Mushroom Publications - Romanian Fighter Colors 1941-45

Reviewer: Pablo Bauleo
IPMS: # 46363

Publisher:     Mushroom Model Publications
Title:         Romanian Fighter Colors 1941-1945
        White Series, No 9111
Author    Teodor Liviu Morusanu & Dan Alexandru Melinte
ISBN    978-83-89450-906
     192 Pages, Hardbound, A4 size
MSRP: $59

Review

The Romanian Air Force in World War II saw extensive combat in the Eastern Front against the Soviet Air Force and against the USAAF and RAF in home defense roles. Later, in late 1944 Romania changed sides and saw combat against the Luftwaffe.

This book covers all the fighter aircraft in the Romanian Air Force during World War II. The fighter aircraft inventory included British, German, Polish, and locally designed airplanes, plus captured soviet airplanes, yielding to a rather varied set of camouflage styles. Specifically, the book covers the Hawker Hurricane, Bf 109E and 109G, He 112, Bf 110G, PZL 11 and PZL 24, IAR 80/81, plus captured Mig-3, I-16 and Fw-190A/F.

The book has chapters for each aircraft type in detail, including a brief history of the aircraft service in the Romanian Air Force before moving into a section on camouflage and markings for the given aircraft being depicted in the chapter. This section also includes information on lettering, numbers and factory logos applied to each aircraft.

After the section on camouflage styles and markings, the main feature of each chapter follows: numerous and gorgeous color profiles (sometime even 3-view or 4-views) of different aircrafts, next to a historical picture of the airplane, which in some cases is in color, but in most cases is in black and white.

Finally the book has a few appendixes covering details on Romanian Air Force ranks, paints and colors used in the aircrafts (including color code and FS equivalent) and a very detailed section on the evolution of the Romanian Air Force markings, including both Axis and Allied markings.

I've truly enjoyed reading this book. The information provided on it makes it very valuable to the modeler and several of the pictures have not been published before.

I know that I will add more Romanian models to my collection now that I have what could be the definite reference on the Romanian Fighters in World War II.

I would like to thank Mushroom Model Publications for the review sample.

Osprey - JG 400 Aviation Elite Units

Reviewer: Pablo Bauleo
IPMS: # 46363

Publisher:     Osprey Publishing
Title:         Jagdgeschwader 400
Volume 37 of Aviation Elite Units
Author    Stephen Ransom & Hans-Hermann Cammann

ISBN: 978-1-84603-975-1
128 Pages, 15 color profiles and 2 full color unit badges
MSRP $25.95

Review

The Me-163 Komet is the only rocket-powered aircraft ever seeing combat. The whole combat history of this unique point-defense interceptor is covered by this book of the Aviation Elite Series as it only served with JG400.

The book is structured in five chapters, the first one covering the Me-163 development and the following four covering the operational service of 1.Staffel, 2.Staffel, I.Gruppe, and II.Gruppe respectively. It also has a series of appendixes covering unit organization, selected biographies, operational flight logs for each Me-163 and a very interesting appendix regarding the armament, including the use of SG 500 Jägerfaust, a recoilless mortar-style weapon which was fired vertically.

A very interesting feature of the book is that includes ample pilot debriefing reports of combat missions, both from the Luftwaffe as well as from the USAAF or RAF whenever possible, as to have information from both the pilots that flew the Komet and the pilot that faced them off.

The book has plenty of black and white pictures of different aircraft and their pilots, which will be very valuable for modelers looking for reference pictures. This book is recommended to aviation historians and modelers alike.

By reading the book is clear that the Komet had a larger impact in the Allied Air Forces as a psychological weapon than as a military weapon. As with most revolutionary technologies employed by the Luftwaffe in the closing months of World War II was "too little, too late". But the impression left in those airmen that faced the Komet would last decades.

I would like to thank Osprey Publishing for the review sample.

Revell/Renwal 1/32 Teracruzer with Mace Missile (reissue) WIP Part 2

I begin Part 2 of this WIP where I left Part 1, sanding!  Every part in the kit has now been cleaned and are tumbling freely in the box.  To preserve my sanity I just needed to be done with sanding (about 2 days worth). 

But, the fun in this kit began to take off when I started the building process.  For example, picture 1 shows 33 parts (each wheel is 2 halves) are required to make one complete “truck” assembly.  Pictures 2 & 3 show the fragility of the outer torsion bars.  Photos of the real thing seem to prove they hold up under pressure.  Pictures 4 & 5 are two views of the completed “truck”.  Some filling & sanding were necessary to fill gaps, but it looks good when finished.  I need to build two more “trucks” & they will be ready for paint.

While I waited for the putty to dry on the “trucks” I moved on to the cab.  The kit does not come with clear parts so if you want windows you must improvise.  I had some Taco Bell nachos for lunch one day & noticed the recycle symbol on the clear lid was a 2.  I tested it with some plastic cement (Testors) & it worked.  The clear lid is actually slightly cloudy, but I like the way it looks (pictures 6-8).  Pictures 9 thru 13 show progress made on the cab & tractor chassis.  The cab is void of any detail other than the steering wheel & instrument panel.  So I decided to practice scratch-building.  Picture 10 shows my novice attempt to add pedals & shift levers.  The levers are sewing pins (the heads are too big for 1/32 scale, but I like it).  The pedals are styrene sheet & rod.  I hand painted the cab (gimme a break, the first time in years I’ve put paint to plastic).  Do you see the pin mark on the steering column & the cloudiness of the windows?  Bonus, picture 14 just taken prior to this posting showing the 3 complete “trucks”.  Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Mace WIP.