Brian R. Baker
Reviews By Author
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Guide To German Night Fighters in World War II - The Night Defenders of The ReichPublished:
Historical BackgroundThis book presents a detailed description of the efforts of the German Luftwaffe to defend against the night bombing offensive of the British Royal Air Force during the course of World War II. Of course, the Americans were also involved, but their primary attacks were carried out in daylight, so the main German efforts were against the RAF bombers and Mosquito night fighters. The author gives a good account of the course of the war, and the technological development on both sides as the war dragged on. The Luftwaffe’s main problem was their shortage of fuel supplies, and resulting restricted training programs. There were a number of approaches to the problems of locating enemy aircraft flying into German territory, and shooting them down without being… more |
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Dornier DO 335 Pfeil Top WingsPublished:
Historical BackgroundThe DO-335 was designed as a heavy fighter for the Luftwaffe, and featured a pair of DB-603 engines, one mounted in the nose, and the other mounted aft of the center of gravity, with its propeller located behind the tail surfaces of the aircraft. This push-pull arrangement eliminated the drag usually associated with a second engine, and allowed much higher speeds. It was intended to counter the British DeHavilland Mosquito, which was causing severe problems for the Luftwaffe in attacking German night fighters trying to counter the RAF’s night bomber offensive. There were several prototypes built, each differing in minor details. Some were single seat, while others were two seaters intended for night fighting, although few, if any, were equipped with… more |
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Nakajima B5N KatePublished:
Historical BackgroundThis book tells the story of the development and operational career of the Nakajima B5N Japanese Navy torpedo bomber, known as the Kate to the Americans, who developed a sophisticated identification system which avoided the linguistic problems associated with adapting the Japanese language to American use. In general, fighters had boys’ names, while bombers and other types used girls’ names. Therefore, Zeke, Nate, and Jack were fighters, while Nell, Betty, and Kate were bombers. The story of the development of that system is another story. The book begins with the story of the development of earlier types of carrier based bombers, and how the B5N was the first Japanese Navy carrier based monoplane bomber, although its competitor, the Mitsubishi… more |
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Crafter’s Square Metallic MarkerPublished:
HistoryI found this in a local Dollar Tree Store, and thought that it would certainly be useful for any scale modeler. Other similar type stores did not stock the product. It is a small fine point non-toxic felt marker with silver colored ink, and I have found it much more efficient than using a paintbrush to paint fine line on parts of models. It is very efficient in painting the silver rocker arm covers on radial engines in almost any scale, and would also be useful painting cockpit interior details, including structural members and anything else requiring fine silver lines. DescriptionThis is a small, standard size felt marker, with a silver case indicating the color of ink included. There are other pens in this series, sold individually, providing red… more |
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Air Power and the Arab World, 1909-1955. Vol. 5: The Road to War, 1936-1939Published:
Historical BackgroundThis book is part of a series explaining the historical developments of military and civil aviation in the Arab World. This includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. After the end of World War I, these regions were in the process of moving from European colonial rule to independence, with Britain and France in decline, while Germany and Italy were attempting to increase their influence. At the same time, aviation was slowly improving, and the Middle Eastern areas were developing more sophisticated aviation facilities. The British were probably the most involved in colonial developments, while France and Spain were in decline. The authors of this book… more |
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Lend-Lease and Soviet Aviation in the Second World WarPublished:
Historical BackgroundThis is one of the first historical accounts of the Lend-Lease program designed to aid the Soviet Union in its war against Nazi Germany. The backgrounds are rather confused, because in the late thirties, the Soviets and the Nazis, along with the Italian Fascists, seemed to be working together to dominate nearly all of Eastern Europe. In 1939, The Germans invaded Poland, but they didn’t do it alone. They were aided by the Soviets, who attacked from the east. The Poles resisted, but the Germans and Russians were just too powerful, but for a while, it appeared that the Germans and Russians were allies. The American and British governments had for a long time sold aviation technology and airplanes to the Russians, as after the Communist Revolution,… more |
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I-16 Rata, The Fighter That Saved the USSRPublished:
BackgroundThis book provides a very complete history of the development of the Polikarpov I-16 fighter series. It actually goes further than that, as it also explains the political and economic conditions in the Soviet Union after the 1917 Revolution, when the Tsarist Russian government was replaced by Trotsky’s Communist regime in the twenties and thirties. The author goes into extensive detail explaining how the Soviet economy was going through very severe changes, with violent repression of anyone who was even suspected of disagreeing with the system. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were slaughtered during this process, and many more were imprisoned for extended periods, but some were still allowed to work on whatever projects they had been working on. This was… more |
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Italian Aviation Series: HU-16A AlbatrossPublished:
BackgroundThis book tells the story of the Grumman SA-16A Amphibian as used by the Italian Air Force after World War II. It is NOT a study of all users of the type, as the Wayne Mutza book on the Albatross, published by Shiffer in 1996, was. This book gives a very brief account of the service life of the plane, and then shifts to Italian service exclusively. It therefore fills a gap, as Mutza’s book has very little coverage of Italian service. One feature of the book is that the text is printed side-by-side in Italian and English, but the typeset is different, which I thought made the English text a little harder to read. Another problem is that the translation from Italian to English is a little bit strange grammatically, as words like “aircrafts” appear frequently… more |
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Single No. 35. NAA Mustang III (P-51B-5-NA) W/Cdr Stanislaw Skalski.Published:
Historical BackgroundThe MMP/Casemate Single series of publications has developed into a very useful tool for modelers to add authentic details to their models. The books usually take one type of aircraft, and in this case, one particular airplane, and provides extensive detail, including accurate view drawings in two scales, photos of the actual aircraft in service, copies of maintenance manual pages showing specific details of components, photos of details of surviving examples, and colorful four view general arrangement drawings. The BookIn this case, the authors have selected an early production North American P-51B-5-NA, designated Mustang Mk. III by the British, which had been flown by a well known, in Poland at least, World War II Wing Commander of… more |
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Junkers JU-188/388Published:
Historical BackgroundThis book provides the modeler with highly accurate 1/72 and 1/48 scale drawings of the Luftwaffe’s Junkers JU-188 and JU-388 series of medium bombers. At the beginning of the book, a very brief description of the aircraft is given, along with some information of the basic changes made when the JU-388 evolved. Of course, the JU-388 did not enter large scale production, so the vast majority of the information provided deals with variants of the JU-188 series. The book contains mainly two types of information, scale line drawings in the two major scales, and 1/48 scale color profile side views of two JU-188A’s, two JU-188E’s, and two JU-388L’s. All of the drawings are of the finest quality, and will provide a good basis for reference for those… more |