United States Air Force (USAF) crew chiefs work tirelessly around -the clock to ensure aircraft are available for missions, especially in combat zones. VideoAviation.com has captured this spirit of “Can – do” with their latest offering.

The kit contains 12 parts for two figures and a Vietnam-era flight line fire bottle. The standing figure has doffed his shirt, something that would be quite understandable in the hot tropics combined with constant combat sorties, and aircraft that needed around-the-clock maintenance.

The fit of the parts is excellent, and seams clean up quickly and easily with files. My only problem with fit is with the standing figure, whose arms didn’t quite fit properly into place, and required just a touch of putty. My recommendation would be to dry-fit the figures into place on a diorama before gluing the arms into place.

The F-104 Starfighter was a single engine, single seat fighter that was operational from the mid-1950s through 2004. The TF-104 was a two-seat training version and did not carry the fuselage mounted cannon.

Italeri’s 1/32 scale TF-104 follows their nice F-104 from a few years ago. It comes packaged in a very large, sturdy box. All the parts sprues are individually wrapped and only a couple of parts were disconnected from the sprue. The clear parts and photo-etch fret were contained on one side of the box protected by a cardboard divider. Two very large decal sheets, an instruction manual plus a separate painting and decal manual were located at the bottom of the box.

Like a fireball in the night, the story of the Vietnam War dominates our historical consciousness. This new addition to Osprey’s Combat series, focuses on the French Foreign Legion versus the Viet Minh from 1948 to 1952. The book concentrates on a four year period, marking the height of the French occupation and counter-insurgency against the Viet Minh. Combat is one of the newer series of Osprey Publishing and it follows a formulaic format. Each book is illustrated with original art work, depicting some of the combat scenes described in the book as well as historical photographs contemporary to the conflict. The first part of each book provides context for the combat, focusing on the issues related to the larger war and the composition of the armed forces involved in each battle featured. The heart of the book are short narratives of individual battles that also feature maps that allow you to follow along with the actions described in the text.

Croco Models from Latvia specializes in aftermarket detail sets and resin sets, mainly of armored vehicles. They sure know how to find unique and interesting subjects. Visit their webpage and you will see.

Besides aftermarket details and resin kits, they release small generic detail parts, in this case a perforated metal plate, with very small circular plates in a diamond pattern.

The size of the fret is about 2 inches by 1.25 inches and it can be used for detailing many different models, probably armor in 1/35 scale (engine covers), perhaps aircraft in 1/32 and 1/48 (air intakes filters).

You can see how finely and homogenous the perforations are, as you can “see-through” them and still see the mini-ziploc bag behind it. Just think of it as a way to dress up any opening towards the interior of a model where you want to make it look like there is “something there”, like a radiator, a screen or just “something” which is better than bare plastic.

This publication can be purchased in one of three formats. The paperback edition (9781472827678) retails at $20.00. Both the eBook (ePub) (9781472827661) and eBook (PDF) (9781472827654) can be purchased for $16.00.

Written by David Greentree, Illustrated by Peter Dennis and Mark Stacy.

David Greentree graduated in History at York before taking an MA in War Studies from King's College London and qualifying as a lecturer in Further Education. In 1995 he accepted a commission in the Royal Air Force and has served in a variety of locations, including Afghanistan and Oman. He has written several books for Osprey, focusing on British military history and World War II. He lives in Southsea, UK.

Mark Stacey was born in Manchester in 1964 and has been a freelance illustrator since 1987. He has a lifelong interest in all periods of history, particularly military history, and has specialized in this area throughout his career. He now lives and works in Cornwall, UK.