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Rating: 
Summary: Nice Aviation Art Book for the Price
Review: FLYING ACES Aviation Art of World War II73 paintings Bailey, Cohen. DeNardo, Dietz, Ferris, Grinnell, Laurier, Machat, Stokes, Taylor, Trudgian This item is said to be published in December 1999, but its around already... Some of the good news - a new aviation art title out just in time for the holidays - bright colorful reproductions of a bunch of air combat scenes - fairly accurate paintings - accurate text - large format - a nice mix of artists (could have just as easily been a monograph but instead they spread it around a bit) -nice paper -price is not bad -nice dust jacket art -and the dust jacket painting is included in the book The only Bad News: The LAYOUT-- it screams for justice. On a big book like this, the layout editors ran 2.5 to 5 inches of virtually every painting across the gutter. Some casualties in my copy included the nose and prop from a Stan Stokes P-40 and resulted in a single engine P-38 by Robert Taylor... Not all hardcover books compromise the the art, some examples of how it might be done are the Wooton, Taylor, Young, Trudgian books by David & Charles or Vanwell, or Howell Press Aviation: A History through Art This layout really bothers me, and the practice generally bothers the artists even more. Even if someone gave me three excellent reasons why its done, it would still bother me. It is a pretty book, and some of this artwork isn't available in book form any where else. J. Campbell Martin Tehachapi, California
Rating: 
Summary: Good variety, good value
Review: This book offers a good sample of paintings of famous aces or famous squadrons from a variety of artists. Some aces that are included are: Johnnie Johnson, Galland, Bader, Marseille, Hartmann, Boyington, Flying Tigers etc etc. Also included are some lesser known French, Italian and even Finnish aces. There are excellent brief narratives about the history of each subject to compliment the pictures. The styles of each artist soon become apparent and my preference is for the realism portrayed in Taylor's art work. Overall I think this book is good value for the price, especially if you have an interest in WW2 aviation.
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