The latest in Key Publishing’s ‘Historic Military Aircraft Series’, this slim volume looks at the McDonnel Douglas Phantom and English Electric Lightning in RAF service during the ‘70s and ‘80s when they were the mainstays of Britain’s air defence commitment.

As explained in the introduction, author Chris Goss inherited the photo collection of noted aviation author and artist David Howley, who many will recall for his colour profile paintings for many modelling and aviation magazines. This book features 180 of Howley’s photos, mainly in colour and mostly of good quality. Most are taken at airshows but there are also some ‘in service’ shots dating from his time as an RAF Warrant Officer.

Summary

This can be considered a “diorama-in-a-box” in that it contains everything one would need to create a nice airfield diorama. There are some frustrating fit issues, so I would recommend this kit to any modeler with a good dose of patience.

Background

The Spitfire MkVII airframe was based off of the MkV. It incorporated the improved Merlin 61 series engine. It was designed as a high-altitude interceptor and thus had a pressurized cockpit. It also had extended wing tips and the later large (pointed) rudder.

The MkIX was a later variant incorporating the Merlin 66 and later engines. Armament consisted of two 20mm Hispano cannon in the inboard position and four .303 browning machine guns in the outer positions. While most had the standard round wing tip they could be fitted with the clipped wing tip for low level operations. This variant could also carry a 90-Imperial gallon slipper tank as well as bombs and rockets.

This volume covers the Fw-190D and Ta-152 variants. It is presented in the familiar fashion of this publisher, with a column on each page in Polish and English. Captions and drawing explanations are also in both languages.

Text and photos make up the first seventy-five pages of this volume. These pages cover both technical development, changes between variants, and operational use. A serial list of all productions as well as some of the most successful pilots are also covered. There is a wealth of scale drawing both in the book as well as a couple of extra loose ones. The four pages of diagrams showing all the changes from the basic A9 version into the Ds and Ta-152s are quite illuminating. The color profiles are beautifully done as is always the case with this publisher.

To top everything off a lovely sheet of decals printed by Techmod are also included. This sheet has markings in 1/48 and 1/72 scale totaling eight sets of markings for:

Publisher’s Notes

“A comprehensive, accurate, and academically-supported reference of all of the major military and paramilitary camouflage patterns that have been in use around the world from the end of World War Two to today.

This book will be a one-stop, generalized reference illustrating as many patterns as have been researched into the present time period. It will surpass all previous efforts. In addition to color tiles illustrating camouflage patterns it will include photographs of the designs actually being worn by military and paramilitary personnel, something few other references have done in suitable combination.”

The Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Real to Replica Blue Series by Phoenix Publications.

The book is a paper back, has 96 pages and is full of great photos of the Hawkeye. The history of the E-2 Hawkeye is quite extensively covered from the original idea to the variants that have been built, to today’s serving aircraft. Included in the book is a section devoted to the international service of the Hawkeye and a detailed walkaround as highlights of the book.

The last section of the book covers building the Kenetic E-2C 1/48 scale model and shows three different nationality versions, the United States, French and Mexican Navy builds.

This is my kind of book, filled with lots of glossy colored images of the airplane and not a whole lot of writing. All the photos are high quality and a joy to look at. I recommend anyone who is wishing to build a model of the Hawkeye consider buying this book.

The book is divided into 10 sections