Twobobs has released a sheet in 1/48 scale for those of us who like colorful aircraft, something that will relieve that expanse of grey on grey in the display case. The aircraft catered for on this sheet are two F-16A Midlife Update (MLU) aircraft at Skrydstrup AB of the Royal Danish Air Force. They were painted in special markings to celebrate the anniversaries of the activation of their squadrons.

The first, F-16AM Block 10 MLU, 78-0194, commemorates the 60th Anniversary of ESK 727 on 18 June 2010. It has an all orange-red tail fin and fairing with a white cross and a golden lion and golden script showing 1950 and 2010 for either side of the tail.

• Product #PAU-35044 with jigs, $21.00
• Product #PAU-35044B without jigs, $7.89

PSP, or pierced/perforated steel planking, was used from shortly before WWII onwards as a means to create a hard surface for military operations where one wasn’t provided by nature. The planks, made of steel or (later) aluminum, were made in several styles, were generally about 10 feet long by 38 inches wide, and weighed about 66 pounds each (steel). The most common hole pattern was 3 wide by 29 long. They are also known as Marston mats after a town in North Carolina where they were manufactured in some quantity. They were used extensively in Vietnam, and are readily available today to civilians as used or new government surplus.

PSP makes the ideal base for a model alone or in a diorama. Several styles of resin bases featuring PSP have been available for years, but this is the first photo etched alternative of which I am aware.

For some reason, I decided a few years ago to build a collection of 1/72 Harriers. At that time I counted 24 separate and distinct sub-varieties and markings/nationalities. There would be more if I wanted to include all the two-seaters. So far, I have completed about 18 of them, from the first P.1127 prototype through the Kestrel and first- and second-generation Harriers. The kits range from the awful (Matchbox GR.1, which I could not bring myself to build) to the barely acceptable (Hasegawa GR.1/AV-8A) into the pretty good (Airfix/Heller AV-8B, Italeri AV-8B) to the really nice (ESCI AV-8A, Hasegawa AV-8B/GR.5 and AV-8B+). When I started the collection, there was no such airplane as the GR.9, so when it entered service I resigned myself to modifying a Hasegawa kit. With the release of this all-new mold from Airfix, I could now build it out-of-the-box without a lot of troublesome carving of small plastic pieces.

Over the past year or so, we have seen a new supply of USS Arizona kits in all scales, from Trumpeter, Dragon, and Hobby Boss. A popular scale seems to be 1/700 scale, where we have also seen a kit of the USS Pennsylvania. While both ships had generally the same look up till Pearl Harbor, the Penn later underwent extensive changes. My great uncle had the privilege of serving his country with the United States Navy, and was assigned to the USS Pennsylvania. On December 7th, he was at Pearl Harbor while the Penn was in drydock. He survived Pearl and continued on the Penn through the entire war, and was still with her up until she was scuttled after being used as a target ship for nuclear tests. (My uncle was actually part of the skeleton/scuttling crew and was the fourth to last person to set foot on the mighty ship.) With my family’s ties to the Pennsylvania class, I naturally purchased all of the recent model releases.

This book is a photographic look at classic prop-driven water bombers, cargo carriers, and prop aircraft activities in South America. Some of the aircraft covered in volume two are the Catalina, Mars, CL-215, Conair Firecat (Grumman S-2), A-26, P2V, C-46 and more.

Chapter one is a photo essay on the various ex-warplanes and civil airliners that now make their living as fire bombers. Almost half of the book is devoted to these aircraft. I particularly enjoyed the photo coverage of the Martin Mars and other former warplanes converted to battle man’s oldest enemy, fire!

Chapter two covers Russian and Chinese built aircraft, with large photo coverage of the AN-2. In addition to the Colt, we are presented with photos of IL-18, An-8 and 24s, and Xian Y-7s.

Chapter three covers operations in South America. Here are some classic C-46s and DC-3s. Also photographically covered are more modern Soviet designs used in South America.