This is the 2024 Cross & Cockade Calendar published by The Great War Aviation Society located in England. The organization focuses on WWI aircraft and provides more than 50,000 pounds British Sterling toward the maintenance of the British Air Services Memorial at St-Omer, France, through annual calendar sales.

The calendar consists of 12 beautifully detailed artworks of WWI planes. Each painting has been done by a different artist. They include the well-known "kites" in their normal environment - flying, and on the ground. Only two paintings show them in a battle/combat situation. Other lesser well-known aircraft are also featured.

The renditions are superb and the subject descriptions are also good. Each painting will look great framed!

New from Tempest Publishing is a great book covering the Davis Monthan AFB Scrap yards and this volume focuses on the 1980’s. the book starts with an introduction and Mr. Robson goes into his love of the fields and there is a great overall shot of the many planes stored and dismantled there.

One of the first things I learned was that there are multiple actual scrapping and recovery facilities. The book is actually broken down by these and follows a path around the yards. The chapters include the following:

In volume one we followed the exploits of the Police Reserve Air Wings (PRAW) operating in Rhodesia from 1967 to the last 1970s. These units supported the Rhodesian police by providing air support in countering resistance units that were attempting to force independence from British control. Although that goal was achieved in 1980, PRAW operated until the early 2000s. This volume covers PRAW operations from the mid 1970s till they ceased operations. Like the first volume, the story is told in words and pictures that included excerpts from “The Outpost Magazine”, a journal published by PRAW. As the fighting grew more intense, so did the level of weaponry carried by PRAW aircraft. This escalation is advertised on the cover photo showing a Beech Bonanza with gun pods, and inside Cessna Sky masters with over-wing gun pods. Several of the stories reflect just why it was necessary to shoot back. A few aircraft were hit by small arms fire and one gunner died from his wounds.

ICM continues to announce new models despite the ongoing Russian initiated war in Ukraine. While most subjects released by ICM are welcome, the current conflict subjects are even more relevant and timely. The Acrylic Paint Set for Armed Forces of Ukraine (Camouflage Uniform) is designed to be used with ICM figure sets No. 35752 (“Quietly came, quietly went…” Special Operations Forces of Ukraine) and No. 35754 (“Always the first” Air Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). This paint set is designed for the Multicam, not the Ukrainian pixel, camouflage.

The Acrylic Paint Set for Armed Forces of Ukraine consists of six 12ml paint bottles, that are surprisingly not dropper top, but rather are wide mouthed. The colors include:

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.