RUSSIAN AVIATION COLOURS 1909-1922:
Camouflage and Markings Vol 4 - Against Soviets

by Marat Khairulin

MMP Books

Reviewed by David Couche

Mushroom Model Publications has released the fourth volume in this series on Russian Aviation Colour 1909-1922 series. This series describes the history of the little-known emblems and distinctive markings of early Russian military aircraft from the revolution to the Russian exit from World War One. This volume is a nicely presented hardbound book, presented in A4 portrait mode. The 128 pages are printed on high quality, semi-matte paper with an abundance of wonderful historical black and white period photographs. There are a number of modern photographs, mainly of aircraft in museums today. There are, if my counting is correct about 80 colour profiles, which is very helpful to a modeller of this era. There is also many unit markings, personal markings and posters that give the reader a far more detailed look into the Russian White Army. The text is in English and is very easy to understand and is quite readable.

“Volume 4 describes aircraft used by aviation units of the White Army, which were fighting against the Bolsheviks (the Soviet Red Army). The author has managed to collect, and in some cases partially reconstruct, the majority of emblems and signs used in Russia during this period by military aviation units. The collected material is presented in a clear and attractive form - colour plates, reconstructed logos, and original photographs from public and private archives. This profusely illustrated book covers the aircraft used by early Soviet aviation, with brief details of their service use and comprehensive details of the colours and markings they carried. Besides the many photographs, full colour profiles illustrate the markings applied.”

*Quote from the publisher

Of interest is that the White Army actually had few planes, and those they had were often the discards of other nations and eventually, many war weary and aging aircraft from the WWI. This did however, give them a real variety from several different nations and hence a quite interesting air force. Further to that was the variety of roundel type markings that they used, and in some cases, as an example, they flew ex- British planes complete with their roundels still showing.

What I really like, is that Marat gives you pages where there are colour profiles as well as a photograph, or in many cases, more than one photo of that aircraft. On the same page(s), he also supplies via scrap drawings, details of unit and personal markings of that aircraft. This is such an excellent way of presenting references and information on aircraft.

This is a very interesting book that will greatly assist modellers of the early Soviet aviation era, no matter the scale. Well recommended for an interesting read.

Thanks to MMP Books  for the sample.

All MMP Books are available direct from the publishers, who now accept credit cards (Visa, MC, Amex, Switch)  

North American distributors are MMD, Australian distributors are Platypus Publications. In Europe, the books are available from any good bookshop (via our UK distributors, Orca). Contact MMP direct in case of difficulties. 

Thanks to Roger at MMP Books  for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2020 by David Couche
This Page Created on 29 June, 2020
Last updated 29 June, 2020

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