Amigo Models is a relatively new company in Russia which has been producing resin aftermarket accessories for modern Russian aircraft in multiple scales. They are perhaps best known for detailed replacement exhaust nozzles. I first became aware of them when they offered a highly detailed replacement set of maneuverable nozzles for the Kittyhawk 1/48 Su-35.

History and Background (thanks to WikiPedia)

Brimstone is an air-launched ground attack missile developed by MBDA for Britain's Royal Air Force. It was originally intended for "fire and forget" use against mass formations of enemy armour, using a millimetric wave (mmW) active radar homing seeker to ensure accuracy even against moving targets. Experience in Afghanistan led to the addition of laser guidance in the dual-mode Brimstone missile, allowing a "spotter" to pick out specific targets when friendly forces or civilians were in the area. The tandem shaped charge warhead is much more effective against modern tanks than older similar weapons such as the AGM-65G Maverick, while the small blast area minimises collateral damage. Three Brimstones are carried on a launcher that occupies a single weapon station, allowing a single aircraft to carry many missiles.

The Aircraft

The DC-8 was Douglas’ version of the Boeing 707. I reviewed Minicraft’s DC-8-73 back in 2014.

Unfortunately, sitting on the shelf for 5 years has taken its toll on this model. It’s still quite good looking, and when Phil Peterson, who manages the sending of review items, said there was a landing gear set available, I took it. When I picked up the model from the shelf to see how tough it would be to remove the original gear, one of the main gear legs fell off. OK, SAC to the rescue.

There are also kits of the DC-8 61 and -71. These are pretty much the same kit, with a different fuselage. Minicraft also released their DC-8 63 and -73 as a bagged kit with no decals. The big advantage to this kit is that it has the engines for either the -63 or-73, which the original kits didn’t have.

History

Second Punic War 217-206 BC

Osprey Publications, the prolific publisher of books related to nearly every aspect of military history imaginable, has in recent years been branching out into more traditional history works. This work is a critical biography of Otto Skorzeny, the man who rescued Mussolini from captivity. The author, Stuart Smith, is a trained historian with a career in business. Using original records and a variety of sources, Stuart has put together a fascinating portrait of a man whose entire career was largely built on one exploit – rescuing Mussolini from captivity in 1943. As his actions in the post-war would indicate, he was also an unrepentant Nazi.