Mushroom Model Publications

Hawker Hart Family Orange Series #8107 "Maxi-Size"

by  Alex Crawford

Reviewed By  John Ratzenberger, IPMS# 40196

MSRP: 18 £ (approx $32 US) ISBN: 978-8389450-62-3 Web Site: www.mmpbooks.biz 256 pages (132 in color), 1/72 scale plans, well over 300 pictures. Oh, Happy Days !!! Not six months after I reviewed Mushroom's Fury-Nimrod book and wished for one on the Silver Winged two-seaters, here it is !!! I wish I could claim some credit for providing inspiration, but I know better. And it really isn't just "here it is" -- it's "here it is in spades" !!! Because this is the first of Mushroom's new "Orange Maxi" series, with an expanded number of pages to cover types that cannot be covered in the standard format. The Hart was designed to a 1926 specification for a light bomber and went into squadron service in 1930, promptly out-running the current day fighter, the Bristol Bulldog. Thus it slightly pre-dates its' single-seat cousin, the Hawker Fury. The Hart was so successful it was developed into roles for 2-seat fighter, army co-op aircraft, target-tug, trainer, and naval equivalents. The Hart family includes the Hart itself, Demon, Osprey, Audax, Hardy, Hind, Hector, and Hartebeest, not to mention variations for different countries. Mostly all were the sleek inline engine version, the exception being the ugly Hector and a few radial engine versions of which only the fully cowled Bristol-engine versions such as the 'Persian Hind' and 'Latvian Hind' do justice to the beautiful lines of the basic airframe. All in all, the Hart family was used by all UK/Commonwealth air arms and some 15 other countries, in Europe and the Middle East and Far East, sometimes up to 20 years. Most of the combat was in the Middle East in the 30's and early 40's. But the Mushroom book can best tell that story. The book is in standard Mushroom format, albeit as mentioned, much larger. I'll discuss it in several "sections", although the book isn't formally divided up that way. The first section, 75 pages, covers the development and RAF/FAA service history, second-line duties, and in some cases, special versions or information of the Hart, Demon, Osprey, Audax, Hardy, Hind, and Hector. There is an extensive discussion of the construction of the Hart which of use to modelers. The section concludes with a brief look at the Hart family in the Abyssinian Crisis with Italy, skirmishes in the Middle East, and chasing pirates in the Far East. The next section (pages 76-97) cover Commonwealth service in much the same manner. For each country there is a section on colors and markings that is very useful in conjunction with the color profiles at the end. Of note are the variations of brown and green in lieu of the usual dark earth / dark green one expects. Following this, on pages 98-107, we are off to war with emphasis on the Middle East and East Africa. And then (pages 110-146) all the variants in foreign service are discussed, again with color and marking info that goes well with the color profiles. Note a few of these flew against the RAF. In the sections above, there are numerous 1/72 scale profile drawings and a few 4-views. There are no cutaways, cross-sections, or detail drawings. There is one subtle error in the top-view drawings (i.e. pages 14/15, 34/35) which show the fin offset to starboard. The text says (page 11), and all photos clearly show, that the fin is offset to port - not sure what happened to the drawings. More significant, in the 4-view of the Opsrey on page 34/35, the upper wing is clearly that of the Hart and has not the modified center section to allow the wings to fold. Unfortunately, many of the above sections do not read that well. The sentences are short and choppy -- I had the feeling that research notes were literally transcribed rather than rewritten. A few well-placed connectives would have helped smooth out the text. The other issue I had was the, to me, unnecessary and boring focus on crashes and accidents. OK, there isn't a lot of combat to talk about, but who crashed what when isn't a good substitute. In my opinion, there could have been more discussion of the role these aircraft and others played in the evolving doctrine and expansion of the RAF/FAA in the period. There's nothing wrong with some historic context and social history. The next section (pages 147-152) has charts of production numbers, claims, and specifications. Following all this, on pages 153-163, is a unique and very interesting section of period pilot's notes and of flying the Shuttleworth's Hind. This is priceless. There are some cynical comments on cockpit arrangement and management of the retractable radiator that really bring the aircraft to life. Next, a one-page bibliography, which frankly simply doesn't do justice to the material available on either the aircraft or the RAF/FAA 'tween wars. Next, on pages 165-172, is an extensive and informative discussion of surviving aircraft. This gives one hope that more restorations going to be on display, or even in flight. The next-to-last section, pages 173-231 - that's right, 58 of 'em - are the detail photos and these are just great -- one of the best collections I have seen from Mushroom. The first 10 pages are of the RAF Museum Hart and Hart Trainer and these are modeler's photos, down to nitty-gritty details, and the accompanying text does a great job pointing out the highlights. These ten pages and the pilot's notes mentioned before are worth the price alone. The rest of the detail photos are also good and are useful in supplement to the first ten pages. Some period photos and documentation are interspersed. The last few pages cover weapons and contain some great shots of the Light Series and Universal Carrier mounts, useful for any number of aircraft/models, not just the Hart family. The available cockpit detail is a bit of a shortfall particularly given the pilot's notes prior. See the photos and description of the ram's head exhausts on page 191 -- designed as flame dampening, they tended to collect unburned fuel then explode!

Lastly, the final 33 pages contain the standard Mushroom color profiles. These are a great cross-section of all aircraft and variants, to include Commonwealth and Foreign Service, for a total of about 43 profiles. If you want to build a member of the Hart family, you have dozens of options available. As one might expect, many of these profiles are of aircraft shown in B/W pictures earlier and sometimes previously discussed. I didn't do any exhaustive checks, but everything appears to be correct back here. There are some editing issues, particularly in the first dozen pages, but these are obvious and should not, except for the drawing errors, lead anyone astray. On page 7, bottom photo is id'd as J9933 when it is J9938. On page 9, the upper right insert is id'd as K2089, it is K1996. On page 55, aircraft are id'd as K5545 and K5513 - they are K4645 and K5513. On page 80/81, the last line on page 80 is repeated atop page 81. On pages 216/217 a couple photos and captions are mixed up. And add to these the drawing errors already mentioned. Summary This is a great book !!! I note the editing issues, the choppy text, the focus on crashes, and the fin offset to alert you -- they are insignificant compared the value of the other material in this book. As I noted the pilot's notes and the detail photos alone are worth the price, in my opinion. I have a fairly good collection of "Silver Wings" references -- none of them (except my original 1936 Air Ministry reprint of the 1932 Hart Aeroplane Manual) present this much info on the Hart. This is not another rehash of pictures and information available elsewhere -- you would spend a lot of time and money collecting it yourself. If you are a fan of the Hart family, or of the 'Silver Wings' era, then you want this book. Regardless of what you already have, I believe this book will add to, not just duplicate, information in your collection. I have a squadron of 1/72 and 1/48 Hart family kits (Aeroclub, Airfix, Merlin/Frog) in my stash, plus the West Wings wood/tissue, rubber-powered model -- time to get a couple of them out ... Once again, my thanks to Mushroom Model Publications for including Silver Wings in their catalog and for providing this book for review. As always thanks to IPMS for allowing me to review it.

Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®.