Steve Ginter’s Martin PBM Mariner is one of more recent in his Naval Fighters series and was actually initiated after hearing that Minicraft was really, really, really going to finally put out their 1/72 PBM-5A kit. This edition is in their standard 8.5” x 11” format softbound publication that is 256 pages (excluding covers). I counted 760 photographs (5 in color) along with 61 drawings.

Author Steve Ginter is a noted military historian who publishes the Naval Fighter series that was founded in 1980. After graduating from California State University-Northridge, Steve Ginter became a US Navy pilot, serving from 1966 to 1972. Upon leaving the US Navy, Steve Ginter held a series of management positions within the Thrifty Drug chain for the next twenty-one years. In 1996 in became the CEO of Sentai Distributors where he directed company operations until 2011. The Air Force Legends series was initiated in 1998 with the publication of ‘The Martin XB-51’.

The newest in Osprey's Combat Aircraft series is authored by Peter E. Davies. A noted author with over twenty-six aviation books published, Peter E. Davis' focus has been on Vietnam War era aircraft. He has had a long relationship with Osprey and has authored 13 titles and co-authored another two.

Illustrator Jim Laurier, a native of New England, provides the color profiles. Jim has been drawing since he could hold a pencil and throughout his life he has worked in many mediums creating artwork on a variety of subjects. He has worked on the Osprey Aviation list since 2000, and has been featured in hundreds of aviation books.

Gareth Hector is a digital artist of international standing as well as an aviation history enthusiast. Gareth Hector provides the cover artwork of pilot Lt. Grover Erickson and RIO Lt John Perry in their F-4B attacking Bach Long Vi island on the night of October 26, 1965.

This is the first Yellow-Wings product I have had the pleasure of reviewing, and my initial reactions were very positive.

The focus of this company is on USN, USMC and USAAC subjects from the 1930-42 era, and this one falls right in line. This particular set provides markings for one specific aircraft, SBD-2 Dauntless #2106, during 5 phases of its lifetime. The standard ziplock bag contents consist of a stiff cardboard, full-color “title board”, 5 double-sided instruction pages (printed in black & white and color), and 2 full pages of decal sheets printed by Microscale. This is the 1/48^th scale set, and there is also one available in 1/32.

The five different schemes for Dauntless #2106 provided are: