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Last Updated: Aug 21st, 2020 - 13:06:35 |
Latest volume in the D&S series is most timely, coming out just ahead of the Accurate Miniatures kits. The format is as before, but with more colour pages than usual, including an impressive number of colour photos from WW2. The development of the B-25 is covered in detail, backed up by scale drawings (claimed, as always in D&S, as the 'most accurate yet'!). The latter are reproduced in 1/120th scale rather than 1/72nd, for space reasons. Still, itís an odd choice of scale - to enlarge to 1/72nd, they need expanding by a factor of 1.666666.....! (Though they only need enlarging x2.5 for 1/48th.) Whatís more, by using a more intelligent layout they could have been printed rather larger than they are, as there is lots of white space around them. But this is nit-picking, as the plans themselves are indeed very nice and show all the relevant details.
The relatively minor but important changes in the B-25 airframe are described in detail, backed up by a superb collection of photos. The usual close-up detail photos of preserved B-25s are included, but with a very strong warning that surviving aircraft very rarely look like WW2 era airframes. Where necessary, the photo captions reinforce this point. Super-detail freaks need look no further for internal and external detail shots! The wartime colour photos pick out some very interesting details, such as interior colours and nose art, and there is even a pre-delivery shot of a Russian B-25 in the US-applied version of the late-war 3-colour V-VS scheme (though the caption misses this point). Take special note of the back cover photo too, of a USN PBJ-1H with its nose gun bay open - a variety of interior
colours can be seen, and the gun barrels are clearly wrapped in a white or light grey material (asbestos tape?). The book also includes a couple of pages of colour side view drawings, in classic Squadron fashion.
The kit section is surprisingly sparse, but spells out the reasons for this. Quite simply, most B-25 kits are too inaccurate to merit serious consideration! In 1/72nd, D&S rate only the Italeri kit, with minor provisos; in 1/48th, the Monogram kits are reckoned reasonable, and the forthcoming AM kits are praised to the skies. D&S had test shots, so this is not guesswork! They pick out a couple of minor inaccuracies in the AM kit, so I shall be interested to see if the
production kits have been modified.
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