Casemate Publishing

Japanese Military Aircraft Air Collection

Written and Illustrated by  Eduardo Cea English translation by   Sally-Ann Hopwood

Reviewed By  Howie Belkin, IPMS# 16

Softcover 8.25" x 11 5/8" three volumes, ea with 100's of color side views. Volume 1 Fighters of the Imperial Japanese Army 1939-1945 ISBN 978-84-9601687-3 MSRP $28.95 Volume 2 Fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Ship-borne Aircraft 1939-1945 No. 1 ISBN 978-84-96035-04-4 MSRP $24.95 Volume 3 Fighters of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Ship-borne Aircraft 1922-1945 No. 2 ISBN 978-84-96935-06-8 MSRP $24.95 Casemate Publishing Web Site: www.casematepublishing.com If you build WWII Japanese aircraft here is a three volume, relatively inexpensive set of full sized, paperback books, jam packed with 100's of color side views, charts and text, representing exhaustive research you should have. Each volume follows the same format in that the author explains the organization and history of every unit and/or ship each type of aircraft was assigned to and then explains the markings used by each unit. It further identifies the system of stripes used to identify a commander's aircraft, or a home defense a/c, etc. Volume 1 includes a chart listing the top 50 Japanese Army Aces while Volume 2 includes a chart listing every Japanese aircraft carrier with each name translation (i.e. Akagi means Red Castle) and its fate. Volume 3 concentrates on seaplanes and their land or seaplane tender bases. Further, the books describe the use and shade of the red Hinumaru, and even mentions that Kates of the carrier Shokaku, participating in Pearl Harbor, had their standard light grey finish covered with a protective varnish giving them a caramel or ameiro tint. In effect, you can use the information in these books to accurately paint the complete camouflage and markings used on any Japanese aircraft in any area, in any time period during WWII. Finally you will know what every colored rudder, or spinner, stripes, all of the tail code numbers and letters, and other markings on any Japanese aircraft meant. Now you can accurately model any aircraft that attacked Pearl Harbor, or was based at Malaysia, Rabaul, or Truk, or flew from the Ryujo in the Battle of the Solomon Islands where it was mortally wounded by aircraft from the U.S.S. Saratoga. If you intend to build a Japanese aircraft carrier, you now have a reference that identifies what aviation units were on that carrier at any given time, with what aircraft and how their markings distinguished them from any other unit. One good thing about being a modeler back in IPMSs early days is that I have both the Navy and the Japanese Army Air Force Camouflage & Markings WWII books by Donald W. Thorpe that are long out of print (grab them if you ever see them on sale!) As exhaustive as those volumes were, they did not cover every Sentai of every Chutai or every ship that sailed with aircraft. They don't allow you to pick a unit and then define that units markings from nose to tail as these books by Eduardo Cea do. Nor do they allow you to pick a battle to learn what units were involved in it and what aircraft did they have and how were they marked. Even if you have the Thorpe books, this new JAPANESE MILITARY AIRCRAFT series not only complements them, but goes where they left off. There is only one problem, shared by all three editions. The review copies I received may be prepublication copies. This series was originally published in Spanish and my review copies each have slightly different front covers than the corrected ones shown on Casemates publicity releases illustrated here. They also have some translation errors and typos in the text that may or may not bother you. For example, airplane spinners are referred to as the propeller cones and a couple of captions were still in Spanish (i.e. the bottom of page 82 in Volume 1). Tara Lichterman assured me that whatever I pointed out will be corrected if it hadn't already been. A good 99% of the books text is perfectly fine, and as I'm fond of saying, their English is way better than my Spanish, the drawings are all in English, the books offer some essential and to my knowledge, original research presented in a very organized, informative format that should be welcomed by every modeler of Japanese WWII aircraft. And at less than $30 per edition, they are true values for your money that I heartily recommend. I hope the editions you'll see have been thoroughly proofread and corrected, or that you consider what you're getting for your money far exceeds any annoyance over the English. Thanks to Ms Lichterman at Casemate for the review copy. You can get your copy at better hobby shops and bookstores, or contact Casemate at (610)-853-9131 or www.casematepublishing.com. References: 1968 Japanese Army Air Force Camouflage & Markings WWII by Donald W. Thorpe Japanese Naval Air Force Camouflage & Markings WWII by Donald W. Thorpe Editor's Note: A separate review of Volume 1 is posted on this website.

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