Valiant Wings has embarked on another book series. This one is called Airframe Extra and the first volume covers WWII in the air over Europe from June 1944 until May 1945.  This was a period of time when the Luftwaffe was on a major decline. Gone were many of their experienced pilots and with the huge ramping up of Allied air power, the Germans were simply not able to produce fully qualified pilots in enough time to really deal with the situation. The end result was an inevitable decline in the fighter force's ability to properly defend the nation. Eventually, even flying over their homeland was rife with danger as the Allies soon assumed total control of the air. It was during these days that Allied victory scores climbed as the Luftwaffe's undertrained pilots were often easy fodder for their foes.

This book is divided into several sections. The first section is an almost day by day synopsis of the air war over France and Germany since D-Day, starting with a prelude then events beginning on 1 June. This section ends on the 8th of May. This section has a number of nice period photos in it.

The rest of the book consists of full color profiles, of which there are 15 pages worth, scattered throughout the book, and seven kit builds. This includes Airfix C-47 and Spitfire PR.XIX, Hobby Boss Me-262B, Academy Lightning, Hasegawa 1/48 Bf-109G-10, 1/48 Spitfire PR XIX conversion and a 1/32 P-47D. The articles are all quite well done and if you are the type that likes a lot of step by step you'll love the longest article in the book. This is the 1/32 P-47D article as, for example, it has ten photos on how to get tires dirty, and eleven on how to weather a drop tank. Not surprisingly, none of them are straight out of the box though some are closer to it than others.

Overall it is nicely done and provides the sort of information and detail that many modelers enjoy. I learned something from it and I know you will as well. It is a nice idea and I can see other similar approaches coming in the future.