- Published: Valiant Wings Publishing
- Author: Richard Franks
- ISBN 978-0-9567198-0-5
- Price: £17.95 RRP
- Soft back, 112 pages, high quality art paper, colour and black/white images, profusely illustrated throughout. Colour profiles by Richard Caruana.
Availability: www.valiant-wings.co.uk , ADH Publishing and good specialist book and hobby retailers worldwide
Our thanks to Mark at Valiant Wings Publishing for supplying our review sample
Review by Geoff Coughlin
Author and background…
This is the first title in the Airframe & Miniature (AirMin) Series from Valiant Wings Publishing. The author, Richard Franks will be known to many for his Editorial role with Model Airplane International (MAI), part of the ADH Publishing empire. Also of course for much of the Modellers’ Data File books we continue to see widely at shows and on our shelves.
I have a serious personal liking for the Messerschmitt Me 262 and so this new title immediately struck a chord but need to be more objective than that here, so let’s see what is offered in the book.
Title structure…
The book is divided up into two sections – Airframe chapters cover evolution, testing, production and drawing board projects, camouflage and markings plus colour profiles of the Me 262 from Richard Caruana. Miniature chapters cover kit builds of the top Me 262s in 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32nd scales, detailed isometric views of all prototype and production variants for those wishing to build a collection. Also included are detailed walkaround photographs of examples of the Me 262A, B ad Avia S.92 and CS.92. The book is topped and tailed by a detailed reference bibliography and comprehensive kit listing. A regularly updated file of aftermarket modelling products relevant to the type will soon be available for download from the Valiant Wings website.
This is the first in a series of books of interest not only to us scale modellers but also all aviation enthusiasts, but the focus is clearly on the modeller.
Modelling focus…
As a pure one-stop-shop this title is going to be hard to beat, it really contains all most modellers will need to see in a good model reference title. Many of the period images won’t be new to you if you are well into your subject, but some will be, as will the line drawings and profiles. Richard Caruana is a talented artist and his profiles will inspire you and make you want to go and get that 262 model out of the stash and get building. I have a Trumpeter 1:32 Me 262B-1a sitting there looking at me (thanks Les) and it isn’t far from being started, so this title has already begun to motivate this reviewer!
I am a big fan of quality reference material as many of you will hopefully appreciate as we add our 58th set of detailed walkaround images to SMN’s Photo Reference Library and so too in this book, walkaround coverage is given to the 262. In some ways this book reminds me of the excellent Aerodetail titles available from Hobbylink Japan, but the scope of this title is far wider and consequently better value for money.
Kit builds…
A decent selection of Me 262 kits are built for the book and that is to be applauded – they certainly give you an insight into what building that particular kit will bring. I was especially interested in the Trumpeter Me 262B-1a build for obvious reasons but to be honest, I think all the builds could have been given more extensive coverage. After all, modellers will doubtless make up the majority of the buying public and I think Richard and Valiant Wings have missed an opportunity here. With books and magazines, there are always issues of space and competing needs in terms of content, but I for one would like to see more images of the kit build up process for each project.
Having said this, the quality of the builds is high and there are some nice weathering touches like weathering to the jet intakes and canopy sills in the above 1:32 Trumpeter build.
Overall then…
I would certainly recommend this new title as it has plenty of good reference material, images and profiles to help us get the best out of our Me 262 projects. I am certainly looking forward to the next title.
Geoff C.