I am an unabashed fan of the Images of War book series and enjoy author Jon Diamond’s writing style. Having read many of his books before, particularly his books on Burma Victory 1944-1945 and the Allied Victory Over Japan 1945, this book fills a huge void in the South Pacific War and its larger part in the Allied operations to defeat the Imperial Japanese Forces in the vast operational areas of the South and Southwest Pacific.
What's New
The ICM US Aerial Drone set contains a double boxing of their individual sets KDA-1 (Q-2A) Firebee with trailer (48400) and BQM-34A (Q-2C) Firebee with trailer (48401). These kits have been previously released individually in various sets, namely with the DB-26/JD-1 drone control ship kits, as well as by themselves ‘in-flight’ sets (48400 and 48401). Each drone kit is its own single part sprue tree and includes the trailer and dolly to display on them on the ground. Also included are the pylons to mount them on a mothership aircraft but no instructions on how to do so.
The assembly breakdown is rather simple for both of the kits. The internal parts consist of the engine exhaust cylinder and intake facing, and I painted the engine and fan surface with AK Metal Steel. I would also like to point out that you should paint the inside of the fuselage halves prior to assembling.
Beyond expectations!
Everybody loves a trainwreck, right? And yes, this book ends with trainwrecks, but in a very good way. We all know how it ends – with duty, honor, courage, defeats, little victories, explosions, derailments, disaster – after all, it does end in September 1939 with the German invasion outcome. But from 1921 to 1939, it chronicles the continued saga of national defense after the Poles kicked invading Russians out against all odds, using armored trains as mobile artillery and troop transports, until these trains became one of the first victims of blitzkrieg. This book is jam-packed with such detail, photos, illustrations, maps, and color plates (by the author) there is almost zero open white spaces and not much text. A quick read, and with all the visual content, you’ll spend hours being transported to what life was like on Polish war trains. A bonus – you’ll learn train lingo too.
The Single Series from Mushroom Model Publications focuses on a specific airframe, sometimes even down to a specific modification or variant of an airframe. This booklet includes line drawings of the Caudron CR.714 in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale and includes some drawings (probably from a technical manual) of the engine mount, and a very complete walkaround set of pictures in black and white of the real airplane (probably in a museum while being restored). There is a selection of period (WW2-era) photographs, and there are also a handful of computer-generated full-color graphics showing the cockpit as well as a 3-view color profile that is very attractive.
This landscaped, hardback book is the fourth in a new series of books by renowned and prolific photograph collector and author Jon Feenstra, published through PeKo Publishing of Hungary. This volume continues its proven formula of amazing photographs, many previously unpublished, of armored and soft skin vehicles in depots, in the field and post combat. Each page reveals more surprises than the previous. Previous editions of this great series have been reviewed:
The first volume in this series was reviewed here at WW2 Vehicles Through the Lens Vol.1.
The Battle for Berlin was the cumulative battle in the European theater in World War II. Three massive Russian Fronts aligned from north to south (Second Belorussian, First Belorussian and First Ukrainian Fronts) had battered two German Army Groups (Vistula and Center) and the three armies (Third and Fourth Panzer Army and Ninth Army) westward from October 1944 to mid-April 1945 to set the stage for the final onslaught and bloody Battle for Berlin.
Author Ian Baxter has once again provided a succinct, well researched and presented book on a complicated and seminal campaign.Using period photographs, illustrated pages, tables and immaculate references, this book provides the reader with the harrowing and horrifying last months and days of the Third Reich.
The Soviet Battle for Berlin, 1945 is composed of eleven chapters:
Number 64 in Helion’s Africa @ War Series details the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping efforts for the past 20+ years from the former on-the-ground head of the UN mission. The book illustrates what it is like to oversee trying to keep groups of nomadic tribes that have been warring for centuries over some of the most inhospitable areas on planet Earth from continuing the process. Not pretty or heroic. A treatise on absurdity. This book was painful to read, but a reviewer’s duty and morbid curiosity won out. Tip: the history chapter alone is worth the effort to read this book!
Value Gear resin products are well known to most modelers for the excellent quality resin stowage and gear to use on your models and diorama scenes. Owner Steve Munsell is a quality guy who, more often than not, throws in some extra pieces into most of the packages and one package can often inhabit more than a couple builds if used wisely- or you can completely deck out one model if you wish. His 1/16 product lines are growing as more companies release more 1/16 scale kits.
What’s Inside the Box
This set contains a small zip bag with five 75mm ammo crates for whatever 1/16 scale StuG or Panzer is sitting in your stash. A card with preparation and priming instructions are included. The quality is excellent in this scale and one might want to ding them up a bit to add some variety to the five– but the details of the wood grain, nail holes for the cross slats, and strap enclosures are amazing.
Brengun has issued another photoetch/resin accessory set for small scale aircraft modelers. This set is designed for use by Armory Model Group offering the German Bf-109, specifically the Bf-109A/E.
Typically, small scale (1/144th) aircraft kits come with two complete models in the box and Armory Model Group is no exception. Brengun provides detailed bits for two kits. Those bits include the following pieces for the:
- Main Wheels
- Tail Wheels
- Wheel Covers
- Stabilizer struts
- Antenna
- Wing antenna and AOA probes
While this accessory set is designed for use with the Armory Model Group kit, I don’t believe you would have any issues using it on a sweet or other similar kit.
There are a few photoetch bits that you may wish to leave on the fret. I plan on using them on my kit as a test of my eyesight and building ability, so look out for another future review on this set.
This 1/48 scale decal set, available from Iliad Design, provides markings options for 5 different BF-110’s. They cover 5 variants from a day, night and desert fighter. Of particular interest is a 110 that was specially painted, designed and equipped as the personal fighter of Rudolf Hess when he flew to Scotland.
The five options are: