"Battle Cry of Freedom" is simply the best single volume history of the United States Civil War. It’s a big book at over 1000 pages, but the narrative and writing style will grip your attention from the beginning.

This is the orginal IL-2 kit from Accurrate Miniatures released in the 1997 (20 years already, how time files).  While we now have the ultimate 1/48 IL-2 with Tamiya's release, this kit can still hold its own, as AC kits were wonderfully detailed if somewhat fiddly'' in construction due to engineering.

This is part of Osprey's military history series, these are short one volume presentations intended to give the reader a general overview of the subject.  In a volume tha tis less than 100 pages including maps and graphics, the book does exactly that.

A great Aircraft museum that you will pass on the way to the Kennedy Space Center - make sure you budget at least an extra hour if you are visiting the Space Center so you can stop by this museum. It's not large, but the planes are well kept and displayed.

If you ever are in the Orlando Florida area, this is definitely worth the 1 hr (depending on traffic) drive. Has a large amount of US space material on display - especially nice is the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the presentation here is much better than the one in NYC or Washington DC.  

I first read this book back in the late 1980's.  As an introduction to the beginnings of World War I, you probably can not find a better one volume resource.

Masking tape is one of the essential tools used in modeling - but not just any cheap tape you pick up at the big box stores.  Here's a rundown of the types I've find most useful for paint masking.

The Museum of American Armor, located in Old Bethpage, Long Island, New York is a good size armor museum.  Probably the largest collection on the east coast now that the Army's own armor museum has closed. The artifacts range from bicycles, to cars, to artillery, and of course soft-top and armored vehicles.

 This book was written the 1990's and remains the best one on the Skunkworks.  The Skunkworks was of course the nick name given to the special devision of Lockheed that developed some of the most important military aircrafts in the world.  Often leap frogging any other nation with new advanced technology and design.  This book is full of storeis from Ben Rich whio ran the Skunk works for over 15 years.