Military Model Scene

Title: RAF Fast Jets in Colour
Author: Philip Birtles
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN: 978-1-78155-947-5

'The Cold War and Beyond', is a new 192-page soft-cover book from Fonthill Media and also another from author Philip Birtles.
The key to this one is given in the title, a collection of colour photos of RAF fast jets over the years since WW2, largely from the author's own collection, but with some help from a few other sources as well. Spread across 11 chapters, just the first one holds multiple aircraft types. These are the early RAF jets, including the Meteor, Vampire, Swift and Javelin, ach with some background text and a selection of nice colour images. Then we have the remaining 10 chapters, each of which tackles an individual aircraft type. These are for the Hunter, Lightning, Harrier, Phantom, Buccaneer, Jaguar, Hawk, Tornado, Typhoon and finally bang up to date with the F35B. Each chapter starts with a couple of pages of text, with basic background and units involved with their service, followed by a selection of beautiful colour photos of a selection of each aircraft over the period of their service career. A whole host of changing colour schemes over the years, my favourite I think being the Hawk, which without including any example from the Red Arrows, the variety of colourful schemes seen on this one in particular are very attractive, and will inspire many aircraft modellers I suspect. The changing colours and markings over the years of all these types make for a very attractive collection of images.
There are vast numbers of aviation enthusiasts who love to photograph military jets, and the aircraft modeller as well, all of whom will thoroughly enjoy this new book. The photos come largely from the author's private collection, with the addition of other sources to fill those gaps that warranted a bit of help where it was needed. A marvellous collection for any fast jet fan.
Thanks to Fonthill Media and distributors Script Military for the review copy.

Robin