My library just grew again 2016

[McColm]

Got a copy of 'X-Planes Photo Scrapbook'.
Covers most of the X-planes from X-1 to the X-50 with colour and black & white photos with a brief description.
A must for Whiffers that are into vertical flight.
Even the X-32A would have had a makeover before going into production if it had been chosen.
Testbeds and concept designs get featured so if you thought of using the fuselage from a Canberra PR9 with the wings of the U-2 the Bell X-16 beat you to it.
Other snippets include the Lockheed CL-1200 and X-27 with revised inlets for the TF30 turbofan.
The book also covers pilotless aircraft and missiles. I can't help but wonder why the X-10 doesn't have a cockpit!
Space vehicles are covered too.

My spare parts bin will be raided for the Hiller X-18 and Charles H.Zimmerman's XC-142 V/STOL concept.

[PR19_Kit]

I can't help but wonder why the X-10 doesn't have a cockpit!

Because the X-10 was an aerodynamic and control system test vehicle for the cruise part of the Navaho missile, and that would have been unmanned anyway.

[NARSES2]

From Smiths in Newcastle,  Armageddon by Max Hastings in hardback for £5

[McColm]

I can't help but wonder why the X-10 doesn't have a cockpit!

Because the X-10 was an aerodynamic and control system test vehicle for the cruise part of the Navaho missile, and that would have been unmanned anyway.

I must add the 1/72 Sharkit X-10 to my stash

[Gondor]

When I got home from a short trip away I found the postman had made a delivery of

Warpaint Series No.56 Blackburn Firebrand    Bought as I know nothing about the aircraft and it fits the time and type of a build I have in mind

Warpaint Series No.98 AVRO York     Bought as I managed to get the CMK conversion set and I wanted something to give me background information on the aircraft. Could mean the kit will be American or Belgian or even Danish.

Gondor

[reddfoxx]

Didn't Eric Brown write a Firebrand book?  One of the few of this that I don't have.

Headed to the USAF museum tomorrow.  We'll see what I come home with...

[NARSES2]

From Smiths in Newcastle,  Armageddon by Max Hastings in hardback for £5

Got home and found I already bought it back in 04 when it was published  Never mind I'll bring it to a show and see if I can find her a new owner.

[jcf]

J-BIRD: Japanese Aircraft Register 1921-1945

Published by Japan Aeronautic Association Aviation Heritage Archive, March 2016, p/b
Pages: 438
Photos: 915 b/w
Size: 18X26 cm
http://www.arawasi.jp/salebook.hp/J-BIRD.html

[Logan Hartke]

Short version: Avoid these two books on the Sherman.



M4 Sherman Tanks: The Illustrated History of America's Most Iconic Fighting Vehicles Hardcover
by Michael E. Haskew

As someone with an interest in all things Sherman, I like to keep tabs on any new books on the subject. This large format hardback book came out recently and at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, it's not even worth the $25.

Pros: Pictures are very large and reproduced at high quality. The selection of photographs showing early M4 Sherman production and training at Ft Knox are particularly nice. The whole thing was put together with some polish and might serve well as a coffee table book or as a gift for a child with an interest in tanks.

Cons: Even the pictures—which are the best feature of the book—will be very familiar to most readers and the whole book doesn't offer as much interesting photography as a single older Concord title. The captions are, on the whole, terrible. The author misidentifies a KV-1 as a T-34 (really?) in the first few pages of the book and that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of it. It also calls into questions the accuracy of the other parts of the caption such as the location, timeframe, etc. In many cases, I have no way of verifying those aspects, but given the poor track record for the things I can verify, I certainly don't trust them.

The biggest sin, in my opinion, is that—in a book dedicated to the Sherman—the author opts not to identify specific variants of the Sherman. Over 90% of the captions simply refer to the tank pictured as an "M4 Sherman". There is basically no mention outside of the text of M4A1s, M4A2s, M4A3s, etc. This is probably for the best since, in the few cases where the author does choose to venture into that territory, he fails. There's a photograph of a Sherman with a 76mm gun where the author mentions the wider tracks introduced in that variant... except that the subject of the photo is a VVSS tank with the exact same tracks as earlier vehicles, not a later HVSS tank. In another case in the chapter on Israeli Shermans, the author misidentifies a Centurion as a "Super Sherman" and can't seem to tell the difference between M1s, M50s, and M51s, so don't trust any of those captions, either. He speaks of the 105mm gun in the caption of a CN 75 50-armed M50, for instance. In short, the author is certainly not a technical expert on the Sherman in any way, and much of the text seems to reflect some of the tired narrative of Shermans just being a reliable tank that overwhelmed German tanks through sheer weight of numbers. I couldn't find anything particularly special or interesting that this book brings to a discussion on the M4, sadly. It doesn't look bad, though.



For Want of A Gun: The Sherman Tank Scandal of WWII
by Christian Mark DeJohn

This one isn't out, yet, but from everything I'm seeing on the author's webpage dedicated to the book and the author's posts promoting his book all over the web, I'd strongly recommend you avoid it. This certainly looks to be a longer-form version of the tired and thoroughly-discredited "Death Traps" yarn that Belton Cooper spun twenty years ago. Even more worrying, however, is the tone of the author's posts on the various forums where he's been shilling his new book. Any criticism of the narrative is met with vitriol by him. Again, I purchase most books about the Sherman, but everything around this one is telling me to avoid it.

For those who want to read up on the controversy, the author typically posts as "AUSTanker" on most forums (Fine Scale Modeler, Axis History Forum, Armorama, to name a few) and wasn't making it clear that he was the author initially, until the people that questioned his promotion of it started to wonder why he was so invested. When learning he was the author, some people felt as though he wasn't being up front about that aspect, so he's been more transparent about that lately. Oddly, he's also been promoting his book in comments and replies in blogs all over the web, so you're likely to run into him there. Needless to say, for every post of his advertising the book, he's being me with many questioning the narrative it seems to be promoting. I'm actually disappointed in Schiffer for publishing this one. Especially given its ridiculous MSRP, I'd recommend avoiding it until some reviews start to come in from trusted sources.

Cheers,

Logan

[NARSES2]

Thanks Logan, not my usual type of purchases but it's nice to see critique as well as praise on these pages 

[PR19_Kit]

Don't we have an 'Austanker' on here?

[Logan Hartke]

Thanks Logan, not my usual type of purchases but it's nice to see critique as well as praise on these pages 

Thanks! I figure it's a useful service.

Don't we have an 'Austanker' on here?

We do, but it's a different one. Ours is "Austanker", as in "Australian Tanker".  This author usually goes by "AUSTanker", as in "A US Tanker", since he's a former United States tanker. They're totally different folks. We're fortunate enough to have the good one.

Cheers,

Logan

[Rheged]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks for clearing that up!

Yes indeed, I'd have hated to see you be the victim of some vitriolic response Logan.

[Logan Hartke]

Totally understandable. I wouldn't be surprised if we see him around here at some point advertising his book. He seems to be everywhere else on the web. Maybe he'll stay away since his preferred moniker is already taken!

Cheers,

Logan