Military Model Scene

Title: Soviet Fighters of the Second World War
Author: Jason Nicholas Moore
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN: 978-1-78155-825-6

Another super book on Soviet aircraft of WW2 from author Jason Nicholas Moore and publisher Fonthill Media. A 382-page hardback book, well illustrated throughout with archive photos, plus a section of 32 pages with colour images of museum exhibits along with a lot of first class colour artwork profiles.
A helpful feature we don't see too often is the Glossary of terms is at the start of the book, useful to look through before getting into the main content. There is a good background to the book, which focuses on Soviet built fighters, and does not feature any of the foreign built types which were provided to Russia under Lend-Lease. At the outset of the war on the Eastern Front, which is of course 1941, the bulk of Russian fighter types were obsolete when faced with modern Luftwaffe aircraft. The 13 chapters go on to provide details of the varied fighter types from different manufacturers as they built new designs. They go through the many Lavochkin, Mikoyan-Gurevich, Polikarpov and Yakolev single-engine fighters, some with inline engines, others with radials. These all detail the different variants, with engines, armament and service histories. Then there are separate chapters which cover Twin-Engined Fighters, such as the Pe-2, Colours & Markings in General, Experimental Fighters along with tables of Specifications for the Experimental and Non-Soviet supplied fighters. It is rounded off with a chapter of Concluding Thoughts on the various designs. Even more detailed information on additional factors is presented in 8 appendices. Also featured within the book is a 32-page section of colour photos (mainly surviving museum exhibits) and lots of excellent colour profile artwork, so good for modellers. The book as a whole has lots more archive images to illustrate the many types throughout the narrative.
This is a very detailed book on the subject, and has a lot of interesting points to make. Just as an example, most were relatively small aircraft and maximised their use of scarce raw materials, such as aluminium, in their construction. Any aviation enthusiast interested in WW2 aircraft will like this, and I suspect many modellers will enjoy having this kind of reference on their bookshelves.
Thanks to Fonthill Media for our review copy.

Robin