This volume in MMP’s “Single” series covers the Avia S-199, and with the impending release of Eduard’s 1/48 kit (announced, but I have no idea of when), the timing of this publication is perfect. The idea behind this series of books (more like booklets) seems to be to get right to the point and show scale plan views, photos, profiles, etc.

Upon opening the narrow, softcover book, one is immediately presented with several pages of scale plans (in 1/72 and 1/48). No introductory history or anything like that, just right into the plans. This is followed by about 15 pages of photos that are a mix of snapshots from operational use and modern photos of a restored museum aircraft. While there is no body of text, each photo does have a generous caption. The operational photos show aircraft in both Israeli and Czech use and include many shots I have not seen in other publications. The museum photos offer up a good mix of external and internal details. At the end of this section there is a page-worth of color photos showing the exterior of an Avia S-199 at the Israeli Air Force Museum. To wrap things up, there are 3 pages of color profiles. These profiles are all the same aircraft, an Israeli S-199 circa 1948. There are left/right views on one page, and a page each for the top and bottom views.

This is, by design, a very succinct, almost abrupt book to look through. But there is still a lot of useful information for a modeler within these pages. It is certainly much more of a dedicated airframe reference and much less of a historical treatise. A good one-stop reference on this spinoff of the Messerschmitt 109. Not much history (really none!), but a lot of great modeling detail references. A reasonable price for a good addition to your library.

Thanks to Casemate Publications for the review copy, and to IPMS for allowing me to review it,