P/F-80 Shooting Star
in Action 

by Larry Davis

Squadron-Signal Publications

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

P/F-80 Shooting Star in Action No. 213 is available online from Squadron.com
 

Squadron Signal’s In Action books are, in my view, close to perfect modeling references.  Inexpensive and compact, they offer a succinct overview of a particular aircraft’s (or ship’s or tank’s) development and history, as well as considerable information on details and finishing.  Thirty years ago, two of the first three reference books I owned were In Action titles, and today I still find the series indispensible.

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The major change Squadron Signal has made to the series in recent years has been to introduce colour photographs and drawings – in earlier titles, only the front and back covers and the centre profiles were in colour.  Squadron Signal has taken advantage of this improved format to revisit many aircraft types that had been covered in previous, largely black-and-white publications.  The approach also allows the incorporation of material that was not available when the first title on the subject was published.

This is the case with the Lockheed P/F-80 Shooting Star, which Squadron Signal initially covered back in 1980.  While I’m sure the first book was and remains a useful reference tool, it has been thoroughly superseded by the new volume, which packs a vast amount of information into its modest 52 pages.  The book examines the history of the P/F-80 family in a more-or-less straightforward chronology:

·      Prototype and service test aircraft

·      P-80A and variants

·      P-80B and variants

·      P/F-80C and variants

·      P-80D and P-80E

·      Reconnaissance variants

·      T-33 variants

The text describing each of these variants is clear and informative, explaining the key points of each type as well as the military (and sometimes political) environment in which they operated. 

However the book’s greatest value is in the images that accompany the text, with the photos a particular highlight.  Almost all in colour, these contain a good mix of development, operational and training aircraft, and of airframe, weaponry and marking details.  I’m not overly familiar with the Shooting Star, so don’t have a sense of how widely published or accurately captioned the photos are.  I can say, though, that there’s not a dud amongst them – all are interesting, relevant and potentially inspirational.  Diorama ideas abound, especially in the photos of aircraft being bombed up or serviced during operations in Korea.

The photos are backed up by drawings of selected details, such as cockpit layout, as well as useful comparative profiles that point out the main differences between successive P/F-80 versions – very useful from a modeler’s perspective.  The traditional In Action colour profiles are retained in the centre of the volume, although spread out over four pages rather than crammed into the middle two as used to be the case.

The book’s production quality is high.  The paper is glossy, the printing is crisp and the photos as good as they can be, given that most were taken over 60 years ago.  The A4 landscape format is worth mentioning as well, even though it’s been a characteristic of In Action titles from the very beginning, because it makes the book easy to handle on the modeling bench, lying flat and staying open where it should.

Squadron Signal’s revised P/F-80 Shooting Star in Action is an essential primer for any modeler planning to tackle one of the currently available kits of this subject.  While definitely an introductory rather than a specialist book, its straightforward text, great images and detailed captioning offer excellent starting points for anyone wanting to do further research on the aircraft. 

It’s clear to me after reading this book that Squadron Signal’s winning formula for the In Action series remains as valid today as it did when the series was launched back in the 1970s, with the added benefit of full colour throughout.

Highly recommended.

Review Copyright © 2012 by Brad Fallen
This Page Created on 19 June, 2012
Last updated 19 June, 2012

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