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Grumman F6F Hellcat Volume I SMI Library #09 Kagero By Tomasz Szlagor & Leszek A. Wieliczko You can get the book at www.kagero.eu for €15,67 This product line focuses on a specific aircraft or even a specific aircraft in specific surroundings with lots of photos, a set of decals and artwork of the subject of those decals. The book contains 96 pages, 135 photos, 4 profiles and 4 decal options in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32. I have a bit ambivalent feelings about this book. Don't get me wrong; the highlights are a lot of very nice photos that are printed quite large on the pages. The decals also look superb, being printed by Cartograf and some very attractive colour profiles. I think the publishers wanted the book be too much different things. There is some bilingual English/Polish text under "Introduction" that races through the design, production and operational history of the type. Surprisingly, one of the few colour pages contains an advertisement for the Kagero shop.... I'd rather have seen something F6F related in that space... The next page is indeed F6F-related but of very suspect useability; 5 smallish colour photos of an static display F6F warbird on an airshow under the rather grandiose title: "Grumman F6F Hellcat In Detail". I would have been very happy if the publishers had chosen this book to be a photo book where the photos and profiles with captions would have told the tale of the Hellcat because the large photos, decals and profiles are very much worth your while! Conditionally Recommended because of the above mentioned drawbacks. I'd like to thank Kagero for the review sample of the book.

Kagero B-25J Mitchell in Combat over Europe (Mediterranean Theatre of Operations) SMI Library 06 #19006 By Marek Katarzynski As the title says, this book focuses on the use of the B-25J Mitchell in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. What is highlighted are exclusively USAAF B-25J's. The book is made up of 80 pagesof photos and artwork clarified by English/Polish text. It starts out with a short introduction on the use of the B-25 by the USAAF's 12th Air Force. The book is predominantly a photo book, featuring the B-25J's from the 310th, 319th, 321st and 340th Bomb Groups operating over Italy and the Balkans from airfields at Corsica. The photos and captions mention the Bomb Group and Bomb Squadron identifiers on the planes, as well as describing the colour schemes or rather how the Olive Drab over Natural Metal scheme came into being. The photos are put together by BG. After all BG's have made their appearance, we arrive at the "Color Gallery", featuring 9 pages of colour photos (of mainly noses with nose-art), again sorted by BG. The final part is made up of 7 pages of colourful top- and sideviews, including the 3 decal options. The icing on the cake is the decal sheet, featuring 3 different B-25J's in the 3 different scales of 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32. One of those schemes would really be a candidate for my own 1/32 HK B-25J glass nose bomber if I hadn't already decided to build it into a Dutch example flying against the Japanese in 1945. But I still have a Revell/Monogram 1/48 B-25J in the stash, heheheheh! Aside from the above mentioned top and sideviews there are also photos in the book of all 3 subjects of which one is in the colour section. The decal sheet is printed by Cartograf, need I say more? That'll mean sharply printed and opaque decals! To clarify: I only post the 1/32 part of the decal sheet. Rest assured there is also a 1/48 and 1/72 part! Kagero have even supplied an extra tail number for "M.M.R." in 1/48 although I have failed to see what is wrong on the original sheet... Conclusion: Although I'm quite familiar with the B-25, I wasn't with the photos in this book. I really like the subject and am very happy with the decals that are supplied with this book. These give you the possibility to finish that B-25J in a very original and attractive scheme! Very highly recommended! Our thanks go to Kagero for supplying LSM with the review sample. Erik Bosch