“The
Modern Hog Guide, The A-10 Warthog Exposed” 120 pages softcover By Jake
Melampy, Reid Air Publications, softcover
Jake
Melampy’s 3rd book, 2nd in his “exposed” series is
on the USAF Close Air Support aircraft, the A-10 Thunderbolt II. But that’s
the last time we shall refer to it as that! Warthog lovers have been both
needing and wanting a book on the Hog for a long time. There was Dana Bell’s
Detail & Scale book from several years ago and the “Lock-on” from
Verlinden not to mention the “In Action” series from Squadron. While
these books were nice and helpful to a modeler they were OLD!!!! From the mid
80’s the A-10 has seen several upgrades, and will continue to do so.
Jakes
new book on the Hog has got the modern Hog lover covered!! If you’re a bottom
line kind of person let me tell you right now, this is THE BOOK on the A-10!!!
Go buy it now! Jake has written this book with us, the modeler in mind the
pictures are what we want, big, quite sharply printed and has the your
modeler’s eye in mind.
As
I said before, this book is aimed at the scale modeler and not the aviation
historian. But Jake provides a short history of the A-10 and gives you some
chronology on the mods that have been incorporated on the Hog. However please
realize that those dates are very general and can vary for one particular
airframe. Remember this is a guide not a technical order!!
The
Modern Hog Guide is laid out in the same manner as his F-16 guide book.
Beginning with the nose section ( With a load of pics on the GAU-8A both in and
out of the jet) and ending with a section on the weapons the A-10 carries. This
book should satisfy all your detailing needs.
One
section that really stands out is the cockpit section. Every version of the A-10
cockpit from the A, A+ and the new C is extensively covered. However, this is
the MODERN hog guide and the photos show cockpits as they appear today, however
some older configurations are illustrated.
The
only thing I would have liked to have included is a table of contents. But the
book is very well laid out and has the “section titles” on the upper right
corner of the page. Also there are no shots of the Sargent Fletcher 600 gallon
external tank. No big deal on that as they were not used by many A-10 units.
To
sum up if you’re getting ready to do a model of an A-10 from Desert Storm
onwards, this is the book to have! Actually buy two!! You will wear out
the first copy on your work bench so you will want a pristine version for your
bookshelf!!!
Craig
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