The author, Jeff D. Eberle, started collecting authentic photographs and albums from World War II. “Sourced from veterans, auction houses, rummage sales, and antique shops”, he accumulated thousands of photographs. The author’s focus over 30 years ago was the Eastern Front, although he also has the Western Europe, Battle of Britain, North Africa, Norway, the Balkans, and the war at sea present in mostly chronological order. A collection of over 400 of these photographs are presented in this magnificent book.

The photographs and their captions are the focus of the book except for the three pages of commonly used terms and a page and a half introduction. This photographic reference book is composed of the following sections:

• Glossary of Commonly Used Terms
• Introduction
• Part I: 1939-1942
• Part II: 1943-1961

The Introduction is succinct and summarizes the book well:

Detail & Scale produced some incredible references back in the 1980s/90s, and I recall the research within several of them helping to advance my building skills as a young modeler. Recently, the company revitalized itself and has been issuing new (or fully updated) publications with even more comprehensive coverage of aviation subjects. These are now available in digital format as well as traditional printed volumes. As before, there is a brief but detailed history of the subject aircraft, followed by loads of photos of both museum and contemporary aircraft, and a modelers’ section.

The P-38 Lightning Part 2: P-38J through P-38M Variants (also covers the F-5B, F-5E, F-5F & F-5G Photo Reconnaissance Variants) is the first of this newer round of publications I have had the pleasure to read and review.

ICM has released a dual midget submarine kit in 1/72^nd scale. The submarines are U-Boat Type XXVIIB Seehund (early) and Molch.

he K-Verband (in English "small battle unit", derived from Kleinkampfverbände der Kriegsmarine"small battle units") was a World War II German naval unit that operated a mixture of midget submarines and explosive speed boats. It was formed in April 1944 and operated until 26 April 1945.

In The Package

There are two (2) kits provided inside the box, U-Boat Type XXVIIB Seehund (early) and Molch. If bought individually, the MSRP is $31.99 each. Thus, there is great value in buying this dual kit.

There are two (2) bags of sprues packaged. One for each submarine. The Molch has two sets of sprues, gray and clear. While the Seehund only has one gray sprue. Also, each sub gets its own decal sheet and set of instructions. The instructions are well illustrated and assembly is straight forward based on the small number of steps.

Anyone who lives even remotely near a shoreline knows how ubiquitous seagulls can be. Essentially, they’re everywhere in warm weather – complaining to each other in their raucous voices, stealing food from tourists and generally creating shenanigans wherever they are.

Pig Models has released a lovely package of 3D printed seagulls that can make a fine addition to any nautical scene. The package includes 10 seagulls in 5 poses and each comes in a protective “box” to guard the contents. Unfortunately, even this precaution hasn’t prevented damage to the contents, at least in my case. Three of the figures in my set had severely damaged “landing gear” before I’d even opened the package. I don’t know if this is typical or if mine had just received extraordinarily rough handling, but beware that this could be an issue. That doesn’t, however, render them useless, as most can be shown sitting rather than standing with just a tiny amount of work.

The Studebaker is a wonderfully designed automobile that lends itself to streamlining for racing purposes. In this case, I built a race car for the gas coupe class with a blown Hemi. The kit also supplies a 421 ci Pontiac engine for use in a different drag racing class. Yellow ignition wires are included in the box.

I’m guessing that this kit is very old. There was so much flash on all the parts that I could have probably melted all of it and made another kit. Just terrible.

Kit instructions are somewhat difficult to follow due to lack of details.

Decals flowed on very well.

Kit is molded in red plastic so I used Duplicolor red oxide primer covered with House of Color Cinder Red followed by 2 coats of Nason 2K clear.

The Studebaker body is beautiful and I’d like to thank IPMS and Atlantis for the opportunity to build the kit.