Introduction

SAM Publishing has released some excellent titles looking at aircraft from a modellers reference view point, and they have now teamed up with HATAKA and released what is indicated to be the first in a series of titles. This one is looking at the combat aircraft during the Vietnam War and so a popular time period with aircraft modellers.

Review

This offering from SAM Publishing and in cooperation with HATAKA Paints looking at Fighters and Attack Aircraft of the Vietnam War is printed in an A4 portrait landscape. This is a soft backed book with 96 pages packed with information for the modeller. The title is split into 21 sections, 19 of which cover the aircraft that you bought the title for. The book starts out with a list of contents followed with a short introduction covering the air war in Vietnam. Before moving onto the aircraft proper you will find a couple of pages providing some colour artworks to drool over.

This title covers 19 aircraft works with each consisting of four pages. Each looks at the build and of course the painting of the model; now you may be thinking it is going to be HATAKA this and HATAKA that, nothing could be further from the truth as other paint brands are used, in particular Alclad II is mentioned a lot here. I suppose this title can really be considered a guide to getting the most from HATAKA paints in conjunction with other products.

With this title covering the Vietnam War there is one aircraft that has to be present in this title, that aircraft is of course the Phantom, after all the Vietnam War was the Phantoms war for the most part; due to this the book covers three Phantoms during its course. I am pleased to see more than one scale covered in the book as paints can look different depending on the scale of the model.

HATAKA has made quite a name for themselves with the aircraft painters due to the large number of acrylic paint sets they have released aimed at specific countries and time periods. HATAKA has also dipped their toe into the armour market and I for one hope to see this expand. The aircraft covered in this book are as follows:
US NAVY – F-4J - Phantoms War
US AIR FORCE – F-104 Starfighter – Early Air Superiority
US NAVY – F-4B Phantom – VF-111 - Sundowners MIG Killer
US AIR FORCE – Convair F-012 Delta Dagger – Arc Light Escort
US ARMY – Grumman Mohawk – Army Air
VNAF F-5B – Fighting for Freedom
US MARINE CORPS – F-8 Crusader – Gunfighters over Vietnam
North Vietnamese MIG 21 – Fighting Fishbed
F-4C Phantom – Colonel Robin Olds – Spook Shooters
US NAVY – A-6E Intruder – Experimental Camouflage
USAF – F-100 Super Sabre – Hun on the Hunt
USAF – Martin B-57 Canberra – Night Stalkers
North Vietnamese – MIG 17 – Fresco Fighter
Cessna 0-1 Bird Dog – Sky Spotter
US NAVY – A-4 Skyhawk – Scooter Strike
A-37 Dragonfly – Light Attack Heavy Hit
US NAVY – KA-6D – Flying Gas Station
US ARMY – AH-1G Cobra – Jungle Viper
English Electric Canberra Mk 20 – Aussie Bomber

Conclusion

The title covers many of the usual methods used by advanced modellers such as the pre shading of panel lines, panel washes and colour modulation that has become so popular with armour modellers. It does show how to get the most from HATAKA paints and how they work with products from other manufacturers.