IPMS/USA Reviews

When Tamiya announced they were entering the Phantom market in 1/48 scale, the Internet buzzed. And now the kit is out, a 1/48^th scale F-4B Phantom. Let's start by taking a looking the box. For starters, there are 14 sprues of perfect Tamiya grey and clear plastic. There is also a set of instructions, a set of Tamiya Tech tips and a background information booklet about the plane. There are two large double-sided four-color pages with markings for the three planes and a drawing for stencil locations. Also included is a set of masks (not precut). Lastly, there are two decals sheets with markings for the weapons, planes and stencils.

Markings are included for the following:

• VF-51 "Screaming Eagles", CAG Plane, May 6, 1972, USS Coral Sea
• VF-111 "Sundowners", Squadron Leaders Aircraft, NAS Miramar, August 1972
• VF-161 "Chargers), CAG Plane, May 1972, USS Midway

Options included for the modeler to use are:

Ravi Rikhye is an international affairs and military historian with a remarkable academic background. He holds seven master's degrees and is currently working on his doctorate. His career has also included the completion of more than thirty books. For the first offering in the Helion and Company's new Asia@War book series, Rikhye has authored a two-part history of the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. This review looks at the first book about the Indian Military Intervention in East Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh). The second work addresses the contemporaneous Showdown in the West (along the current Indo-Pakistani border).

Most historians have looked at this conflict as a short, two-week war between India and Pakistan in December 1971 that precipitated the independence of East Pakistan. Rikhye takes a broader and longer look at this war and places it within the framework of post-colonial destabilization and superpower dynamics. He argues that this war was basically inevitable, and that India's military victory was a foregone conclusion.

The Warriors of Light 1/72^nd scale decal series from Foxbot is a collection of aircraft numbers for ten Su-27s with a complete data and stencil set for a single example. All of the Su-27's were assigned to the Ukrainian Air Force. Most Su-27s in Ukrainian service carried a digital, tri-color camouflage pattern on the upper surfaces and vertical stabilizers. The colored instructions are printed on thick paper with marking and stencil placement instructions. There is also a placement and color guide for the paint masks that are sold separately.

Color call-outs are provided with 'paint chip' facsimiles of the aircraft colors. The colors are referenced to RAL, FS or AKAN colors. Locating the AKAN paints may prove to be problematic as those are from a Russian company and not widely distributed in the U.S. The RAL is the European color matching system and FS (Federal Standard) is, of course, the U.S. color matching system. [Fun Fact: RAL stands for Reichs-Ausschuv fur Lieferbedinggen.]

The updated marking options (this decal set was available previously) are provided for aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force from 2015-2019.

This is the 2^nd volume in a revived series from Kagero. According to the editor the series was originally launched in 2001, but decal production issues caused the cessation of publication. They have now restarted this series, and so far, have issued 3 volumes ("Eastern Front" armor, "Japanese Fighters", and the subject of this review).

"Messerschmitt Bf 109 A-F" jumps right in with color profiles on the very first page. This is followed by 38 more pages of profiles, and a final page with a table of RLM colors produced by various model paint manufacturers. The back cover has an additional two profiles.

Side profiles are provided for Bf 109s starting with Spanish Civil War markings and culminating in schemes from the Eastern Front. The artwork is superb and well-sized. Most pages show left and right profiles of the same aircraft, followed by top/bottom views of the same aircraft on the next page. Brief captions identify each subject, sometimes with scrap views of squadron or personal insignias.