Osprey Publishing keeps expanding its Combat Aircraft series with its latest book, F9F Panther Units of the Korean War. I personally think that the F9F Panther is among the most beautiful jets of the early era—together with the F-86 Sabre—so I might be a bit biased on this topic.

Clearly, from the beginning of the book you realize the author, Warren Thompson, is extremely well versed in the Korean conflict, and he is a great researcher. The level of detail and accuracy in his narrative is outstanding. He is really good at combine first hand narratives and mission reports to allow the reader have a sense of the pilot experiences, as well as the overall combat record of each unit, and the strategic situation in the Korean Peninsula during the conflict.

This book, being from Osprey has plenty of pictures; about half of them in color. The book also has 24 gorgeous color profiles by Jim Laurier.

The book is divided in the following chapters:

Quickboost has come out with a direct replacement for the .50 Cal machine gun barrels on the HK Models 1/32^nd B 17 Flying Fortress kit. You get 12 barrels, all the same length and style cast in resin. The packaging is quite adequate. There was nothing broken or warped. The quality of the casting is superb and there is no flash or pinholes. I would assume that the barrels are the proper length. They are a little fatter then the kit ones and look good. Another nice feature is that they are drilled out on the ends.

A word of caution may be necessary, on the HK kit, the kits gun barrels come in various lengths and some have flash suppressors. The quickboost are all the same length and style. A nice feature about these barrels is that they are somewhat generic in nature. I believe they can be used on any Allied Airplane that is 1/32^nd and used .50 Cal machine guns.

Model Art Magazine is a monthly magazine that covers aircraft, armor, ships, and car modeling. Model Art started releasing magazines in 1966 and has evolved from there over the past forty-six years. They also release many special releases during the year as is the case of this issue.

This issue is the second in the series Ship Model Database Extra Edition. The first covered IJN Destroyers that were produced from 1918–1941, and this one covers the IJN Carriers 1922–1945. The carriers included in this are the Hosho, Akagi, Kaga, Ryujo, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Taiho, Unryu, Amagi, Katsuragi, Shinano, Shoho, Zuiho, Ryuho, Chitose, Chiyoda, Hiyo, Junyo, Taiyo, Unyo, Chuyo, Kaiyo, and Shinyo. The magazine is broken down into eleven sections. I will cover each section below.

Thank you to Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak for bringing back a tremendous resource for the modeler, this time in digital format. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to test out this new and exciting method of researching the F9F Cougar.

Overview

This review of an exciting new format of a familiar product will take three parts; 1) content coverage, 2) how effective and useful the digital e-book format is from a modeler’s perspective, and 3) evaluation of a kit using the modeler’s section. I certainly would expect the first question a reader would ask is, "Why do I want an e-book format?" I like reading through traditional books as much as anyone else, with the page-by-page discovery of storyline or new information. I also have tons of books in my library, mostly residing on stoic-looking bookshelves. This new publication format provides many advantages for the modeler, with few disadvantages, as described below.

Background

By the spring of 1942, the Germany realized it needed a half-tracked cargo hauling vehicle for use on the Eastern Front to replace earlier 3- and 5-ton tractors. Büssing-NAG was chosen as the developer, with initial production commencing in December of 1943. Production started with unarmored cabins, but eventually gave way to an armored cabin and engine compartment. By war’s end only 820 examples of all variants had been produced.

The Kit

Bronco’s latest rendition of the sWS general cargo is of the early soft-skinned variety, and is exquisitely reproduced throughout. Crisply molded, with 11 tan sprue trees, 2 brown, and 1 large and 1 small clear tree, the kit is packed with detail – including full engine, suspension, cargo bed, and cabin. Tracks are of individual link design, and the cabin and cargo covers are molded in clear. A single fret of photoetch metal detail is included, as well a single sheet of crisp and well-registered decals.