Know Your Airliners

For reviews of any reading material with a modeling / reference theme.
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mattbacon
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Know Your Airliners

Post by mattbacon »

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A little gem that I picked up for £1 at the Huddersfield show. Why this rather battered book, about the size of a Brooke Bond tea card album? Because it's largely the work of one Roy Cross, and is full of very nice little paintings of the sort that in later years would find their way onto our favorite CBK boxes. There's no date on the book, but judging from what "first flew" when, and what is "about to go into service with" comments in the text, it dates from the very late 1950s. Each aircraft gets a double page spread, with a three-view silhouette and some informative text by JWR Taylor on the left hand page, and the full page (7.5"x5.5", 19x14.5cm) painting on the other side. The book was published by Perry Colour Books for Shell-Mex and BP Ltd. Cross had done some advertising illustration for Shell, I believe.

The aircraft covered include some oddities: Argonaut, Britannia, Caravelle, Comet 4, Convair-Liner 340, DC-3, DC-4, DC-6B, Deux-Ponts, Dove, Dragon Rapide, Elizabethan, Friendship, Herald, Hermes, Heron, Hurel-Dubois HD-32, Il-12, Noratlas, Scandia, Solent, Stratocruiser, Super Constellation, Superfreighter, Viking, Viscount, Westland S-55 and York.

The coverage of some of the quirky products of the renascent French civil industry is particularly interesting.

On to the point of the book, the paintings. Even as reproduced, on faded paper, the quality of Cross's work shines though. There's a good mixture of aircraft "lost in the lonely sky", such as this DC-4:

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dramatic scenery, like this Comet and Il-12
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and action images like the Superfreighter and Solent:
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Finally, occasionally, Cross departs from the more usual compositions, as in this Convair:
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All in all, it's a brilliant little book, showcasing some early, but still very assured, work by one of the UK's foremost aviation artists. I don't know how easy it is to find (obviously mine was very easy - on top of a pile of books in a box under a table) or what it would normally go for, but for a £1 it's a real bargain. Look out for one!

For the moment, you can view the full set here:
http://www.zangzing.com/cmatthewbacon/k ... ers/photos;

bestest,
M.
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PaulBradley
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Re: Know Your Airliners

Post by PaulBradley »

Very cool! Thanks for sharing, Matt.
Paul

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JohnRatzenberger
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Re: Know Your Airliners

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Oh, thanks for posting these, they are great.
I like the HD32, turning final.
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JamesPerrin
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Re: Know Your Airliners

Post by JamesPerrin »

The Convair image is unusual because unlike all the rest this view point would be almost impossible to photograph air to air. Therefore we've not seen it in photos or films until the advent of CGI when I've seen the very close tracking shot done a couple of times.
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