Model Aviation Books

Good handbook for the beginner & intermediate modeler who would like to expand their building skills. Well written by one very fine modeler who has one of the best modeling sights on the net. Great photos & a nice veriety of aircraft types get one motivated to hit the modeling bench.

If you want to have a good and helpful guide in how to build and detail a scale model, then you must not miss this book. In very clear words and good pictures it describes the how-to's and you see the result as a reference for your own work. So if you want to become an expert, don't miss this opportunity.

If you have built more than three or four models you already have all the skills described in this book. This is a great book for a beginner but has nothing to offer for anyone with even rudimentary skills. I never would have purchased this book had I seen it in a store.

I really enjoyed this book. It shows you, step by step, how to construct intermediate through master class builds. I only wish the author had included a 1/32 scale build as well. I look forward to more books from Mr. Glidden.

Very, Very, Very basic. If you have built more than three or four models you already have all the skills described in this book. I never would have purchased this book had I seen it in a store.

I like this book.
As a fan of the Osprey Modelling series and a fan of the F4F Wildcat I have found this to be a good addition to my modeling bookshelf. The modeling information included by the author, Mark Glidden, would prompt me to purchase other titles by him.

I look at the Wildcat as an unsung hero of WWII. Although out-maneuverd by the likes of the A6M Zero, it allowed the US Navy and Marine pilots that flew it to hold on and begin the advance back thru the Pacific until better aircraft were available. They also served with distinction in the Med and North Atlantic.

I've rated the book as four stars because I thought there was more material to be covered. More discussion as to the uses the aircraft was put to, the different services that used it, the numerous different schemes it was painted in would have been nice to see. Also a review of some of the available kits, how to modify them into different versions, etc. Maybe there will be a Volumn 2?!?

Good details on the aircraft, though I would have been happier with more details about the men who flew them and the conditions underwhich the flew.

The aerial battles between the British Sopwith Camel and the German Fokker Dr I triplane fighters are some of the most iconic images of the First World War - in large part due to the role played by Baron Manfred von Richtofen (the `Red Baron') - but they were in fact, only a very brief moment in a long struggle for aerial supremacy over the trenches of northwest Europe. In Osprey's Sopwith Camel vs Fokker Dr I, author Jon Guttman lays out the dramatic battles between these two well-known adversaries during the period September 1917 and May 1918. As the author notes, although the two aircraft were relatively evenly matched, the Germans often had the edge in pilot quality and experience, but the Camels had the numbers. By May 1918, the Fokker Dr I was being phased out and replaced by the superior Fokker D VIIs and the triplanes moment in history had passed, while the Camel soldiered on until Armistice Day. Overall, this volume is well put-together, with a solid narrative and excellent graphics. However, readers may notice a certain amount of overlap and redundancy with other Osprey aviation titles in the Aircraft of the Aces and Aviation Elite Units series.

In the introduction, the author begins by noting that, "both rotary-engined fighters, the Sopwith Camel and the Fokker Dr I triplane were relatively slow for their time, but were regarded as the most maneuverable machines to achieve production during the conflict." The author goes through the design and development of each aircraft and there are nice 3-view color plates of each aircraft. Interestingly, the two pre-production Fokker F Is delivered to the front were actually better-built than the production series D I models, which is certainly rare in the history of weapons development. Some of these information has been presented in other Osprey volumes, particularly about the production defects that plagued the Dr I, but they are fundamental to understanding the limitations of this fighter. The section on Technical Specifications is a bit dry, but effective and includes cockpit views of both aircraft. While the Germans only built 320 Fokker Dr I triplanes, the British built 5,695 Camels, which certainly put the British fighter in a different league by default. Although the Dr I was also hindered by problems with an unreliable engine and the engine oil lubricants used, the author concludes that, "when it came to maneuverability, the Dr I held a slight edge..." The section on the Strategic Situation is better than many aviation titles, which skim over the operational situation and dive straight into the fighter combat. Here, the author provides a map showing the location of each sides' main fighter bases and the numbers of fighters each side actually had deployed in the spring of 1918. For the main event (the Kaiserschlact), the Brits had 336 Camels versus 171 Fokker Dr Is, nearly a 2-1 edge for the Royal Air Force.

The section on combatants provides detailed backgrounds on two British and two German pilots (very nice) and general comments on training. The section on combat is 21 pages long and similar to the style of the Aviation Elite Unit series, describing individual encounters. Of note, the author is good about noting claims made by each side, then resolving them with actual numbers lost (in the next section, he notes that British claims were particularly exaggerated). It is a bit difficult to figure out which side `won' the duel from the data presented in the statistics section, but the author does present a list of 19 Allied and 6 German aces who downed a number of their opponents; from these numbers, 45 Fokker Dr Is were lost in combat with Camels, versus 32 Camels shot down by Fokker Dr Is. While not complete, these numbers suggest that the Fokker triplane was at best `breaking even' with the RAF and the Germans were too outnumbered to trade one-for-one.

Although long remembered as the mount of the Red Baron, the Fokker Dr I triplane only provided the Germans with a transitory advantage in the early days of the Kaiserschlacht in March 1918 and then faded rapidly afterwards. The triplane proved to be highly maneuverable but weak structurally and mechanically, which made it much less resilient than the plucky Sopwith Camel. This volume helps to reinforce the conclusion that in warfare, there is no place for fragile weapons.

This is a nice little comparative analysis of the Sopwith Camel and Fokker Triplane. The book purports to cover Design and Development; Technical Specifications; a history lesson covering the background of WWI when the aircraft flew and some of the pilots that flew them; and a section entitlted "Combat". There are some tidbits in this book you won't find elsewhere in other recently published WWI books. The layout is in a single column with lots of black and white period photos. That said, this book is more of a survey rather than an in depth study of the two aircraft. If you are relatively new to this period, looking for an easily digestible discussion of the relative merits of the two aircraft, this is the book you are looking for.

I had hoped that this book was going to be useful. However it is sadly out of date. It was published in the 1980's and doesnt have any of todays tech. I would recommend that you skip it and get "How to Build Dioramas" instead.

Even if you don't actually build plastic models, but enjoy looking at amazing creations, you'll love this book. Stunning models, beatiful pictures, and repeat viewing potential. I've had this book for more than 10 years, yet continue to re-read at least once a year... and I'm not even building plastic models any more.

The word is: Stunning.

This is not so much a how-to-book, but an overview of 3 very large dioramas. Nice pictures, a good example of what to do when you got around 8000 hours to spare.

The Introduction briefly reviews the German rigid airship (often referred to as Zeppelins) designations used by the manufacturers, and the different designations used by each the German navy and army. While this resulted in each airship possessing two different designations for the navy this was straightforward but was somewhat inconsistent for the army. After the Introduction, six pages are devoted to a history of the development by Count Zeppelin of the rigid airship, 1900-1914. After the fiery loss of the Count's fourth airship, zeppelin-fever swept the German population who admired the perseverance of the old count, but the military remained lukewarm.

In order to demonstrate his concept, Count Zeppelin founded the German Airship Transportation Company, known by its acronym DELAG. The text erroneously calls DELAG "the first commercial airline." It was not an airline in the true sense as there were no scheduled intercity operations, but rather a cruise operation. Zeppelins traveled to various German cities conducting short-haul air tours of the German countryside (1). These flights were quite popular. The success of DELAG forced the navy and army to send their crews on DELAG airships for training and to place orders for military zeppelins (2).

The book devotes fourteen pages of text to a narration of zeppelins in WWI. The German navy envisaged the role of rigid airship as reconnaissance. When the German fleet limited its fleet's battle actions there was little call for reconnaissance; and with the receipt of improved airships by the fleet, the zeppelin's role was primarily moved to strategic bombing. The book provides a brief account of zeppelin air raids. With the development of incendiary bullets for aircraft machine guns in 1916, the new "Height-Climber" rigid airships were developed to fly at high altitudes to try to avoid destruction. Each rigid airship improvement was countered by a corresponding improvement in defensive aircraft. After the army ceased to use rigid airships, in spite of heavy losses for strategic bombing the German navy continued to use rigid airship for bombing with the last bombing mission resulting in the fiery downing of L-70 in August 1918.

Curiously, zeppelin naval scouts prompted the British to begin the development of the aircraft carrier with a zeppelin scout, LZ 100, in 1918 being destroyed by a Sopwith Camel launched from a lighter towed behind a navy destroyer. An interesting account is given of the attempted rescue mission to German East Africa by LZ-104. When a German military force had surrendered and couldn't receive the supplies being carried to Sudan, LZ-104 returned to its base in Bulgaria after a nonstop flight of 95 hours covering 6,800 km.

Interestingly, Dr. Eckener, Count Zeppelin's collaborator and successor, immediately after WWI reactivated DELAG and built LZ 120, named BODENSEE. Unlike pre-WWI DELAG, BODENSEE, until taken over by the allies, flew scheduled passenger flights from Friedrichshafen to Berlin. The text concludes with a brief narration of the rigid airship after WWI until its demise following the Hindenburg's tragic 1937 crash.

The author concludes that basically the rigid airship technology was a blind alley both militarily and commercially. This conclusion ignores the fact that the Graf Zeppelin, LZ-127, during its long career safely carried 13,000 passengers and in 1928 initiated regular passenger service to Brazil. In addition, transatlantic airplane passenger flights didn't begin until 1939 with large flying boats making numerous enroute-refueling stops. Before it's 1937 demise, in 1936 the zeppelin Hindenburg had a successful season making several nonstop North Atlantic round trip passenger flights. Not until 1957, twenty-one years after the Hindenburg's 1936 nonstop North Atlantic passenger flights, did scheduled direct nonstop service begin with DC-7s from New York to London. Today with stealth fighters and bombers, Concorde supersonic airliners and jumbo-jets, few people realize that from 1928 to May 1937 German airships dominated transoceanic passenger air travel. The Germans had mastered rigid airship technology and flight, but hydrogen was the German zeppelin's Achilles heel. Before WWII, the United States wouldn't sell Germany non-flammable helium for use in their zeppelins.

The book's best features are its many photographs and colored illustrations. The cut-away illustration of LZ-104 (L-59), the African Airship, is most useful to those unfamiliar with a late-WWI rigid airship design. The text on WWI airship history is at best limited. For a comprehensive work on German zeppelins in WWI, the serious reader/student should read Dr. Douglas Robinson's book The Zeppelin in Combat.

1 Douglas Botting, Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine (Henry Holt and Company, LLC) p58
2 Ibid, p 59

Osprey's New Vanguard #101, Zeppelins: German Airships 1900-1940 by Charles Stephenson, covers the development and operational role of German airships in the First World War. Although with the benefit of hindsight it seems pretty clear today that the zeppelins were a technological blind alley for the Germans, these craft still represent an interesting aspect of early aviation history. Unfortunately, readers will quickly realize that this volume fails to deliver the zeppelin story in a number of important areas, including basic data. There are a number of longer, more expensive volumes on zeppelins in the First World War and readers interested in serious study should not view this volume as a cheaper substitute.

Stephenson begins with seven pages on the background to the development of airships in Germany in 1900-1914; although brief, this section is adequate. The rest of the volume focuses on airship operations in the First World War, with a brief section on German airships in the inter-war period. The author has included numerous excellent photographs from the Zeppelin Museum. The color plates include a dozen side profiles of different model zeppelins, a cross section diagram of LZ104, an airship with an observer's car, the destruction of SL 11, and the experimental launch of an Albatross fighter from LZ 80. The author also provides five pages of data on the airships and a bibliography which fails to even mention some of the excellent German websites available.

The author concludes that the zeppelins were "fundamentally ill suited for war." This seems pretty obvious, given a hydrogen-filled airship that could explode from a burst of incendiary bullets, but I wish the author had actually attempted a little analysis. Indeed, the author does not even make the effort to inform the reader how many zeppelins were built during the war and how many were lost - although the reader can do it for himself. Apparently, somewhere between 80-115 zeppelins were built during 1914-1918 (I've seen many different figures), of which about 35 were lost to enemy action and 39 to accidents (I say about, since the comments in the author's table about the fate of each airship are often vague); this is a loss rate of about 70%. Curiously, the loss rate for all German standard aircraft from all causes in the war was about 57%; this means that the zeppelin losses were high, but not unusual for experimental weaponry.

In fact, the data tables seem to lack a lot of basic information about the airships, such as crew size, cost, bomb load and defensive armament. The author provides "payload in tons" but this is deceptive; for example, he lists LZ 112 as having a payload of 43.5 tons, but the actual bomb load was only 4 tons - the rest was fuel and other consumables (possibly including crew weight). It would have been great if the author could at least have mentioned something about the costs of the zeppelin program, since it is obvious that Imperial Germany put large resources into this effort. The Hindenberg, built in 1935, cost about $2 million - money that might have been better spent on four-engine bombers. Other statistics and information, like the number of crewmen lost in the raids over England (he lists 528 civilians killed by zeppelins) would have put the strategic raids in better perspective. The whole issue of zeppelin construction, training and modification during the war are virtually ignored.

The author's operational narrative is also a bit spotty, including missing the fact that it was a zeppelin that dropped the first 1,000-kilogram bomb over England. How were zeppelins organized ...in squadrons? Nor does the author even allude to the role of wireless radio in coordinating multi-ship raids and their use as scouts for the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. Amazingly, the author does not even mention what types of bombs were dropped from zeppelins - fragmentation, incendiary or high explosive? Furthermore, the inclusion of material on post-war zeppelins only served to detract from the space available to cover the core of this subject.

All authors have to be selective, but given the size of the subject matter compressing it into 48 pages inevitably means a `potted history' that can only be brief. Within those terms however, Osprey have produced an excellent work at a reasonable price.

Here, in one compact volume, the basic history of the German Rigid Airship has been accurately recorded. Indeed it is obvious to the knowledgeable lighter-than-air student that a good deal of research has been carried out amongst the primary sources, as many errors that have appeared in secondary works over the years have not been reproduced.

The book starts off with a summery of the often-confusing numbering scheme that occurred when the airship entered into military or naval service. The numbering system differed between the Army and Navy with the former employing some very unusual practices.

We are then taken through the attempts to develop a practical airship, which, after numerous failures, was eventually successful. To provide competition for the Zeppelin Company, the Army fostered a rival in the form of the Schütte-Lanz Airship Company.

The next section sees the reader told of these gas filled giants being used during the First World War. This includes raids against London, being attacked by enemy aircraft and the development of other classes of Zeppelins.

The final part of the book, covers the development of airships after the war, with their civil use. This phase was effectively terminated with the destruction of the Hindenburg.

The text is succinct and readable whilst a series of well-chosen black and white photographs give good pictorial coverage. There are also a couple of maps, one of which, depicting the integrated air defences of London in 1918, has not appeared before in any other books covering similar subject matter.

The work is illustrated by a series of digital drawings in colour, by Ian Palmer, of individual airships, which are very accurate. He has also produced a series of action paintings: the shooting down of SL11; a `sub-cloud car' or `Spahkorb' in operation; and a defensive experiment showing the dropping of a fighter from underneath an airship. These are dramatic renditions and convey something that a photograph could never equal.

A useful appendix contains a table of all the airships, their specifications, and their fate.

This is not a book designed to take the reader through the technical aspects of the airship, which would require a work many more times the size. It is however a fine book that will give the "first timer" a good introduction to this fascinating aspect of aviation history, and as such is highly recommended.

A friend of mine told me about this book when he mentioned my unit (22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit) and our time in Afghanistan was mentioned. Solid, easy-to-follow story about the evolution and employment of the Apache.

I really liked the artwork, and hoping they'll follow with other titles on the Blackhawk and Chinook.

As an AH-64 pilot who has participated of OIF I was to say the least intrigued when I first heard of this title.

The book includes information that will be of interest to those who enjoy tales of military aviation and includes photos and drawings of unit marking that are otherwise unavailable. The marking are notably incomplete, showing only one company within a battalion and leaving the others out.

It's interesting to note that several members of my unit who are quoted in the book, profess to have never met the author...and he (the author) fails to footnote or otherwise indicate how he came up with these statements.

It's a good start, but it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of a great subject that begs to be covered fully.

Beautiful picture but if your looking for a how-to book save your money. I bought all three and it's not what I needed. If you want to go up that next step in modeling look elsewhere.

My father thought these books were excellent ways of studying aircraft and he learned many things that he did not previously know about WWII aircraft. A must have for serious WWII buffs..

Not recommended for those who would like to actually have time to do antything else but make custom parts. Lots and lots of scratchbuilding, with very little text. Pretty pictures though.

i have found this book to be a pretty good guide for the subject, with explanations, samples and so on. recommended.

This book is full of photo's and makes the written text more than understandable. This is a must have for modellers, because it's full of tricks and handsome advise how to make your project to a succes.

The author fails to have more stories about JG-51 shooting down Russian aircraft from October 1944 to April 1945 when the unit was operating out of East Prussia in pages 111 to 117. This is a sad comparison to when he talk about the aerial victories scored by JG-54 Grunherz in the Courland Pocket in the book Jagdgeschwader 54 Grunherz. He also did not talk much about the unit and pilots scoring victories over the Demyansk Pocket like he did with JG-54 when that unit was operating in the Demyansk area.

I agree with Mr. O'Connor about the insufficent length of the book (128 pages). The author should stopped talking about the overall situation with regards to the Russian, Italian, Balkan, and North African fronts and concentrate on having the aces talk about their air to air victories. Also, I am getting sick of tired of reading military magazines and books where the authors and writers are always saying that no matter how many victories the Germans won, as individuals or as a unit, in 1943 to 1945 in the air or on the ground, it did not change the outcome of the war. It seems to be a standard writing practice to insert that kind of comment. That is no comfort to the Allied soldiers who were killed, wounded, or became prisoners of war.

There should have been more color plates of the ME-109E sporting the Condor insignia. In addition, there should have been a color plate of Gunther Schack's Focke-190 because he was one of JG-51 top aces. Finally, there should have been more FW-190 and ME-109 colour plates of other JG-51 Aces plus more of the colour plates of green-white camouflage FW-190s.

There should have been more individual stories of II/JG-51 pilots shooting down Allied airplanes in Italy, Balkans, North Africa, and Hungary.

Moreover,there should also have been a special chapter devoted to the Stabstaffel JG-51 aces and their stories since that squadron was the only one in the entire JG-51 to fly the Focke-Wulf 190 from 1943-1945 while the rest of the unit flew the ME-109 for the final 12 months of the war.

Finally, the author did the book Focke-Wulf 190 Aces of the Russian Front which was first printed in 1995. That is more then enough time (11 years) for the author to find more stories of air to air combat victories by IV/JG-51 because it had re-convert back to the FW-190 in April 1945 particularly since the unit had acquired some Focke-Wulf 190Ds. He should have been able to talk to the pilots about flying and scoring victories with the FW-190D.

Reviews were mixed. The author did a good job in explaining the situation on each front. When it came to the above sections, that I had mention, he did a miserable job.

Though not as well-known as wings as JG 52 or JG 26, Jagdgeschwader 51 'Molders' was one of the Luftwaffe's top units. John Weal relates the story of this illustrious unit in this 'Aviation Elite Units' volume from Osprey.

Possessing more Knight's Cross winners than any other Jagdgeschwader, JG 51 flew combat from 1939 to the bitter end, chiefly on the Eastern Front. Flying Bf 109s and then FW 190s, the wing scored over 8,000 victories. Wing aces included 'Toni' Hafner, Heinz Bar, Richard Leppla, Karl-Gottfried Nordmann, Gunther Schack and, of course, Werner Molders,

Molders, Germany's finest fighter leader-tactician and the first Luftwaffe pilot to score 100 victories was an intriguing individual. Commanding JG 51 from July 1940 to July 1941, he set a fast pace for the wing, especially when JG 51 was committed to the Eastern Front. A devout Catholic in the service of history's most evil empire, Molders was nicknamed 'Vati' (Daddy) by his men. Upon his death in November 1941 while serving in a staff position, the wing was given the Honor Title 'Molders.'

JG 51's combat exploits are well summarized in Weal's 128-page book. Over 100 photos and nine pages of color profiles illustrate the wing's life, times and equipment.

As far as I know, this is the first English-language history of JG 51 so, if you are interested in Luftwaffe fighter wings, this is a must-have book.

****
As a personal aside, I wish the Osprey Elite books were a bit longer in length so authors could devote some space to catching the spirit...the flavor...the character of the units and their aircrew.

A good book for modelers or the very very serious researcher on the Su-27.There's nothing in there but close-up picture of every devices found on the Su-27.Sadly there's no history or analysis of the type so don't make the same mistake as me and think this is a readable book.I gave it 2 stats on 5 because of the pictures, and actually it's only a pretty picture book.

If you want something more serious look after Yefim Gordon's book or the one by Andrei Fomin.

Excellent book. This book goes into great detail about the performance, capabilities, and operation of the "Flanker". It also has some excellent photos that will be a great help to any aircraft modeler or enthusiast.