Fairey Firefly

Warpaint No 28
Geoffrey Bussy
Hall Park, ©2001
ISSN 1363-0369
56 Pages, Softbound

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

The Fairey Firefly was a plane originally designed to replace the Sea Gladiator, Skua and Fulmar.  From this small beginning the Firefly began a career that found itself around the world with the navies of England, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, India and Australia, as well as Thailand and Ethiopia.  It saw service in both the Second World War and Korea and proved to be an excellent platform for weapons delivery and a popular plane to fly.

This new Warpaint does an excellent job of outlining the life of this exemplary aircraft, from the prototype to the final target tug variants.  The information is presented in typical Warpaint fashion, with plenty of color profiles, lots of clear photos (both black and white and color), as well as a set of nicely drawn 1/72 plans in a center pullout.  The interesting history of the Firefly makes this a fun book to read, even more than just a reference to finish that Airfix or Frog Firefly kit.  Definitely check this title out the next time you're in the hobby shop.

My thanks to Hall Park for the review sample. Be sure to check out their website!