This is the first book in Valiant Wings' new series entitled 'Airframe Constructor'. This book covers the building of a single kit, and in this case, it is the Zoukei-Mura 1/32 P-51D Mustang. I find it interesting that these sorts of books are being produced. Ten years ago, we could find little in the way of 'how to' books and now the genre has not only grown, but has become more specific. I also will not get into the merits of this kit over the Tamiya P-51D, which was released about the same time. From what I've seen (as I can afford neither), they take different approaches to the subject so it is perhaps case of apples and oranges.

Enough digressing. This book is in full color and printed on high quality paper. It opens with a nicely done history of the type as well as the various nations that have flown the plane and its use in civil aviation, specifically air racing. We then get into what is pretty much a standard kit review that describes what you get in the box and then what the modeler did to it while building it.

The bulk of the book goes into detail on what the modeler did while building this kit. It includes step by step painting and weathering techniques regarding specific areas of the model. Some scratchbuilding and modifying was done to provide the result you see on the cover and all of that is included. The photos and discussion of each area are done in such a way that you can see the progression from initial painting to the end result. This makes it easier for the reader to try to duplicate the author's efforts, something that I find quite helpful.

Once the build is done, there are several pages of the completed model. A nice addition is on how to do the 'Spanish School' of weathering on bare metal, as many Mustangs were in unpainted aluminum (except the wings, which we all know had the seams filled and painted with aluminum lacquer at the factory).  After this, are five full pages of full color profiles of various Mustangs. This is followed by some detail images of museum/warbird planes as well as some pages from the tech manual.  Towards the end is a page of all available 1/32 decals and the last page is sort of an advert for all of the optional bits and pieces offered by Zoukei-Mura.

In all, it is a great initial offering that, even if you don't buy the kit, will provide techniques that can be used on pretty much any aircraft model. Well worth picking up and highly recommended for those building this kit.

October 2013

For more on Valiant Wings, including getting this book, visit www.valiant-wings.co.uk. Thank you for the review copy.

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