The A-26 was a late arrival to World War II but it was the epitome of the medium attack bomber. Designed to replace both the B-26 and the A-20 Havoc, the A-26 was faster and more robust than either design. With crew of two or three (depending on which version) the Invader was a single pilot aircraft that carried fewer crew members into battle with a bigger bomb load. The A-26 would soldier-on through to the Vietnam conflict, quite an accomplishment for a twin-engine medium bomber.

This book is typical of this series of books; a soft bound book contains 96 pages filled with b/w and color photos. Included in the center section are 30 color profiles that will provide plenty of inspiration and information for the modeler. The text is informative and interesting; both easy to read and quite informative. I thoroughly enjoyed the first-hand accounts of the pilots and ground crew.

The photos of this airplane are very interesting because they include both the glass nosed bomber and the solid nosed strafers. What a great looking versatile airplane. The strafers could house eight guns in the nose, plus four two gun packs under the wings as well as the upper and lower two gun turret meant that the Invader was a mean motor scooter. Twenty forward firing .50 caliber guns could unleash a whole lot of firepower.

The photos are a little small but still quite useful. There is lots of great nose art for those who like that stuff…like me. The color photos are really nice, as are the color profiles. These are all in the center of the book as found in this series of books. For the modeler, there are natural metal finish, olive drab over neutral grey, and all black aircraft. A little something for everyone.

There are plenty of reasons to buy this publication, most importantly is the limited amount of information available for the A-26 in both the ETO and PTO. This is a nice little one-stop shop. The model builder will be inspired by the photos and the profiles. I really enjoyed this book and, also, many of the other ones from the series. You can’t go wrong here.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Osprey for the review copy. You can obtain your copy by contacting them directly at www.ospreypublishing.com or at your local book store. If you order yours from Osprey, make sure you let them know you heard about it at IPMS/USA.