USAAF Aircraft Markings and Camouflage 1941-1947: The History of USAAF Aircraft Markings, Insignia, Camouflage, and Colors (Schiffer Military Aviation History)

The book arrived in Excellent Condition!! To begin with this book is a LARGE book!! By being large the illustrations will show ,in greater detail, each aircraft within each page!! Within in these pages show the CREATION of all of the AIRCORPS from World War I to 1947! Then the book shows the many early aircraft some in color and then the various camouflage markings used in the early twentieth century through 1947! The artist drawings by Victor Archer of the various aircraft is nothing but awesome! Many of the aircraft within these pages I’ve never knew existed!!The captions, though short, are informative with each aircraft photographed. On page 341 - 342 is the listing of abbreviations used through out this book explaining all of the organizations from Squadron to the WING eventually to the AIRCORPS of the twentieth century till 1947!!Thank you AMAZON for having this INFORMATIVE book in your inventory!!!

I have written pretty widely about the Pacific War including specifically questions dealing with air operations, and I give this book a real thumbs up. Another critic said the book doesn't tell you much about aircraft. That's true but it doesn't claim to. What it does do is lay out a very good paper trail showing the whats and many of the whys of USAAF camo schemes throughout WWII including major exceptions. As luck would have it, this is one subject that was often dealt with in cooperation with the Navy. So if you examine the various color samples closely you've got the Navy colors too. And if you coordinate it with Steve Zaloga's work on armor, you've got a really good example of Ground Forces olive drab into the bargain. (It's not the same as the color employed on the vast majority of USAAF OD aircraft - which is darker and more muddy. As I understand it, GF OD is the same as the USAAF 1943 revision OD which was, as Archer notes, almost never used in the real world because the USAAF decided to go to natural finish within weeks of the revision.) My only regret is that Archer does not flesh out his claim that just as modellers often use the incorrect (for airplanes, but good for vehicles) OD because paint companies didn't follow the paper trail, so too are USN aircraft often assigned incorrect hues until the switch to dark blue in late war. These are not cosmic issues. It will not require anyone to reassess the meaning of WWII or the development of strategy, operations or fundamental technologies. It does help you know what aircraft look like. Modellers spent tons of money on kits, supplies and reference books - having one that tells you what colors to aim for is very nice. So necessity? Nope. But it's a sweet "buy it for yourself" present for any serious WWII modeller.

Like this book very much.The photos and narrative are excellent

A great reference for any serious modeler.

I can't comment on the quality of the markings text, but the color chips in the appendix are very accurate, which surprises me. If you don't want to buy this book because it has only ink & not proper paint color chips, I urge you to reconsider. The production team actually did well using the less expensive ink format to accurately portray the historic colors. The 3-1 colors match very well to the real McCoy which I have seen, & this most likely means that the others were done correctly too.

A great reference for the historical modeler or any fan of WWII air power. I especially enjoyed the detail and new information (to me)on the development of sea search camouflage schemes and the camouflage and markings developed for the north african campaign. These areas have been minimally covered previously, and it was always confusing to try and determine what was accurate. It is a valuable reference for me in reproducing some of these more obscure or specialized color schemes in models, and in identifying the theater and period of aircraft in photos.

Book cover wasn’t in perfect condition.Book came loose in a box!

Que dire de plus sur cette autre bible du même éditeur, mais pas des mêmes auteurs AHRGG, cela est trop, tout comme les ouvrages du même éditeur sur l'USAAC, USAAF, suite probable du volume 1 de chez Monogram sur le sujet et dont je n'ai pas eu connaissance de la sortie des volume 2 et 3 si l'on se base sur l’épaisseur du livre cité ci-dessusOuvrage très vivement recommandé, indispensable aux maquettistes et aux passionnés de tous ce qui est couleurs et marquages des avions USAF,