The Hawker Typhoon
A Complete Guide to the RAF’s Classic Ground-Attack Fighter

by Richard A. Franks

Valiant Wings Publishing
Airframe and Miniature No. 17

Reviewed by Graham Carter

This range of superb reference books need no introduction as they have become the go-to sources for modellers and those interested in specific aeroplanes since they first started to appear over a decade ago. This is the third edition ( note the new ISBN ), expanded and containing more modelling material. It is a solid A4 176 page volume, well bound with a glossy card cover and printed on quality glossy paper that allows excellent reproduction of images and drawings. While primarily aimed at the modeller with around a third of the book taken up by kit reviews and builds, there is much to appeal to the historian and technically-minded person as well.

The cover has a nice bespoke illustration of JP925 of ZH-J of 266 Sqn shooting down a Dornier Do24T, by Jerry Boucher. Inside we find a one page Preface, then a six page chapter on the development of the Tornado Further chapters cover the Evolution, Production Variants and Drawing Board Projects for the Typhoon of eighteen pages, all illustrated with clear photos and drawings.

There follows ten pages on the Camouflage and Markings carried on these different airframes illustrated by Richard Caruana in full colour. Most have a photo to back up the drawings. Sandwiched between these sections is short look at the surviving Typhoon, again with some useful  background information and photos.

The seventh chapter lists a selection of the available kits in all scales from 1/144 through to 1/24, with an assessment of the pros and cons of each, after which are five builds of the Academy and  AIrfix 1/72 Mk Ib ( Libor Jekl and Steve Evans), the Brengun late production Ib by Steve Evans and CzechMaster’s resin Mk Ia by Libor Jekl . Then Steve Evans tackles the 1/48 Hasegawa Mk Ib and the same variant by MDC in 1/32 . Finally two builds the Airfix 1/24 Mk Ib by Dani Zamarbide  and John ‘Tigger’ Wilkes. All builders are well known for the quality of their modelling and their clear photos and explanations of how they produce their models are worth a detailed read.

The ninth section shows in isometric drawings by Jacek Jackiewicz show the differences between all the different variants. These annotated sketches are invaluable to the modeller although I occasionally think that it would have been useful to have had some undersurface drawings as well.

The ‘In Detail’ section occupies almost 40 pages and give the reader an enormous number of colour and B&W photos from modern and contemporary sources, along with technical manual drawings and excellent notes. This is really a highlight of this and other volumes in the series and provides an invaluable source of information for the interested technophile or the super-detailer.

Finally, there are five appendices covering, in alphabetic lists by scale, all of the kits that have been available, Accessories, decals and a bibliography. The work that has gone into compiling these lists is quite astounding.

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The volume concludes with a fold-out double-sided four-page set of 1/48 scale drawings - eight pages in all - showing side and upper and lower views of different variants, as well as the Tornado.

This really is an exceptionally useful volume that should be in every Typhoon/Tornado modeller’s library, regardless of which scale one works in, and I recommend it whole-heartedly

This really is an exceptionally useful volume that should be in every Typhoon/Tornado modeller’s library, regardless of which scale one works in, and I recommend it whole-heartedly.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publishing for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2022 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 15 March, 2022
Last updated 15 March, 2022

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