Control Line.. Scale..
Mike Gretz
WHILE I don't recommend handing an overworked scale judge a multi-volume library on your subject aircraft, books can be a valuable source of high-quality and often rare photos and drawings for scale research and documentation. Parts of a book relating to your subject aircraft; and necessary to your presentation; either can be prominently marked and masked out in the book, or removed entirely for inclusion in your presentation folder.
Most bookstores seem to stock very few, if any, of the type of aviation books that are most helpful to a scale builder. You could be surprised to learn, simply by sending for a few catalogs, how many hundreds of aviation related books and other publications are available to us. In fact, there are several mail-order book companies that deal exclusively with aviation subjects. The list of titles in their catalogs seems almost endless and ranges from short "profile" type booklets to large hardbound volumes. You can get books dealing with a specific airplane, families of airplanes, historic aviation events and eras, aircraft companies, and designers. In addition to these mail-order book dealers, there are several publishers of aviation books that you can buy from directly, and they also have informative catalogs.
This month I'm going to list those sources of aviation publications that I am familiar with and use most frequently. I realize that my list is probably incomplete, so if you know of other good sources that you can recommend, let us hear from you. Judging by my experiences, there are a lot of scale-inclined modelers who aren't aware of what is available; thus their "someday" scale project may never get off the ground. By sending for some of these book catalogs you may find the information that you have been needing. One small catch is that you will probably find, as I do when browsing through these catalogs, more ideas for dynamite scale subjects than you can ever possibly build in your lifetime.
Zenith Aviation Books, North Branch, MN 55056, offers one of the largest selections of aviation titles that I am familiar with. Zenith is strictly a dealer and handles practically all of the best known titles and series. They currently have a 22-page catalog for $1.00, that lists all of the books individually along with a short descriptive paragraph about the contents of each. All in all, an extremely helpful catalog. Zenith gives excellent service.
Historic Aviation, 3850 Coronation Rd., Eagan, MN 55122, also deals exclusively with aviation publications and handles all of the best known publishing companies and titles. I've found their service to be excellent and friendly. They may have a general catalog, although I can't find mine at the moment; but I do have several different single page sheets, listing prices and terms. I'd suggest sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your request for information.
Armed Forces Book Co., 21 Dahlia Lane, Deer Park, NY 11729, lists the most diverse selection of books dealing with aircraft (civilian and military), arms, armor, military, and ships than any of the other stores that I have seen. Their large catalog costs $1 and, like Zenith's, lists each book along with a short description of its contents. Of special note is the fact that Armed Forces Book Co. still have available some of the now out-of-print, and hard to find, Profile Publications series. If you are interested, ask for their list of available Profile Publications when you send for the catalog.
Milbooks, P.O. Box 92, Stanton, CA 90680, is another dealer who handles all types of aircraft and military books. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for more information.
Aero Publishers, Inc., 329 W. Aviation Rd., Fallbrook, CA 92028, claims to produce and sell more aviation and aerospace books than any other publisher in the world. I do know that they produce many noteworthy books, including the well known "Aero Series" of profile-type booklets covering the most famous of the WW2 military aircraft. Their free catalog shows over 200 books on all phases of aviation and space. Their books are also available from most of the mail-order book dealers that I've already mentioned.
Sentry Books, 10718 White Oak Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344, is another book publisher that you can buy from directly. Their line of aviation books isn't very large yet, but I've found every book I have gotten to be exceptional in quality of photos, drawings, historical accuracy, and manufacture. Most of their authors are internationally known experts on their subjects. Sentry also publishes two bi-monthly magazines called "Wings" and "Airpower." devoted to in-depth histories of several different aircraft in every issue. The accuracy of the articles and the black-and-white and color photos, often previously unpublished, make these two magazines extremely interesting and useful reading. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for more information.
Historical Aviation Album, P.O. Box 33, Temple City, CA 91780, produces a continuing series of 8-1/2" x 11" paperbound books (called "Historical Aviation Albums," now up to vol. 15). Each contains several in-depth, semi-technical articles on aircraft and personalities that made aeronautical history. Each article includes clearly written text, photos, and fine-line 3-view scale drawings. They also produce several single-subject books of similar size and format that are not part of the continuing "Album" series. I've found their publications to be second-to-none in accuracy and quality, and the 3-view drawings are available separately in large 17" x 22" size.
Got a Screw Loose? Is the cowling on your model held in place with metal screws threading themselves into plywood or hardwood mounting blocks? And do the threads in the blocks tend to wear out after taking the screws in and out a dozen or so times? Hot Stuff, or similar cyanoacrylate adhesives, can eliminate the problem. It's best to give the threads a Hot Stuff treatment during construction before the model is painted and then exposed to fuel. First mount the engine and cowl as normal, threading the cowl mounting screws into the wood mounting blocks, then remove the screws and cowl. Hold the fuselage so that the mounting block is level with the hole, straight down. Fill the threaded hole with Hot Stuff and let it soak in before tipping from level. Do the same for all of the holes. Let set overnight before putting the screws back in the holes, or your cowl could become permanently mounted.
More on Profile Publications: Most of you have probably heard of, or maybe own some of, this colorful but now out-of-print aircraft historical series, printed in England in the 1960's and early 1970's. The series consisted of 258 individual aircraft "profiles," and the subject list included virtually all of the world's most prominent military aircraft since WWI. Typically, each Profile was up to 12 pages long, and covered the subject aircraft's origin, development, and use, with photos, color scale drawings, and historical text. The "Aircraft in Profile" series pioneered the format we now see reflected in other similar series by different publishers in recent years. The full-page color scale drawings that were in each Profile were especially well done, and seem ideally suited to today's generation of Sport Scale models and rules. The entire series also was sold in a set of 14 bound volumes. You may wonder why I bring this up since they have been out of print for several years, but the reason is that some of the Profiles are not yet sold out. There are two sources that I know of, that still have a good stock. I mentioned earlier the Armed Forces Book Co., and you can get from them a list of what they have. You can also get a list directly from Profile Publications Limited, Dial House, 6 Park St., Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1UU, England. You'd better do this soon.
PLEASE DO NOT FLY NEAR POWER LINES!
Mike Gretz, Box 162, Montezuma, IA 50171.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
