Author: Martin Derry
Publisher: Dalrymple & Verdun Publishing
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£19.95
Soft back; 112 pages; mainly black and white images with some in colour; full colour (mostly all-aspect) profiles for each aircraft type featured
ISBN 978-1-905414-13-0
Review by Geoff Coughlin
Our thanks to Martin Derry for supplying our review sample.
It was really refreshing to receive this title from Martin at Scale Model World, Telford last year (2010) and due to an error my review dropped out of SMN but here it is again, in detail so my apologies to Martin and to Dalrymple & Verdun for that.
It is always good to see new titles taking a different approach and this seems to be a speciality of D&V Publishing driven I am sure by Martin who has certainly applied that philosophy to this excellent title. The Lancaster we have a lot of material for as modellers, the Avro Lincoln, very little and the York, well hardly anything at all. What you have here is a focus on post WWII operations and use of the Lancaster and that is certainly an area that isn’t well documented so is particularly pleasing. My favourite Lanc scheme of white over black undersides for the FE (Far East) aircraft is very well documented. With black and white images profusely illustrating the authoritative text I found myself absorbed in the read. Of course all the colour schemes and various Mks of Lancaster like the B.1 and B.7 (FE) are included and have a feeling that this title has just filled a large hole in the references already available for WWII Lancasters.
The Lincoln is poorly represented in model form as is the York but that shouldn’t put you off – far from it. Purely from an historical aviation perspective it’s fascinating to read and see in high quality images the development and operations of both the Avro Lincoln and York aircraft. My father-in-law flew operationally in both Lancaster and Lincoln aircraft and so I do have a personal interest but then so do many of you for all your varied and interesting reasons.
This book is very welcome for scale modellers, not least because so little has been written about the Lincoln and York at all, even less from a scale modelling perspective. That has now changed with the publication of this book. The whole text is profusely illustrated and because the aircraft date back to just after WWII, most images are necessarily in black and white. Some colour images are included although colour really comes into its own with the inclusion of many all-aspect colour profiles towards the end of the book. The Lancaster, Lincoln and York are all addressed well in the profiles and so this will give you plenty of scope for choosing an appropriate subject for any scale models that you may have.
There are some fantastic images in the book that will prove invaluable for weathering your Lancaster (given its White over Black scheme) like the exhaust staining that’s extensive above and beneath the main wings from the RR Merlin engines. Some useful images of the aircraft in flight reveal much detail reference for weathering all aspects of your models. The quality and colouration of the profiles is superb and add greatly to the buy-ability of this book.
Book structure…
There are 5 chapters, 2 Appendices, colour profiles and bibliography and abbreviations:
- Setting the scene
- Chapter 1 The Bombers
- Chapter 2 Other Lancasters, Lincolns and Units 1945-1950
- Chapter 3 Trials: 1945-1955
- Chapter 4 RAF Maritime Lancasters, 1945-1950
- Chapter 5 Avro York
- Appendix I Tiger Force
- Appendix II Operations from Palestine
- Colour Profiles
- Bibliography and abbreviations
Overall…
Highly recommended
As I have said, there is so little relevant and useful scale modelling reference for the three aircraft types featured in this book for the period 1945-1950 that it fills an enormous hole in our modelling reference store and always going to be a worthwhile addition to anyone’s reference library. What I like about the author is that they often pick on an unusual subject or dimension to the titles published and this new book on the Avro Lancaster, Lincoln and York in Post-War RAF service 1945-1950 is just that – unusual and much-needed!
Geoff C.