Flypast 07/2013

Hollywood luminaries Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are to follow their criticaIly-acclaimed Band of Brothers and The Pacific TV series with a third -this time featuring the exploits of the wartime US Eighth Air Force operating from Britain. The ten-hour 'miniseries' for the HBO network is said to be the most expensive production in the history of television, costing around $500 million. It will be based on the book Masters of the Air by Donald L Miller, a history professor at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, who worked with Spielberg and Hanks on The Pacific. Miller's research for the book included studying archives and listening to oral histories at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force near Savannah, Georgia - where some of the filming for the series will be taking place in October.

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Britain At War 06/2013

THEY received the call they had expected, and duly registered. They were conscripts, men called forward to fight for their country. Those passed fit were seen by a recruiting officer, marked down for army, navy or air force and went home to await their instructions. This was December 1943 and, just before Christmas, they received the expected OHMS buff envelopes. To their astonishment they were ordered not to the fighting front, but to the coal front - for these men were part of the first batch of the so-called "Bevin Boys", who, 20,000 in total, were conscripted to work down the mines as their contribution to the national war effort. The coal mining industry had seen a rise in demand with the outbreak of war, but with the fall of France and the entry of Italy into the war on the side of the Germans, these two export markets were closed virtually overnight. Almost 100 pits had to cease production. Mining was not even seen as a reserved occupation as there were so many unemployed miners.

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Scale Military Modeller International 06/2013

This 'Orange Box' kit from Cyber-Hobby includes both an Artilleriewagen and set of Dragon 'Waffen Tank Crew' for good measure. The Artilleriewagen is not a very complex kit, but nevertheless some care was needed during the build. As usual we begin with the undercarriage construction, and in this case it was rather an easy task, as not much would be seen on the finished model! More challenging was the hull. First you need to to locate all the bort and locating holes and then open them. I must say that instructions are quite clear in providing additional help which makes this easier, but still care is still needed. With all ports and holes open we move onto building the hull proper. unfortunately Cyber-Hobby provides no help in the form of bulkhead or support beams, so you have to apply glue to all the elements and then place them almost at the same time. Most important - before the glue sets, make sure that all parts are square.

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