Supermarine Walrus

Warpaint Series No. 39
By Alan Hall & Ray Sturtivant
Warpaint Books Ltd, 2003
24 pages, softbound

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The Supermarine Walrus was a small flying boat that has recently experienced a resurgence in the modeling world due to the release of a nice 1/48 kit. This book covers the rather interesting life of this diminutive aircraft, from its development in the 1930s to the final operations in civilian life in the 1960s. The text is broken down into several sections, including development, construction, performance, and operations. Several tables are also included, covering Walrus squadrons and ships that carried Walruses and more.

Like other titles in the Warpaint series, this book comes with plenty of photos showing the Walrus in all sorts of scenes. Coverage includes pre-war silver, camouflaged, and post-war civilian and foreign operators. In addition to the nice selection of photos, there are several nice color profiles showing many of the interesting schemes worn by Walruses. Rounding out the book is a center-section set of 1/72 scale drawings showing the Walrus Mk. I and Walrus Mk. II.

This is a nice little book on the Walrus and will be a great reference for those building the Classic Airframes kit. The interesting color schemes should give the modeler plenty of options outside of the kit decals, and the photos offer several display possibilities.