This is a revised edition of Valiant Wings' first book in the Airframe and Miniature series. In addition to a goodly amount of new material, witnessed by the increase of page count from 112 to 208, it also is produced with the same cover format of most of their offerings.

The book starts out by providing information on the history of the type, starting with the initial prototype. What makes this book special is that there are drawings and photos of these planes, with each successive improvement noted in the drawings. Each plane in this early series has a bit of a history involved with it that gives some pertinent information on the plane's purpose (testing armament, for instance) and its eventual fate and known flight hours. As the type gets more into production, this information isn't provided, of course. However, we are given information on all the known prototypes.

The differences between series production types is also provided with drawings as are appropriate to note these differences. The book goes into paper projects as well, for they are part of the Me-262 story.

There is a goodly section on camouflage and markings. Here you'll find several pages of very well drawn profiles. All the major production aircraft are covered in this section as well. It is followed by a modeler's section with the author's choice for the best kits in each scale and a build-up of those kits. This is where the majority of the improvement has taken place as the number of 262 kits available has increased quite a bit since the book's initial production over ten years ago. Next is a section that has drawings of all the prototypes and what needs to be done to modify kits in the various scales to duplicate these planes. A most interesting section indeed.

Then we have an 'in detail' section were various museum airframes as well as images from the period tech manuals and some period photos are used to explain all of the various bits and pieces of the 262. We are then provided with a listing of kits, decals, and accessories as well as a fairly long listing of books on the  Me-262. A final addition to the book is a large foldout set of drawings, something that was not in the initial offering.

All in all, it makes for a superb book that should appeal to both the enthusiast as well as the modeler. It is a book that I found quite a good read. It is a well done title and a book I can highly recommend to you as a reference.

April 2021

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