The book “Gotha Go 242/244” from Kagero publishing delivers a wealth of information within its 57 pages. It provides a free poster displaying two Gotha gliders flying over a winter landscape during the transport of supplies to besieged German forces in Crimea in 1943/1944. The poster fits inside the book and shows the book’s cover image. The quality of the poster and the color profiles are great.

There are five chapters in the book:

The book “September 1939 over Poland Part II” from Kagero publishing offers 20 pages of side, top, and bottom profiles of aircraft in 29 color profiles, as well as 6 decal sheets for 1/48 and 1/72 scale subjects in 200mm x 180mm format. It also provides a free poster displaying a Polish light bomber PZL.23B Karaś in action. The poster fits inside the book and shows the booklet’s cover image without any inscriptions. The quality of the poster and the color profiles is great. The decal sheets provide a lot of options for both German and Polish aircraft from 1939.

Safely packaged in a resealable sleeve is a beautiful 8.5 x 11 booklet and a small decal sheet. The booklet contains 25 pages of high-quality paper featuring clear photos. Most pages have two large photos which make details easy to see. A variety of variants are covered in this volume from the early E-1 to the E-3. This period of use for the Bf-109 was quite colorful with a variety of paint schemes. Kagero has shown most of the paint schemes. There are 16 pages of photos, four pages (not including the back cover) of wonderful color profiles. Six aircraft are included in the profile views. There are six pages of line drawings to show the differences and changes in the variants. The drawings are in 1/72^nd and 1/48^th scale.

Text is limited to the captions on the photos. That really isn’t the purpose of this book.

John and UMM-USA have been a godsend for those that like to scratch build by supplying tools and parts to make life easier for all of us as well as giving us access in the US to suppliers not as easily found. This selection is three styles of soft lead wiring perfect for ignition harnesses, wiring jets or anything that might need some kind of wiring or plumbing. The sets come in three types- round 0.4mm, half round and flat at 0.4mm.

Each set comes with about 20 pieces by 140mm for these sizes. Many different sizes are also available. I love the size consistency as the size being reviewed is about the right size for 1/48^th scale ignition wires on a radial engine. I grabbed an old one and installed a couple wires and they look great. I also made a quick (and sloppy) trial for a wiring harness using the flat stock as the wraps and it looks good for a couple minutes work.

Highly recommended for all builders looking for that little upgrade or scratch building.

ICM has been releasing quality kits, figure sets, and recently paints to support their vast library of releases. This one is a mouthful - the G917T Truppenluftschutzwagen, a 3-ton truck with a 2cm Flak 38 in the bed. This was an effective weapon for closeup air defense but could also target lightly armored ground threats as well.

What’s Inside the Box

You get essentially two kits in one with six light gray and one clear sprue for the truck and 5 light gray sprues for the flak 38. The truck sprues should look familiar as they share a lineage with kit # 35413 from 2013. Details are pretty crisp, although there are ejector sink marks on the bottom surface of the truck bed and inside some of the cab details. There are two decal sheets - one for the flak 38 and one for the two schemes for the truck.