The Warlords [978095456051]
Date Added: Wednesday 18. August, 2010
Publishers Crécy from the UK have send us with an excellent book this month – it is called "The Warlords" Volume 1. Intended to be the first part of a series of book is aimed at modellers, this book covers the colour schemes of the aircraft in the 4th, 20th and 55th Fighter groups based in The European Theatre of Operations (ETO) in World War Two. It is one hundred and sixty pages with some text and some black and white pictures – but for the majority the book is crammed – and I do mean crammed with profiles of the fighter aircraft from these squadrons. There is five hundred profiles here – lets discuss!
You know the situation – New kit released – P-51 Mustang in the Louie IV markings, another thunderbolt in Gabby Gabreski camouflage, Richard Bong's P-38 – that corsair with the skull and crossbones!!! Well this book has been carefully crafted to show you some alternatives to these markings which seem to be a pre-requisite of each of these respective aircraft. Barry and Ann Money have spent a really long time at their computer it seems going through all of these different Squadrons markings for individuals aircrafts. The book is light on but accurate and adequite in words - its the profiles which give this book its uniqueness.
This tome of knowledge is meant to enthuse you to look further than the kit markings always bashed out and to seek out something different. From my own experience I know this is what a majority of modellers want. It is a funny trait of modellers who wait for something for years to come out in their scale and flavour (and brand) and then want a different version to be different to everyone else (with Glen Eaglestone's markings) This book is a great source of reference, and a real inspiration for modellers – I do wish a decal company would get this and you could buy any scheme from it - now THERES a money making idea!
The book is broken up into three main parts – each covering the genesis of the fourth, twentieth and the fifty-fifth groups in the ETO during the war. From the descriptions of each aircraft's exact markings specifics in an introduction to each individual squadron.
This book takes you through each unit's development from one aircraft to the next – to the next that it employed during the war. Giving precise measurements on the actual airframe as to where markings were painted (or taken away in some cases) and in what colour and at what time this was applied. It enables you to correctly identify a period of time that the markings would have been on each aircraft – which is great for all of you history buffs and armchair historians out there as well. I was interested to know that the red lines around the American stars and bars I liked so much on one of my fave. P-47 schemes was there for only two weeks! I have seen this everywhere as well – just goes to show popular aint always right!
One thing I will say about this book that I wasn’t in favour of is the not so great quality of the graphics on the Profiles – for such a big part of the book they look a bit blocky. This just makes the book look a bit amateur and that’s not what you want after they have obviously spent so much time on getting all of their references right. This though is a small criticism, of what is otherwise a very inspirational book.
Maybe to increase the saleability of this book they could offer the decals from the nose/ tail art on a large decal sheet ? or create a few different versions ? I am full of Decal money making ideas today it seems!! The colours of each aircraft are described and there is a footnote at the bottom of each page to detail the specifics of each aircraft and the situations of its individual markings.
At the end of the book there is a biography of references used and most importantly an index with each group – their pilots in alphabetical order and the planes they flew and serials and buzz numbers (codes) of each kite. Excellent" I wish we had this for all aircraft. It’s a really nice addition to the book.
So what do we think?
A lovely book which is obviously a labour of love to the authors – only lets down a little by the low resolution of the profiles.
A great reference book.
I am off to hunt thru my decals for something new to cook up now!
Overall 8.5/10
Adam Norenberg
scaleplasticandrail.com
You know the situation – New kit released – P-51 Mustang in the Louie IV markings, another thunderbolt in Gabby Gabreski camouflage, Richard Bong's P-38 – that corsair with the skull and crossbones!!! Well this book has been carefully crafted to show you some alternatives to these markings which seem to be a pre-requisite of each of these respective aircraft. Barry and Ann Money have spent a really long time at their computer it seems going through all of these different Squadrons markings for individuals aircrafts. The book is light on but accurate and adequite in words - its the profiles which give this book its uniqueness.
This tome of knowledge is meant to enthuse you to look further than the kit markings always bashed out and to seek out something different. From my own experience I know this is what a majority of modellers want. It is a funny trait of modellers who wait for something for years to come out in their scale and flavour (and brand) and then want a different version to be different to everyone else (with Glen Eaglestone's markings) This book is a great source of reference, and a real inspiration for modellers – I do wish a decal company would get this and you could buy any scheme from it - now THERES a money making idea!
The book is broken up into three main parts – each covering the genesis of the fourth, twentieth and the fifty-fifth groups in the ETO during the war. From the descriptions of each aircraft's exact markings specifics in an introduction to each individual squadron.
This book takes you through each unit's development from one aircraft to the next – to the next that it employed during the war. Giving precise measurements on the actual airframe as to where markings were painted (or taken away in some cases) and in what colour and at what time this was applied. It enables you to correctly identify a period of time that the markings would have been on each aircraft – which is great for all of you history buffs and armchair historians out there as well. I was interested to know that the red lines around the American stars and bars I liked so much on one of my fave. P-47 schemes was there for only two weeks! I have seen this everywhere as well – just goes to show popular aint always right!
One thing I will say about this book that I wasn’t in favour of is the not so great quality of the graphics on the Profiles – for such a big part of the book they look a bit blocky. This just makes the book look a bit amateur and that’s not what you want after they have obviously spent so much time on getting all of their references right. This though is a small criticism, of what is otherwise a very inspirational book.
Maybe to increase the saleability of this book they could offer the decals from the nose/ tail art on a large decal sheet ? or create a few different versions ? I am full of Decal money making ideas today it seems!! The colours of each aircraft are described and there is a footnote at the bottom of each page to detail the specifics of each aircraft and the situations of its individual markings.
At the end of the book there is a biography of references used and most importantly an index with each group – their pilots in alphabetical order and the planes they flew and serials and buzz numbers (codes) of each kite. Excellent" I wish we had this for all aircraft. It’s a really nice addition to the book.
So what do we think?
A lovely book which is obviously a labour of love to the authors – only lets down a little by the low resolution of the profiles.
A great reference book.
I am off to hunt thru my decals for something new to cook up now!
Overall 8.5/10
Adam Norenberg
scaleplasticandrail.com
Rating: 
[5 of 5 Stars!]
[5 of 5 Stars!]
