About the Author

The following is taken from the jacket cover.

Jean Paul Pallud was born in France in 1949 and studied physics at Grenoble University, graduating as a physicist engineer. Specialising in the history of the Second World War,he has worked alongside After the Battle for over 43 years, his first submission to the magazine appearing in 1979 and his last in 2022.

MMP was founded in 1996 by Roger Wallsgrove, to publish "Mushroom Model Magazine". This quarterly modelling magazine was developed from "Mushroom Monthly”, a club newsletter which ran from 1985 to 1995, achieving a world-wide reputation for quality articles, fearless and honest reviews, and a great sense of humor. From 1997 the magazine was produced in collaboration with Robert Peczkowski and Artur Juszczak (Stratus), which meant a big leap in print quality and design. MMP expanded into book publication in 1999 with Stratus, and since then they have built up a list of hard cover and soft cover titles on aircraft and aviation, naval, military vehicles, and military history. Stratus / MMPBooks are distributed in North America by Casemate Publications. Check out their Facebook page for additional information. This English language book, Hungarian Bomber Colours 1927-1945 Vol. 1. is authored by Dénes Bernád and György Punka.

The Westland Wessex was a British license-built version of the Sikorsky H-34 and in it’s HAS.3 anti-submarine version, was a capable hunter/killer and saw combat in the Falklands War, where one machine nicknamed ‘Humphrey’ seriously damaged the Argentine submarine Santa Fe, which subsequently had to be scuttled, and also rescued SAS troops from a glacier in bad weather after their helicopters had crashed.

Italeri’s Wessex HAS.3 kit was released in 2013 and is a very nice kit, though it has a few issues and is lacking finesse in some areas. One such area is the mesh cover for the gearbox compartment. This compartment sits atop the Wessex’s distinctive ‘humpback,’ just under the rotor and rotor head. Quickboost labels this as an ‘engine grille,’ though as the Wessex’s engines are housed in the nose, this seems a little unlikely!

Zoukei-Mura has graciously provided the IPMS Reviewer Corps with a first look at their brand new 1/32nd scale Kawasaki Ki-100-I Otsu Type 5 Fighter. Part 1 of this review looked at the box contents: Sprue-runners, decals, masks, and instructions.

Assembly Process

The instruction booklet is 75 pages of very well illustrated pictures and graphics of each step. One of the great things that impressed me about the instructions are the parts are properly named and this gives the functional operation use within the mechanical system of the airplane. Very informative and educational.

The instructions are broken down into 5 sections of the assembly process:

The origin of Pen & Sword Books is closely linked with its sister company, the Barnsley Chronicle; one of the UK's oldest provincial newspapers, established in 1858, and one of the few weeklies still in private ownership. The first books published by the company were in response to public demand following of a series of articles published in the newspaper: Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks told the story of crash sites in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park, and a further weekly feature on the history of two Kitchener battalions, known as the Barnsley Pals, aroused a thirst for more information. Following on from the success of those books, a number of local history paperbacks were produced along with a series of battlefield guidebooks. Battleground Europe proved immediately successful, and the company made the decision to launch a book publishing arm of the group.