Back in the early 1960s, World War II was less than 20 years in the past. Scale modeling as we know it was in its infancy and kit makers were producing a wide range of models. These were intended for the youngsters of the time and so there was not all that much thought given to accuracy in terms of colors or markings. This isn't to say that there were not modelers who cared about things, it is just not at the level that it is today.

There were few references out there on proper camouflage schemes for the enthusiast. There were considerable official documents covering the subject, but those were not at all something we could easily access.

Jay Dial was an enthusiast who was able to get together meaningful information on US Army and Navy aviation camouflage for the WWII period and put it into a book. This was one of the first steps in a still continuing process of providing the modeler with a document to assist in getting his airplane to look right.

That was 1964. Today, Richard Marmo has taken this book and restored it to a viable document once again. It is being offered as an e-book and is now being made available once more. It provides the official documents used by the services to paint their planes and covers a variety of US camouflage schemes. Unless you have a large library on the subject, you will find this book to be a considerable help.

BTW, the A-20 in the photos section is really an A-26 and a later version judging by the clamshell cockpit hatches.

It is available at this link.

Thanks to Richard Marmo for the opportunity to review this classic. 

August 2015 

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