Combat Colours Number 4
Pearl Harbor and Beyond
December 1941 to May 1942
HC Bridgwater and
Peter Scott
Scale Aircraft Modelling Colours series/Guideline Publications
Appx $17.00 -
$20.00 US
Reviewed by Michael Gawell
This was a volume that I really had to
look around to get. From the moment it
came out, I anticipated it coming to my local hobby store. Good thing I did not wait there for too.
Long. I would STILL be waiting. So what about it?
The Combat Colours series has been rather interesting, and follows some of the other volumes such as a very good volume on RAF colors during the Battle of Britain. The second volume was on post WWII colors of the RAF. This miffed me personally since I would have loved to see a volume on RAF during the post BOB period, even if they did not have exciting colors, it still would be insightful to own one.
But then again this is a review of the above volume. It is 68 pages on a quality stock paper and covers in good detail the post Peal Harbor period until May of 42. While it has the same feel and good profiles as Scale Aircraft Modeller magazine, it also has some of the same problems. Essentially it suffers from some poor editing, and occasionally mistakes in fact. Most of the data in this infozine is garnered from 2nd hand source material, some of which I have used myself to give information on pre-war US aircraft colors. The material on the Japanese aircraft is fairly accurate but suffers from being dated by a year or so in terminology. The use of the term A e-iro is used and that has been determined some time ago not to apply to the Pearl Harbor Strike Aircraft, but is still used. I do have to give kudos that on the whole, the Federal Standard Color callouts seem accurate, and are in line with all the current research on the subject.
The strength of this volume and where I find it to be useful is on the very last page/inside of the rear cover. There is a Federal Standard colour list for all the major players of that portion of the war. The Japanese Army, Navy, The AVG, The USAAF, USN, RAF, RAAF, and RNZAF are all covered. Also the Netherlands are covered as a separate entity for a change. Also a good strength is the profiles you will not see otherwise of aircraft from all these countries and service branches. I compliment the publishers on giving those in the modeling community a fairly complete mostly accurate color reference that is on the whole affordable to all. It is too bad it is difficult to find. I also lament that they had not chosen to go the extra 2 weeks of the war into June of 42 and covered the Battle of Midway. Although it is arguable that the aircraft did not change significantly it is unarguable that some of the markings for the major combatant did change. It is also worthy to note that modelers are on the whole interested in the battle, and it would have made this volume all the more valuable.
I must give this Volume a grade of A minus for not being as up to date on the Japanese information, and leaving some of the US/AVG information open to question. As more research is devoted to these topics, it will either validate, or render this volume obsolete.
I want to thank Michigan Discount Models and Hobbies for being so prompt in getting me my copy, and for also being the least expensive at $17.00.
If you would like to submit a review of either an model kit, movie, book or magazine article send your reviews to usaircraftphotos@yahoo.com