Reviews of books or magazines relating to scale modeling.

Book Author(s)
Theo Van Geffen, Gerald Arruda
Review Author
Damon Blair
Published on
January 7, 2024
Company
Key Publishing Ltd
MSRP
$25.00

Republic’s F-105 Thunderchief (also known as the Thud) was developed in response to a requirement for a fast, single-seat fighter aircraft capable of carrying an atomic weapon. With an internal bomb bay loaded with an atomic weapon, the F-105 initially stood alert in Europe, under the control of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). A short time later, F-105s sat on alert in the Pacific Air Force (PACAF), stationed in Okinawa and Korea. The F-105 soldiered on for just over a decade after the Vietnam War, before being retired from service.

With 150+ photos spread over 96 pages, this book emphasizes the Thud’s pre-Vietnam and post-Vietnam service. There is a brief development overview of the Thud, and a chapter on the Thud’s service in the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), with squadrons and missions, including the “Victor Alert”, standing nuclear alert.

Book Author(s)
Bill Norton
Review Author
Marc K. Blackburn
Published on
December 26, 2023
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Helion has added another volume in their on-going series of modern conflicts in the Middle East. This is the first of a projected three volumes covering the War of Attrition between Israel and its Arab neighbors between the end of the Six Day War in 1967 and the beginning of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. If you have read any of Helion’s books on modern conflicts, this book follows a familiar outline. There are seven chapters providing a broad international context for the war. Events are outlined with an in-depth focus of the forces available with particular attention to the air forces of the various powers. It is richly illustrated with mostly black and white photographs contemporary to the conflict. In the center you will find color profiles of Israeli and Arab armies' ground and air equipment. The book finishes with an extensive bibliography of related works.

Book Author(s)
Andy Evans
Review Author
Rob Booth
Published on
December 26, 2023
Company
Phoenix Scale Publications
MSRP
$29.95

With the recent demise of some of our favorite scale modeling publications, the stars have aligned for Andy Evans and David Francis and their magazine designers Jonathan Phillips and Andy Folds. As a result, they were able to team up and put together Phoenix Scale Publications to the benefit of those of us in the scale modeling hobby. Their excellent Phoenix Scale Modelling and Phoenix Aviation Modelling magazines became available earlier this year.

Aviation modelers will also benefit from their outstanding Airmark and Red, White and Blue Series of aircraft reference books.

The subject of this review is the “Real to Replica Blue Series #2 – The SAAB JAS 39 Gripen”. This soft cover 8.25” X 11.5” book contains 96 pages of background and development, color reference photos accompanied by a reference commentary for each picture. There is also a color profile artwork section and kit modeling references.

Book Author(s)
Benjamin Lai and Zhang Yiming
Review Author
Andy Taylor
Published on
December 23, 2023
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, exacerbating the Sino-Soviet split during China’s Cultural Revolution. This book focuses on the Chinese perspective (another book in Casemate Publishers/Helion Company Asia @War series No.21 - The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969, Volume 1 - First Clash at Damansky Island, and No. 23 - The Sino-Soviet Border War of 1969, Volume 2 – Confrontation at Lake Zhalanashkol) focuses on the Soviet perspective). The Battle of Damansky (Soviet name)/ Zhenbao (Chinese name) Island in the Ussuri (Wusuli) River in Manchuria, was a series of battles between the two largest Communist powers. While there were other skirmishes, the two battles outlined in this book are tied together well, with the Battle of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island (March–May 1969) being the most important and decisive, and the Tielieketi (Lake Zhalanashkol) Incident (13 August 1969).

Book Author(s)
Massimiliano Afiero. Translated by Raphael Riccio
Review Author
Orlando Reyes
Published on
February 11, 2024
Company
Casemate Publishers
MSRP
$28.95

The book is part of the Casemate Illustrated series. This is the second and final book dealing with this unit of the German Army during WWII. The scope of the book extends from Operation Goodwood to April 1945. The book is divided into 9 sections along with an Epilogue, Bibliography, and Index. At the beginning of the book, you will find a section called "The Timeline of Events." This section recaps some of the actions in Vol.#1 and then talks about the contents of this volume. This is a very concise, yet informative section.

Book Author(s)
Antonio Luis Sapienza Fracchia
Illustrators: David Bocquelet, Luca Canossa, Tom Cooper, Antonio Luis Sapienza, and Ivan Zajac
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
December 22, 2023
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Helion is a UK-based company that produces books on many aspects of Military History from the Late Medieval period through to the present day. Helion was established in 1996, and since then they have published over 1,200 books, with 100 or more new titles coming out every year, for readers around the world.

Book Author(s)
Bill Norton
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
December 18, 2023
Company
Helion & Company
MSRP
$29.95

Given the current situation in the Middle East, this is not an easy review to write; if nothing else, this publication proves that there is nothing new in the World.

The long-standing enmity between Arab and Israeli politicians has festered since the foundation of Israel in 1947. Aside from the continuing Arab terrorism during the period between the 1967 and 1973 Wars, there was a less-known ‘low-level’ conflict, known as the War of Attrition, where nation-states on both sides positioned themselves as best they could for the next war.

Book Author(s)
John Grehan, Alexander Nicoll
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
December 18, 2023
Company
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
MSRP
$34.95

During the early months of 1942, there was much pressure on the Western Allies – especially from the Russians - to ‘do something – anything!’ to relieve the unrelenting bad news on all fronts. The British were struggling in North Africa and the Far East, Japan was running roughshod over the US in the Pacific while the Canadian Government was under pressure at home. The result of these pressures was to lead to one of the most ill-conceived operations of WWII – Operation Jubilee, the raid on the northern French port of Dieppe, which had been heavily fortified by the occupying German armed forces. The resulting operation in August 1942 was an unmitigated disaster, costing the lives of thousands of Canadian and British troops, sailors and airmen with very little to show.

Book Author(s)
Tomasz Kaca
Review Author
Paul Bradley
Published on
December 18, 2023
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$28.00

This book is the 28th in MMP’s Spotlight On series, and consists of 23 full-color plates showing 23 different famous P-51 Mustang fighters, splendidly depicted by Polish aviation artist, Tomasz Kaca. Each plate shows the aircraft in question in the air above a variety of landscapes and featuring various WWII theatres. Each plate is accompanied by a short caption naming the aircraft and its identity, the pilot and his unit. There are no other words in the book, not even an introduction.

While the plates are splendidly rendered, I have two issues with the book. Firstly, the plates are split across the spine of the book and while it is easy enough to ‘break’ the spine so it lays flat, it does rather spoil the effect. Perhaps this type of book is better served by a landscape format rather than portrait.

Book Author(s)
Jon Feenstra
Review Author
Orlando Reyes
Published on
December 17, 2023
Company
Peko Publishing
MSRP
$42.95

Volume 25 of this series is dedicated to the Panzerwaffe and its many variants/types. The Panzerwaffe ordered 54,147 vehicles/AFVs in 126 versions on 28 different chassis. The book gives you a small representation of the vehicles/AFV built by the Germans during WWII. Although it is true that the German vehicles/AFV were top of the art in their time, they could not compete against the sheer quantity of Allied war production. That being said, the Germans, although under a tremendous amount of pressure due to fighting against superior numbers, still made good use of the equipment provided to them. The German Panzerwaffe defeated Allied opponents in many cases through superior training, tactics and not infrequently, by sheer bravado of their troops.