There have been many CD-ROMS on the market for modelers. Some have managed to find the correct formula and others have missed it. The usefulness of any publication, electronic or not, is what the reader really wants. Many want nothing to do with electronic publications, preferring to stay with paper. However, I should point out that the electronic medium offers several advantages. One is that material is made available that would normally stay hidden away. Not everyone is an author and of those who are, few really manage to get their material sold in bookshops.

Another is that if your book is mostly photos, then it is even more difficult to get it on shelves. This is especially true if going through normal publishing houses as they require a minimum to be printed. If the author has to cover all the costs, it can be astronomically expensive. However, with an electronic book on CD or DVD, then it the author can produce as many copies as are needed; be they just a few or several hundred.

This particular electronic book is on the P-38 and produced by Richard Marmo, who has had some success in the standard book field as well. His CD on the P-38 and XP-58 is basically a photo book. There are over 350 photographs (some of which are period color images) with include a large assortment of nose art images as well as 6 paintings and some other interesting documents.  You are provided with a table of thumbnails from which you select the larger image. Images tend to be 700x500 pixels or smaller. This is probably why it is recommended that one set their monitors at 800x600, however, I viewed mine at a higher resolution and there was little in the way of artifacts. The images  are are provided with captions. The images are also divided into several sections depending on the subject so if you want images of a P-38L or a photo Lightning, there are separate sections for that. A historical background section as well as a listing of serials by type is also provided for a quick reference. There is also a goodly selection of photos on the XP-58 heavy bomber escort that never made it past prototype development.

There are many images in there that I'd not seen before. Conversely, there are some old favorites as well. No real modeling info is provided. No color information or kit or decal database, though we modelers would find this CD quite useful. There are some close-up shots of the aircraft, but they are not organized into any 'walk-around' style that would help if we, say, wanted nose gear well detail. I would also find it more helpful if we could have larger images or a choice of image size.  The material on the disc takes up less than 30 Megabytes so there is tons of room for larger images if it is possible to provide them.

The CD is in .html format and is self-starting on most systems. This means you need a browser. I have both Netscape and Internet Explorer on my system and it opened up Internet Explorer. One then uses the browser buttons to go through the CD. I'm thankful that there is no obnoxious music accompanying this CD as I've found on a few others.

If you have a fondness for the P-38, you will HAVE to have it.

June 2007

Thanks to Scale Publications for the review copy. You can order your copy direct by selecting the hyperlink.

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