This book covers the RAF Hawker Fury and RN Nimrod. Number 116 in the very familiar Warpaint series by Guideline, this book follows their tried and true format. Beginning with the discussion of the prototype the book then moves into production models and service. All variants are covered.

Begun as a private venture, the sleek inline engine Fury was the first main RAF fighter to reach speeds in excess of 200MPH. Besides the RAF the Fury also served with what are now Iran, Portugal, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Spain as well as one Panther radial engine model with Norway for trials. The naval version of the fury, the Nimrod, served well with the Royal Navy as well as with Denmark. Japan and Portugal trialed the Nimrod but no orders were forthcoming!

The bulk of the book (some 45 pages) provides operational and service information on both designs for all users. The main focus in the Fury section is of course on the RAF service of the more elegant looking inline engine variant but good coverage is given to the Panther radial engine Norwegian and P&W radial engine Persian (Iran) aircraft. Furies did see combat in WWII early on with Yugoslavia as well as in the Spanish Civil War and with South Africa in the East African War. One original Fury survives today at Duxford in flying condition with the Historic Aircraft Collection the remaining pages cover the same areas for the Nimrod. The sole airworthy Nimrod also resides with HAC beside its Fury brother! One of the crown jewels of this series is the numerous color profiles that give you just about every option available for both aircraft. These along with superb 1/48 scale plans are true modeler’s candy and alone make the book worth the purchase price!

I like this book; in fact I like this whole series! There is information for both the modeler and historian alike. It can be put to great use on the old Inpact/Pyro/Airfix/Lindberg1/48 Fury kit. In 1/72 the Matchbox, Airfix, A-Model or Revell kits could also benefit from the information in this book. This is an excellent addition to your aviation library!

Our thanks to Guideline Publications for the review copy and my thanks to IPMS/USA for the review opportunity