Albatros Productions Ltd

Nieuport Flyers of the Lafayette

by  John Guttman

Reviewed By  Bart Cusumano, IPMS# 31882

MSRP: £22.00 UK ISBN: 1-902207-78-5 40 pages - soft cover magazine format; 59 b&w photographs with 11 pages of color profiles; also includes 8 pages of 1:32 scale Nieuport 11/16/17/21 scale b&w drawings. Available from: Albatros Productions Ltd, 10 Long View, Chiltern Park Estate, Berkhamsted, Herts, HP4 1BY www.windsockdatafilespecials.com Being a big fan of WWI aviation, I jumped at the chance to review Albatros Production's new book, Nieuport Flyers of the Lafayette. I had also just seen the new movie 'Flyboys', which gave a stylized account of the famed N.124 Escadrille Lafayette. Luckily, I saw the movie before I read this book, since the book does debunk many of the myths and sets straight much of the story of this group of brave American volunteer pilots as set forth in the movie. The book is printed on high-quality gloss stock paper, done up in a stapled-at-the-centerfold magazine style format. In the center you will find eight pages of 1:32 scale Nieuport plans which (as I can attest to) are removable without causing damage to the book or the plans themselves - if done carefully. There is also a wealth of color aircraft profiles of many of the Lafayette's Nieuport fighters. All of the color profiles are meticulously captioned with information on pilots, aircraft type and details germane to the aircraft's use and place in the N.124's history. The color images are sharp, clear and printed in what appears to be accurate color representations. All of the book's photos are in black and white - to be expected from this era in history. All photos are numbered and are accompanied with numbered captions although there is one error in photo numbering that appears on page 8: photos numbered as 14, 15 & 16 should in fact be numbered 13, 14 & 15 - they skipped 13! The captions are numbered correctly. Many of the photos are clear enough to serve a useful modeling reference purpose (e.g., photo #43, page 31), while still some are not so clear, but are still good enough to illustrate a point. One of the best parts of the book is a table on page 40 that lists all of N.124's Nieuports, with vertical columns providing aircraft Type/ Serial #'s/ Markings/ Pilots and 'Remarks'. This is extremely useful in allowing modelers to build an accurately painted and marked N.124 aircraft. While I have talked about the book's utility to the modeler as a terrific reference volume, it weaves an entertaining historical narrative of the men and times that made up the story of the Escadrille Lafayette, along with a very useful accounting of the various fighter aircraft used by N.124. And as such, this book can be labeled as not only a useful reference volume, but a good historical piece, filled with lots of information and entertaining anecdotes. My only disappointment with the text was that it gave little or no background of where these American pilots of N.124 came from and what drove them as individuals to 'join up' , or where the surviving members eventually ended up in history. For example, the narrative on page 2 mentions, ". . .the physically handicapped but fearless Bill Thaw. . .", but never explains what his handicap was or how Thaw overcame it to become an N.124 combat pilot. I guess my only real concern with this book was it's price - at £22 UK, I believe that works out to around $40 US - something I would expect to pay for a perfect-bound (not to mention longer) type of volume. In summary, I found this to be a very good addition for a reference library. It not only provided a human face to go with the machines, but it clearly set forth an accurate timeline of the Nieuport fighter types used by N.124 and when, in that timeline they appeared, along with a lot of visual reference material. If the price is no object, I recommend it's purchase. I would like to thank Albatros Productions Ltd for providing the review sample and John Noack for the opportunity to review it.

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