Valiant Wings Publishing The Grumman F6F Hellcat – Airframe & Miniature #15

[Mike]

The Grumman F6F Hellcat – Airframe & Miniature #15

ISBN: 9781912932115

Valiant Wings Publishing

 

 

The Book

The book is perfect-bound with 224 pages on glossy paper, tons of photographs, diagrams and profiles, the modern pictures being in colour, while the contemporary content is going to be black and white due to that being the predominant film format of the day.  It is of course written by Richard A Franks, with profiles by Richard J Caruana, isometric drawings by Wojciech Sankowski and models by a group of fine modellers. If you're familiar with the series, you'll know that the pages are broken down into the Airframe section that deals with the 1:1 real thing, and the miniature section that covers the scale models and has a number of builds, plus a host of photographic detail that will be of great help to the modeller. 

 

 

 

The breakdown in more detail is as follows:

 

Airframe Chapters

1. Protoypes

2. Production

3. Reconnaissance, Night-Fighters, Drones, Test Airframes & Projects

4. Camouflage & Markings and Colour Profiles

 

Miniature Chapters

5. Hellcat Kits

6. Building a Selection

7. Building a Collection

8. In Detail: The Hellcat

• Engine, Cowlings & Propeller
• Cockpit & Canopy
• Mid & Aft Fuselage
• Tail
• Wings & Control Surfaces
• Undercarriage & Arrestor Hook
• Armament
• Electrical Equipment

 

Appendices

I. Hellcat Kits

II. Hellcat Accessories

III. Hellcat Decals & Masks

IV. Bibliography

 

A concertina sheets of 1:48 Scale plans captive in the rear cover (equivalent to 8 pages printed on both sides)

 

 

 

The scale plans are nicely thought out, and fold out sideways with the left-hand edge captive to the inside cover, and the isometric drawings by Wojciech Sankowski that pick out the differences between variants and sub-variants are a dream for anyone like me that struggles to remember the details that separate the marks.  As usual with the photographs in these titles, they're excellent for the most part, and as good as they can be for the occasional slightly grainy one that is all that remains of this or that variant.  Afterall, there's only so much that modern photo editing software can do.  The builds by Libor Jekl, John Wilkes and Steve A. Evans are all first-rate too, with two in 1:72, one in 1:48, one in 1:32 and one of the immense 1:24 Airfix kit, all of which wouldn't look out of place on competition tables at the highest level.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

This book is brimming with interest and information, with something for everyone – the modeller, the aviation enthusiast or history buff.  My personal favourite parts are the variant isometrics as previously mentioned, but there is so much to enjoy and it’s all good.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of