The Falklands War
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Airframe Extra No 11
Contributors: Patrick Branly, Richard J. Caruana, Steve Evans, & Libor Jekl
Publisher: Valiant Wings Publications
ISBN: 978-1-912932-2-0
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 80
The newest Valiant Publications Airframe Extra covers the Falklands War in 1982. The Airframe Extra series combines a short history overview and multiple model builds covering the subject matter. The builds are evenly split between 1/72 and 1/48 subjects, with four Argentinian aircraft and two British aircraft covered. Two sections of color profiles round out the content in this book, one for each side of the conflict.
Starting with the history section, this 21-page chapter provides a high-level overview of the war in a roughly chronological order. This coverage is biased towards the British side, which is somewhat understandable given that there hasn’t been much written about this conflict from the Argentinian side. A combination of photos and maps help outline the events and aircraft from the war, including the long-range missions flown by Vulcans.
Moving on to the model section, in 1/72 there are builds by Libor Jekl of the Airfix A-4B Skyhawk, Italeri Wessex HU.5, and Modelsvit Mirage IIIEA. In 1/48 Steve Evans builds the Kinetic Mirage III/Dagger, Kinetic FMA Pucara, and Tamiya Sea Harrier FRS.1. For the 1/72 builds, the Skyhawk and Wessex feature detailed how-to articles on building the subject aircraft, while the Modelsvit Mirage is more of a gallery presentation. All three of the 1/48 builds are of the detailed style, with the Tamiya Sea Harrier being a nearly pure out of the box build (just the seat was replaced).
Overall, this is a nice book on the Falklands conflict that, like other titles in the Airframe Extra series, provides a great balance between history and modeling. My thanks to Valiant Wings Publications for the review copy.