The Italeri Hurricane has been molded with the option of having both the escape door and canopy open, allowing a great view of the cockpit. The original cockpit is fine but there is always space for enhancement and Aires is offering a nice resin and photoetch cockpit detail set for it.

Sadly, the review sample I got only had the Hurricane photoetch fret on it. The resin parts were for a different model, probably a “George,” as the cockpit layout and seat look a lot like a Japanese cockpit to me.

As such, I cannot comment on the fit of the parts or any other assembly issue (I just did not have all the right parts!).

Based on the parts breakdown, this detail set is intended to be a full replacement “drop-in” cockpit. Based on the picture from the Aires website, the details is very fine and it should be a nice improvement over the plastic parts. The detail on the photoetch fret is superb.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas War or the South Atlantic conflict, as it has been known. As such, different plastic model kit sets and publications are been released and The Falklands 1982, Ground Operations in the South Atlantic is among them.

The Falkland conflict included combat in the air, sea and ground. This book concentrates on the ground combat. It is impossible not to refer to the other arms in any conflict, but as the author clearly states a few times during the book, the content is devoted to the ground operations.

The book covers the operations in a chronological order, starting with the events of South Georgia in March, 1982, before moving into the Falklands itself, with the Argentine landings in April, the British landings in May, and the subsequent ground campaign in June, 1982.

The B-26 Marauder is the subject of the latest volume in Squadron's "Walk Around" series. As with other titles in this series, this softcover book is in a ‘landscape' portrait, and features loads of detail photos of all aspects of the B-26.

There is a one-page brief history of the aircraft, followed by about 80 pages of detail photos. Almost all the photos are in color, of museum aircraft, and are at least ¼ page in size (many are full page). Detailed captions accompany each photo.

In order, the models of B-26 covered are:

Named after the Russian saint Alexander Nevskiy, the second ballistic submarine in the Borei-class is just now entering service after several delays during her construction, which began when the keel was laid in March of 2004. Although there were budgetary issues that hampered completion, there are also reports of issues regarding the missiles that were to be carried aboard the new class of submarine that is meant to replace the Delta and Typhoon classes. Original plans were to arm the submarine with “Bark” missiles, but these were later cancelled and replaced with “Bulava” missiles. The Alexander Nevskiy is supposed to be very similar to the Yury Dolgoruky, the lead boat in the Borei-class.

The F-14 Tomcat will likely be the greatest fleet defender known by my generation. Although retired now, the F-14 was ready from the start to carry an array of weapons including the AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, AIM-54 Phoenix (the ultimate missile of the US arsenal, which is also now retired), various bombs, and an internal 20mm Vulcan cannon. The 64 foot, 1.5 inch long wings could be swept to 38 feet, 2.5 inches or overswept for storage to 33 feet 3.5 inches. The plane was 62 feet, 8 inches long and 16 feet tall weighing 40,104 pounds empty, and 74,349 pounds at maximum takeoff weight. Powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney TF-30-P414A turbofans (with 20,900 pounds of thrust each), the F-14A never reached its full potential, as the D-model would later with General Electric F110-GE-400 turbofan engines (with 23,500 pounds of thrust each).