Casemate UK Air Modeller's Guide To Wingnut Wings Volume 2

[Viking]

Air Modeller's Guide To Wingnut Wings Volume 2

By David Parker

ISBN : 9780993564611

 

 

Wingnut Wings offer what is in my (and many others) opinion the finest and most extensive range of kits ever produced. All subjects are of aircraft that served in the 1914 -1918 Great War, with some boxings such as the Bristol F2.B and De Havilland DH.9, covering the aircraft in the post war years. Each and every kit will produce a beautiful model ‘straight from the box’, and several aftermarket manufacturers have joined in with etched brass & resin enhancements, alternative decal sheets, resin figures, and diorama accessories to name just a few.  

Whilst admiring the results that some modellers achieve with these kits and the available aftermarket, it can be quite daunting to think ‘Could I do that?’, or even ‘How on earth did they do that?’ All this ‘hardware’ of kits & accessories is great, but what we could really do with is some guidance on how to set about developing our skills and confidence towards getting the best from them.
There has been the odd publication dedicated to the building of a single, particular Wingnuts kit, but now Casemate has put together a collection of builds by several masters of the art.

 

They have chosen subjects wisely, to illustrate a diverse selection of different types from the Fokker Eindekker, Sopwith Triplane, Fokker D.VII, Pfalz D.IIIa, and Sopwith Snipe, the two seat Fe2b and  Rumpler C.IV, to the big and complex Felixstowe F.2a twin engine flying boat.  A selection that covers British & German Rotary and inline engined examples, single seaters, two-seaters, monoplane, biplane and triplane, with rigging of simple, medium, and complex levels.

 

The book itself is in softback covers, with 114 pages on high quality thick paper and crystal clear full colour printing. It is lavishly illustrated with inspirational photographs of the completed models, and smaller, detailed ‘step by step’ photos supported by explanatory captions. Each chapter is devoted to a single subject, showing it through each stage to completion. There is variation of which aspects are covered within each build, so that each chapter offers something new.

 

The style of this book is to keep the amount of text down, and follow the old maxim ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’. Not only that, the sequences of photographs make things far, far clearer than any amount of words could.  Those showing how to paint wooden panels, or the one showing how to apply oil paint ‘filters’ to single colour finishes, pastel chalks are particularly good examples. All Wingnut Wings kits come with unpainted etched brass seatbelts, so whichever one you are building, the step by step illustrations on page 101 (in the Pfalz build) show you how to prepare and paint a set.

 

My favourite sections are those covering the engines. I love building Wingnut Wings engines and usually add some ignition wiring, but now I realise there is a fair bit of plumbing and weathering that can take them to another level. The Beardmore engine in the FE.2b chapter is incredible, it is absolute perfection, and the text & photos of the Mercedes D.IVa in the Rumpler C.IV are going to be my standard reference from now on.  It is not just the extra wiring & plumbing that have been added, it is also the paint tones and colours that the builders have used. Information like this is so valuable and yet seems so difficult to discover.

 

Conclusion.
This is a really well thought out publication, written by modellers for modellers. I suggest it will best suited to those who have completed a couple of Wingnut Wings build themselves. It will be of most use to the intermediate modeller who is looking to develop their skills further. A lot of books on modelling don’t really show anything new to us ‘old modellers’ who have been building for a decade or more. But this one genuinely shows some things that I was unaware of, or had not thought of.  The photo sequence on how to paint the turned metal effect on the Fokker E.III cowling, and the use of a special etched ‘woodgrain’ fret being two things I am keen to try out.  It is also the perfect book for sitting down with a steaming mug of tea, and spending an enthralling hour thumbing through the pages, admiring the work and finding inspiration page after page.

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of