Background

As described on the Osprey Publishing website, “In 52 BC Caesar’s continued strategy of annihilation had engendered a spirit of desperation, which detonated into a revolt of Gallic tribes under the leadership of the charismatic young Arvernian noble Vercingetorix. Major engagements were fought at Noviodunum, Avaricum, and Gergovia, with the last action being the most serious reverse that Caesar faced in the whole of the Gallic War. However, Vercingetorix soon realized that he was unable to match the Romans in pitched battle. Taking advantage of the tribesmen’s superior knowledge of their home territory, Vercingetorix began a canny policy of small war and defensive maneuvers, which gravely hampered Caesar’s movements by cutting off his supplies. For Caesar it was to be a grim summertime – his whole Gallic enterprise faced disaster.

ATTENTION!!! Those of you with that huge box of plastic labeled “1/48 Testors or Italeri C-130 E/H in your stash, languishing in the dust because you’re bored with monotone gray, SEA or European One camouflage schemes. Here is your chance to buy a couple of extra bottles of liquid cement and get after it! This decal sheet offers up beautifully rendered markings for “Fat Albert” the USMC C-130T that provides support logistics transport, in addition to it’s own amazing solo performance featuring rocket assisted take-offs for the US Navy’s “Blue Angels” aircraft demonstration team.

Osprey Publications is well known for their books on military history, aviation, naval and a multitude of other subjects. This book is from the Elite series which covers specific military units or tactics used in combat.

World War II was the first conflict with the widespread use of gliders for military operations. All though many countries used gliders the focus of the book is on English, German and United States as they were involved in the largest majority of glider operations during the war.

The author covers the origins, the gliders, the glider types, tug aircraft, glider pilots, glider delivered units and glider operations. Each section is broken down covering how each country used their gliders, how they trained their pilots and how operations were executed. The book is loaded with black and white period photographs and color drawings.

Over the years of my modeling enjoyment one of the questions I am often asked by fellow modelers is, why did you buy that”? Usually these questions are in reference to a specialty tool (pinvise, punch and die, or hex punch) or specialty item (metal barrel, decals, or resin sets). My standard response has always been the same. This is a hobby and by its nature is supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable. Any item that I see as a way to make it more so is usually worth the price.

This new release from True Details definitely fits that bill perfectly. You get four sets of 16 different styled connectors. For the Ultra detailer, this is the cat’s meow in saving time. Depending on your use and ability, you can drill these out to handle one or several cables. Some of the larger connectors on my sample contained air bubbles but this could work to the builder’s advantage as you don’t have to drill out the connector to accept the cable.

The MiG-17PF was the all weather fighter version of the Fresco. The Fresco D had three 23mm cannons.

This set includes five precision turned brass parts. There is nothing to clean up. Simply drill the hole where the parts go and you are in business.

The highlights of this set are the pitot tubes. They are perfectly formed and even capture that one pitot tube is slightly longer than the other.

The other three parts are the 23mm cannon barrels.

The instructions indicate the proper holes to drill and the proper length of the parts.

This set is like every other Master part I’ve used, simple, effective, and strong. The strength is especially important for the wingtip pitot tubes, which will invariably are subjected to some damage from handling.

Highly recommended