Author: Roy Sutherland
Published: Barracuda Graphs (www.barracudacals.com)
ISBN 978-0-9842591-0-6
Soft-back, 115 pages, profusely illustrated in full colour with some black and white images, quality art paper, line drawings for specific areas of airframe
Our thanks to Roy Sutherland and BarracudaCals for the review book
Stunning books like this always seem to accompany new kit releases – more by coincidence than planning I’m sure, so let’s hope that this new text, the first in Barracuda’s Flightline Series, No.1 will act as a premonition? So what of this book? You’ll see from some of the other titles reviewed in the Book Review area of this magazine, that this type of format, targeted at scale modellers is becoming very popular. Is it any wonder? I find myself really wanting everything in one place as far as reference goes when I’m building a project – it makes the whole task that much easier, saving valuable modelling time.
This book offers a complete walk around approach to every aspect of the unique de Havilland Sea Vixen, mainly from preserved aircraft at museums – boy, what I’d give for a state of the art 1:32nd scale model! Well, there are 1:48th and 1:72nd scale models – not many, but a few so this new title is very welcome. The quality of photography is very high, as is the coverage and attention to detail in terms of content. All the difficult to reach areas like the cockpit and wheel wells are there, as is that detailed wing-fold mechanism. Both the pilot’s and observer cockpits are well-covered and photographed, providing great depth of detail for these elusive areas. A nice feature is also the detail on the Martin Baker Mk.4DSA seats. The icing on the cake for me is all that flap detail – not easy to see on some preserved examples.
Overall then, a great start to what looks like being a ‘must-have’ set of reference books. Oh, and it looks like Flightline 2 is going to be the Fairey Firefly A.S. Mk.6 – now there’s a thought. I hope that we get the chance to review that one when it becomes available?
Highly recommended