Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They also provide a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.

This book is devoted to the T-54 and Type 59 tanks. It is a visual reference with a great number of photographs to help the modeler distinguish the difference between the variants of T-54A / Typre59 and T-54B.

The book begins with a nice historical section explaining the models of the T-54 family. The timeline explains the changes that occurred to the models of the tanks in chronological order.

After the historical section, you dive headfirst into the first photo section of the book that begins with the T-54 / Type 59. This section has several excellent photographs including extreme close-ups of the tank and its many details. The photographic section is broken down into two sub sections entitled Turret and Hull. The detailed photographs are excellent and were extremely helpful to me as I am currently getting ready to start building a type 59 tank.

Pen & Sword Books are not new to the plastic modeling industry. The UK based publishing company has been around since 1990 churning out titles covering subjects from military, aviation, maritime and other areas of history.

With over 228 books in the “Images of War Series”, Hitler’s Anti-Tank Weapons 1939-1945 is their latest addition published in May 2020. The author Hans Seidler has written other books in the series including, Hitler’s Tank Killers - Sturmgeschutz at War 1939-1945, Luftwaffe Flak Divisions and Hitler’s Boy Soldiers. This 9.5 x 7.5-inch paperback has 128 pages with 250 black and white illustrations. The book is comprised of an Introduction, five chapters with three appendices. Each chapter starts with 1-2 pages of introduction followed by several black and white images. All images have captions by the author describing what the reader is viewing.

AOA Decals has expanded to 1/72nd scale and their second release is a set of markings for the Fujimi A-6E TRAM covering all three Intruder squadrons involved in the strikes against Libya in March and April 1986 as part of Operation Prairie Fire and Operation El Dorado Canyon respectively; also covered are two squadrons in 1991 from Operation Desert Storm. Inside the package, there is one 5.5 x 7-inch decal sheet printed perfectly by Microscale; full color profiles for all eights aircraft; full weapons and load outs specific to each plane; top profiles for each plane and also instructions for the decals for crew helmets, fuel tanks, tailhooks, formation lights, ejection seats, VA-35 MERs, & VA-55 special ordnance markings.

The Aircraft covered by these sheets are:

The Book

Inside the front cover is a listing of other titles in Helion & Company’s “Paper Soldiers” series. Interested in the Civil War? Which one, American or English Civil War? They have games for both. Roman legions? American Revolution? Trafalgar? The Spanish Armada? It’s all in there.

This book is based on H. G. Wells’ 1913 book which gives rules for movement and battle with miniature armies. The book is subtitled “A Game for Boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys’ games and books. “