It seems as if Detail and Scale Publications has now become another of the Squadron/Signal line of books. I stopped buying them many years ago as it was obvious from the glitches that the previous publisher had begun to lose interest in making them a quality reference. This 1999 issue seems to have improved quite a bit.

It has a brief history of the type and then goes into the different variants. There are a lot of nice photos to accompany each section and there are at least side drawings and some three views in 1/72. Cockpit details are provided for the different types, with some in color. A goodly selection of profiles and color photos are included to add some spice to the book.

Just about all the close-up images are from the Museum of Aviation at Warner-Robbins AFB and their F-84E, which appears to be painted in aluminum rather than the bare metal that seems to have been more common with the type. The color cockpit photos are from the USAF Museum's F-84E and it appears to have been unrestored, which makes it a much more valuable reference.

What has really shrunk down to just two pages is the modeling section. As a book whose main readers are going to be modelers, I'd have thought that this section would have remained as comprehensive as in early editions. We can blame that on either bean counters who couldn't spare the additional pages or on the author who didn't want to do the additional work.

Overall, it is still a good reference book. It covers the salient features of the aircraft and the differences in subtype. It has a goodly number of photos and the drawings are most helpful. I'd look on this series as one step up from the In Action books, but without the 'war stories' that are usually part of the In Action series.

Review book courtesy of me.

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