Scale aviation modeller international

Russian Aviation Colours

1909-1922

Camouflage and Marking Vol. 3

Red Stars

AUTHOR: Marat Khairulin

YEAR: 2017

PUBLISHER: Mushroom Model

Publications

ISBN: 978-83-65281-64-7

FOR M AT: 167pp Hardback

T

his is the third Volume in this

series and like the previous

two volumes, does not

disappoint. The latest volume looks at

the aircraft used by the early Soviet air

force. The book has drawn together

photographs from both public and

private collections of the aircraft

from which the markings have been

recreated. The book is profusely

illustrated with original black and

white photographs, colour plates and

reconstructed artwork. This really

shows the diverse nature of the early

Soviet air force, which was made up

of various captured aircraft from

British, French and German air forces.

Some of the Soviet Nieuports

feature some rather risqué artwork

of female nudes some of which is

based on famous artworks. The Roden

1/32 scale Nieuport 24bis features

as an option the aircraft known

as ‘Diana the Huntress’, this book

throws further light on this colour

scheme in both its Soviet service and

later Polish service. And I am now

quite inspired now to finish off my

Roden kit based on the contemporary

photographs in this book.

I can only hope that the newly

announced 1/32 scale Copper State

Models Nieuport 17 will feature some

of the markings schemes shown in this

book, or that some of the aftermarket

decal companies will oblige! Other

aircraft featured in the book include one

of the two surviving Sopwith Triplanes,

which had quite a long post First World

War One career with the Soviets.

This is a fantastic reference book for

modellers and for fans of early Russian

and Soviet aviation. There are good

quality mainstream model kits of quite

a few of the aircraft featured in this

book and using some of the schemes

from this book will make for some

different looking versions. This book

and the others in the series are highly

recommended and I can not see them

being bettered. My thanks to MMP

for supplying this book for review.

TMU-S

Dornier Do335

Pfeil/Arrow

AUTHOR: J. Richard Smith and Eddie J.

Creek with Gerhard Roletschek

YEAR: 2017

PUBLISHER: Classic (an imprint of Crécy

Publishing)

ISBN: 978-1-906537-50-0

FOR M AT: 288pp Hardback

T

his hardback book opens

with a look at the early

Dornier’s in the immediate

post-first world war years, before

moving on to look at the birth of

the Luftwaffe after Hitler came

to power. This chapter takes

a brief look at the flying boats

and bombers from Dornier.

Chapter 3 is titled ‘from drawing

board to prototype’ this chapter is

richly illustrated with contemporary

photographs of the development

aircraft and the prototypes of the

Do 335. The next chapter looks at

the production of the 335 and has

some amazing photographs of the

5th production example after it was

captured by the Americans at the

end of the Second World War. Some

of the photos show it after it was

placed in a dump with other captured

airframes, this would make for an

amazing diorama! Chapter 5 looks

at night fighters and trainers. The

next chapter looks at the operational

use, Chapter 7 looks at ‘what might

have been’, including a twin fuselage

version! The next chapter looks at the

captured examples and their testing

before looking at the sole surviving

example in the USA. The final two

chapters look at the camouflage and

markings and the type in detail. The

first appendix has a copy of the types

technical manual, appendix two has

a production list. Appendix 3 is scale

plans of the 335 by Arthur Bentley.

The last appendix takes a brief look

at the Zoukei-mura 1/32 scale kit.

A book from Crécy is always a

treat, they even smell nice! This book

is profusely illustrated throughout,

with contemporary black and white

photos, colour profiles and extracts

from contemporary manuals, as

well as a selection of photos of the

surviving example before during and

after restoration. Being hardback

this book looks, feels like and is a

quality product. My thanks to Crécy

for supplying this book for review.

TMU-S

Flying Wings

A Visual History of the

Northrop XB-35 & YB-49

Flying Wings

AUTHOR: David Doyle

YEAR: 2015

PUBLISHER: Ampersand Publishing

Group Inc

ISBN: 978-0-9895547-7-0

FOR M AT: 120pp Softback

I

f you have in your stash the

AMT/Italeri 1/72 scale XB-35,

Anigrand Craftswork 1/144

scale kit or the Cyber-Hobby/

Dragon 1/200 scale kit of the

XB-35/YB-49 flying wing then

you will need this book! As the

title suggests this book is a

visual history and it offers very

comprehensive coverage. Both

the XB-35 and YB-49 receive

extensive photographic coverage

in this book, with images of

them under construction,

along with detail images of

the cockpits and engineers

stations as well as the engines

and undercarriage, in fact,

everything you could wish for!

There is a lot of inspiration for

diorama enthusiasts in this book

with images of the prototypes

being fuelled up. The fuel tankers

in yellow are slightly different from

that in the Airfix USAAF Bomber

re-supply vehicles sets, but I am

sure you could get away with it.

So, as I say if you have a kit

then this book deserves a place on

your bench as a reference to add

that little extra to your model! My

thanks to the author David Doyle

for supplying this book for review.

TMU-S

Airliner Series

Classic Propliners No.5

C AT. NO. 2016

PUBLISHER: Aero Research Co.

WEBSITE: http://www.AeroResearchCDs.com

T

his latest disc from Aero

Research continues to

give us images of Classic

Propliners. The images on

these discs come from private

collections from around the world

so will not have been published

before. The images on this disc

feature aircraft either in the prime

of their service, tired looking in

service and derelict on the edges

of airfields. One particular C-54

was repurposed as a restaurant.

Another image which stood out for

me was a derelict Dan Air DC-7.

Aircraft featured on the disc

include C46, C47/DC3, C118, 121,

DC4,6 and 7, amongst others.

There is only one image of the

rather strange looking CBY-3, one

for me to ‘Google’ later to find out

more about this particular type!

If you like classic civil aircraft

then this disc may be of interest

and there is plenty of inspiration

on here if you model propliners!

My thanks to Aero Research for

supplying this disc for review.

TMU-S

78 • MAY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

BOOKS & MEDIA

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