Convair PB4Y-2/P4Y-2 Privateer Book Review
By David L. Veres
| Date of Review | September 2012 | Title | Convair PB4Y-2/P4Y-2 Privateer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Nicholas A. Veronico & Steve Ginter | Publisher | Ginter Books |
| Published | 2012 | ISBN | 9780984611461 |
| Format | 240 pages, softbound | MSRP (USD) | $49.95 |
Review
Hard to believe. But Steve Ginter's acclaimed "Naval Fighters" series is approaching 100 titles. And number 93 is one of his best.
Convair PB4Y-2/P4Y-2 Privateer by Nicholas A. Veronico and Steve Ginter – item GB146 from Specialty Press – splendidly recaps the terrific tale of this lumbering leviathan.
American manufacturers produced over 18,400 iterations of the classic B-24 during World War II. And Privateers – maritime patrol derivatives – remain perennially popular with historians and hobbyists alike.
Contents follow Ginter's familiar format. After illuminating introductory notes on wartime U.S. Navy patrol bomber evolution, coverage courses from design and development through testing and variants to service and fate.
The authors capably chart all production permutations of their celebrated subject – including transports. Dozens of detail shots and drawings – many from tech manuals – spice these sumptuous sections. And data tables add mind-numbing arrays of performance and measurement minutiae. Want to set Revell's 1:72-scale ailerons to absolutely accurate angles? It's there.
The heavily illustrated text resumes with – unit-by-unit – American use in WWII, the immediate postwar years and Korea. Sections on French, Nationalist Chinese and Latin American Privateers follow. And contents conclude with brief modeling notes. An index would have helped track the twists and turns of this copious compendium!
Convair PB4Y-2/P4Y-2 Privateer deserves a place in every aircraft modeler's library. I simply couldn't put it down.
Robustly recommended.
With thanks to Specialty Press:
Specialty Press
39966 Grand Ave.
North Branch, MN 55056
U.S.A.