This interesting book arrived in the mail the other day. It is called 'A Tribute to Warbirds'. This is their first book and covers WWII Fighters. The author, Thierry Lapeyre has taken a rather unusual approach to what is actually a modeling diorama book. The book is mostly photographs and is provided with commentary in both French and English.

Within these pages are four extraordinary dioramas, each featuring an aircraft. These are all big scale planes to allow for the use of 1/35 items within each diorama. Each tells a distinct story and are superbly photographed. The author has wisely chosen to use a landscape format with this particular book and each of the four subjects is divided into three different sections.

The first section is on the scene surrounding each of the aircraft and includes the little vignettes that accompany each of the dioramas. It is here that we get a look of the various figures and other items used as part of the diorama such as buildings and vehicles. In the second section of each feature, the aircraft is the main subject. We are provided with close-up images of the plane in question and occasionally we are provided with some of the subassembly and building stages of the kit. The third section takes each of the various figures and vehicles and portrays them separate from the diorama so that we can see how nicely they are done.

For this edition there are four dioramas. The first one is a P-40C in Burma. The second an MC.200 in Sicily. When it comes to the third diorama, the main subject is an F2A that has been relegated to training in Florida. The final one features a FW-190D-9 hidden in a forest. In this diorama, there are G.I.s picking up German soldiers walking back from the eastern front towards American lines in order to stay out of the hands of the Russians. 

Each of the images in the book is printed on high quality art paper and is a delightful collection of eye candy featuring some of the best diorama work I have seen. It is a book I very much enjoyed reading and is one I can highly recommend to you.

September 2015

Thanks to www.atributetowarbirds.com for the review book. Visit their web site to order and to see more pages from the book. You will also find more images on the building of the models and the reference images used.

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