Steve Ginter

A Bit of Disappointment After the Latest AF Legends Books.
Taken as an accumulation of photographs with solid captioning this an excellent monograph and certainly worth the money if you’re detailing one of the two models available. And as mentioned the captioning is solid. (Except for a minor glitch on page 12. The order given on the lower row is reversed.) Overall, for some reason I disappointed by the amount of text that was available. To be fair, the text that is present while sparse is show more reasonably informative. But you get let down by its paucity. For example, the issue with nacelles gets a short paragraph with no discussions about attempts to rectify it. Considering Stan Piet from the Martin Museum Archives is listed as a contributor, that’s somewhat surprising.
As casual observation, it was interesting to see how fast Martin made initial progress, from contract acceptance on the 29th of December while the Battle of the Bulge was being fought to the start of mock-up inspection on April 19th little more than two weeks before VE day was impressive, even by the standards of the day.
While one can sing high praises of the monograph as a modeling reference and viewed as akin to a walkaround volume this is a solid if somewhat overpriced purchase. As a history of the aircraft? It’s a bit disappointing when stacked up against other AF Legends offerings.
Strongly Recommended for modelers, non-modelers approach with caution. show less

Great Coverage of a Little Known Aircraft

Mr. Ginter goes a bit further afield as he publishes these monographs on lesser known Naval Aircraft. (It might time to rethink the "Naval Fighters" title for his publications on USN/USMC aircraft.)
The volume starts out with the S-43's predecessors, exports, and civilian operators (33 pages). Although it's somewhat abbreviated it's more than adequate as it also includes a few photographs of interior shots, cutaways and construction. The rest of the show more volume (68 pages) pretty much follow the standard Naval Fighters formula with the exception of reproducing technical drawing from manuals. Squadron histories, in-service photographs and coverage of the available models. Postwar coverage of the survivors is also covered. One particular item of note is some of the archival photos are reproduced with a staggering level of clarity and detail.
I gave the volume a 4 star rating not because it's flawed, I'm glad I purchased it and it's a welcome addition to my library. It just didn't float my boat.
This is another excellent Ginter publication and I highly recommend it for those with an interest in the golden age of flying boats, airlines of the era, early WWII flying boats etc. show less

Very pleased with the book overall. As a recent Naval Fighters publication this volume falls a little short compared to amount of text in volumes like the ones on the Buffalo and F4H-1. That's not to say it isn't excellent.
Following the usual Naval Fighters format there are sections devoted to development, users and models. Because of the size of the book at 250 pages, this is a massive volume for the NF series and as result there are 15 pages of a color walk-around along with numerous show more drawings and a few of the unit histories are more fleshed out than is the norm within the series.
There is extensive the coverage of the Marines with VSMB-241 prior to and at Midway, coverage of the French use is probably is as good as can be expected at this date, while coverage of the use by the British is somewhat perfunctory.
Coverage of the training units is excellent and provides photos of the Sable and Wolverine.
The only reason this gets four stars is due to the lack of text compared to contemporary NF volumes and my desire for more text. If you're interested in naval aviation this book deserves a place on your shelf.
Overall, taken in context with the traditional NF series?
Unreservedly recommended for anyone interested in the US Navy aircraft, early WWII history and modelers. show less

This is mostly a typical Naval Fighters product with some text devoted to development and the majority to short paragraphs devoted to in-service use. There is a significant amount of space devoted to reproducing some archival maintenance manuals, etc.
This volume however has 35 pages(!) devoted to development, with a few paper proposals and a fair amount of text by Mr. Meyer who was factory pilot. This is very unusual for a NF product and very welcome!
Given the costs of the these volumes has show more reached hardcover prices, this book represents a pretty decent value. Highly recommended. show less