It is always nice to see a new book come on the scene. This particular one is the first offering from Fox Two and they have chosen the Blackburn Buccaneer S.2B. Originally developed for the Royal Navy, the Buccaneer became the pre-eminent strike aircraft of the RAF. Its low level capabilities were outstanding and its robust airframe was one of the reasons why. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the front of the first wheeled vehicle to break the speed of sound on land looked very much like a Buccaneer.

This series is touted as a modeler's reference and so, as you can imagine, it is pretty much a book of photographs. The book is in both English and German, starting out with an abbreviated history of the type. This then blends into a nice section of photos of the S.2B variant when it was in unit service. This section covers all the various camouflage schemes and units; all of them RAF.

Next the book goes into walk-around mode, providing large, full color images of every nook and cranny of the S.2B. This also includes a look at the cockpit, seats and weapons that the aircraft carried. Most of the book is dedicated to this section as it is the part that is of most interest to those modelers struck with AMS that need to know the shade of the color bands on the hydraulics lines in the main gear well.

While quite a few of these images are period photos, even more are of extant airframes. Despite having been out of service for many years, the Buccaneer Aviation Group has kept several planes in near flight condition and so has been a source of many of the images. By near flight, I mean that they can do fast taxi demonstrations to where the plane nearly gets airborne. The British aviation authorities are not as lenient as those in the US and other places so will not provide airworthiness permits for most aircraft such as this. Thus we have something distinctly British in terms of high speed taxiing demonstrations by retired high performance jets such as the Buccaneer and Lightning.  

Getting back on subject, this is a great book for the detailer or those who just like the Buccaneer and have to have everything that has been printed on the type. It is a super reference and a book that I can quite easily recommend to the enthusiast and modeler alike. 

January 2015

My thanks to AirDoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct by visiting this link.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.