shows the speed of progress made with tank design and use during this important war.

The images in the book are excellent and inspire diorama ideas for modelers.

I highly recommend this book to everyone with an interest in WWII especially in armor and tank warfare.