Hello everyone, my name is Gavin and I enjoy making models and reading. Finding books on military aircraft is pretty easy, there are so many different choices, but finding a good one that will help you and not take up space on your shelf up is a bit harder. Often there aren’t really any photos of the interior of the book so you don’t know what is in there, the cover may look really good but the inside its full of single photos and a small blurb for each aircraft. If you are making just one model a book on that specific aircraft is probably your best bet, but if you like to make a lot of models these books are your best bang for your buck. I own all of these books personally and have used them in the construction and painting of my own models.
#1. Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft, by Enzo Angelucci.
This is a huge book measuring about a foot and a half tall and 400 pages, but it includes so many full color top, side, and front view of the aircraft. It was one of my favorite books as a kid to get at the library, that I eventually got it for my own library and models. It is all about world war 2 aircraft and is what I would call a general book on world war 2 aircraft since it covers a lot of aircraft generally instead of a couple specifically. It includes fighters and bombers, I took a photo of the end contents so you see for yourself all the aircraft it includes. You can buy it here at amazon through my affiliate link below, but the book is now sadly up to $80 dollars, so I would highly advise buying the book somewhere cheaper, so just shop around online.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8880956884/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=8880956884&linkCode=as2&tag=gavinwirtz-20&linkId=186287d5491430bb6f671c293f3226e1
#2. The Great Book of World War 2 Airplanes.
This book is also a large one with over 600 pages, it covers 12 world war 2 aircraft, and has a few page foldouts for each aircraft. The book is a lot more specific and covers each aircraft’s development and different variants of each, with lots of photos of exterior but also interior. I got it from a friend when I was 10 or 11, I believe, and it is an excellent book. Again brand new it is $80 on amazon, but only about $12 if you get it used, I buy all my books used. I do try and get like new or good, but they have all been fine. Here is a link to get it on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517459930/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0517459930&linkCode=as2&tag=gavinwirtz-20&linkId=663880f24e47f5fe8dd35d4b84421c78
#3. The Great Book Of Modern Warplanes
This is a tall book like the first one and has 650 pages, it is another specific book and is almost a sequel to the second book we reviewed, but it covers each of its 12 aircraft in huge detail with cutaways and tons of photos. This book is a great addition to your library especially if you model modern fighter and bomber jets. Here is a link to it on amazon it costs from $5 in good condition to very good at $10, so go get one of your own for you or someone else for Christmas.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0517633671/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0517633671&linkCode=as2&tag=gavinwirtz-20&linkId=ae0448f9dd2680c197e5ff1569554654
#4. The Complete Book of Fighters
This is definitely an encyclopedia and complete book on fighter aircraft. This is a more general book with a couple photos for most aircraft and a small 3 way view square for each one, but it has an entry on almost every fighter ever conceived. It has a few entries on the Vought F-7U Cutlass that I made use of, it displays photos of many world war 1 fighters even less well known ones. It is an excellent compendium of fighters and covers many different ones to varying degrees with more popular aircraft given 1-2 whole pages, and sometimes full color 3-way views.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0831739398/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=gavinwirtz-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0831739398&linkId=de1583828dcc3eb013f30d26084a3133
#5. The Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft.
This book is much like the last one but it includes bombers, reconnaissance, and even helicopters. It is a great reference book if you want to have a little bit on almost every modern aircraft. Each aircraft has a description of it and a mention of each variant of the aircraft, and some of the more popular aircraft have a 3-way view of them. Its a fairly large book with a couple hundred pages and tons of different aircraft covered. You can get it on amazon for about $15 used, or $94 new, I have always found used books to be the best way to get a book and save money. Here is a link to it, go get it and help support me through my amazon affiliate link.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0760722080/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=gavinwirtz-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0760722080&linkId=9f66ca466f8462c31f2900cb4fdc5dce
Thank you all for reading, leave a comment, suggest something else to review, have a good day or night.
Gavinwirtz 