Normans, the direct descendants of Viking marauders who finally settled in France and the Low Countries, were a restless bunch. Due to population pressures many of the more ambitious traveled far afield, looking for conquest or new lands to call home. Italy was one such location. Here, they established a number of kingdoms, even going so far down the “boot” of Italy to settle on the island of Sicily, where many of their descendants remain to this day.

The story of this migration and the military events associated with it is the basis of this new book from Osprey. As is typical of Osprey works, this one is carefully researched, using surviving artifacts and stories to fill in the details. I know for my own that I was quite surprised to see what a cultural crossroads this area of the world was back then, with not only local, but Muslim and even Oriental influences impacting the weapons and tactics of this warrior breed. Quite the rich stew!

Call me old-fashioned, but I consistently find myself being floored by the level of modeling detail available these days, especially with resin aftermarket materials. In the old days, you could only dream of this kind of quality.

Quickboost scores another one with their release of this outstanding set of P-38 gun barrels. Designed to fit the Trumpeter kit (although I suspect they’d fit the venerable Revell kit in the same scale). The set includes four .50 caliber barrels and the 20mm cannon barrel.

Each machine gun barrel has the lightening holes beautifully represented completely around the barrel as well as an open muzzle. The cannon barrel displays the minute recoil spring and an open muzzle as well. Designed to be drop-in pieces, they should require no additional work to add them to your model and will certainly enhance this area immensely.

C'est une magnifique publication, riche en prose et en photographie. Présentée en français, mon manque de maîtrise du français me fait passer à côté de la qualité de la prose, mais la photographie ne nécessite pas de traduction précise.

In English - This is a magnificent publication, rich in prose and photography. Presented in the French language, my lack of command of French means that I am missing out on the quality of the prose, but the photography and the captions for the images does not require precise translation. While the book is in the French language, some ability to read and understand French would be extremely helpful. My command of French is, at best, that of a six-year old. But even with a remarkably disappointing ability to speak and write in French, I found that the captions of the photographs were not at all difficult to roughly translate and to understand. When all else fails, one can seek an online translation tool.

Tamiya set the standard with their 32 scale F-4 Phantom II kits and these still dominate the market with their attention to detail. While being on top of the modeling empire, the leaders do lack at times in details and the nature of injection molding that makes some detail difficult, if almost impossible. Quickboost came to the rescue with this little gem that will close out the leading edge of your Phantom tail. In 1/32 scale and on top of the model, this is a highly visible addition.

The replacement vertical tail vent comes in a sealed bag with picture of the parts and what portions to trim (on one part) and a reference to what part number it replaces on the kit. There are two identical vents in the package so depending on how many Phantoms you have, one set could last a while. This is the extent of the instructions which is all that is needed for this simple set. The resin is flash free and zero bubbles for a flawless surface.

Osprey Publishing continues to expand its “Combat” line, this time with an installment of the Soviet Soldier vs Finnish Soldier during the so-called “Continuation War”, which lasted from 1941 to 1944.

This conflict started a few days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, when Finland attempted to regain territories lost during the Winter War of 1940. Shortly after the fast advance of the Finnish Army, the military actions turned into trench warfare, with front lines mostly stable until the Soviet Army launched an offensive in 1944, in which the Finnish stopped the Soviet advance but were forced to seek an armistice and switch sides.