Hall Park Books

Warpaint #10: Wellington on CD

by  Alan W. Hall

Reviewed By  Paul Bradley, IPMS# 35554

MSRP: GBP 10.00 The Wellington has had a bit of a revival with kit manufacturers over the past couple of years; indeed the Trumpeter 1/48 series is still fresh in the mind and so this re-release of one of the earliest Warpaint books is particularly welcome. What makes this release stand out is the fact that it is on CD. Let's deal with the content first. The format is now familiar; a mix of comprehensive historical text, period photos, color profiles and data tables. The text is quite comprehensive and gives a good potted history of the development and service of the Wimpey in British and foreign hands. This is supplemented by a good selection of photos, mostly of course in black and white. Color profiles are dotted through the book, illustrating the many guises that the Wellington went though in its career - the post-war French patrol bomber would make a nice looking model. In the center of the book is a set of pullout plans to 1/72, and there is a selection of photos showing interior detail that will be most helpful. All in all, a nice package a good single reference for the type. Now to the presentation of the book. This is one of the older Warpaint titles and the printed version has been sold out for some time, and Hall Park has decided to re-issue this book, and other older books in the series, on CD. According to Alan Hall of Warpaint Books, "This is a new venture because we find that as titles go out of print the cost of reprinting outweighs the advantages of being able send a CD at the same price." The information takes the form of a very large Adobe Acrobat document, so you will need Acrobat reader to open the file - this is available for free at the Adobe website. No instructions are included with the CD - it is assumed that you will know what to do! I want to be clear here, and so you will not be under any illusions - this is simply the printed Warpaint Wellington book, scanned onto computer at a very high resolution, and saved as a single Acrobat document. This CD is not interactive, does not have different sections, multimedia or video and no extras. This of course is reflected in the low price, which is the same as the printed version. As Warpaints are larger than the standard 8 X 11 page, the pages of the book have been reduced to fit the 8 X 11 format and this will need to be borne in mind should you wish to print out the plan set. Personally, I dislike reading lengthy material on the computer - my old eyes just don't like it, even with my non-CRT screen! And of course, you are tied to your computer, rather than being able to refer to the book at your modeling desk. But then a CD takes up less space on the bookshelf and you can enlarge the profiles and photos with ease. So there are advantages and disadvantages to having the book on CD. On balance, I prefer printed materials, but there's nothing to stop me from printing this out! And the material contained within is definitely of high quality, so I can recommend this book as one of the best references I have seen on the Wellington. This book is available from Warpaint Books; please visit their website (www.warpaint-books.com) for pricing details. Warpaint books are also available through retailers and distributors around the world. Our sincere thanks to Alan Hall of Warpaint Books for the review sample.

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