Aggressor Archives 03 2011-2021

MODELART

modelart.jp

■ Published by Modelart.jp

■ Guide Price 2,900 yen or around £35

■ Japanese text throughout

■ 176pp softback, 297 x 210mm

Those modellers who take a close interest in the modern Japanese Air Force will love this book. As can be seen from the title, this is the third in this series and brings the history of the Japanese F-15 Eagle’s amazing aggressor schemes up to date. Book 1 covered schemes from 1990 to 2003 and Book 2 2004 to 2010. This one continues the story to last year.

While many of the Eagles remain with the Aggressor squadron their paint schemes change from time to time. I wish I could read the Japanese text as the first pages appear to describe how the schemes are applied as we see photos of painters masking and spraying their F-15’s top surfaces. As can be seen from the superb photos in this book, some of the paintwork is applied using masks with a hard demarcation line and some are applied freehand with soft edges. All the special schemes are applied over the standard Eagle’s Light and Dark Ghost Grey paintwork. From the modelling point of view, the complication is that much of the special paintwork is applied over the original paintwork but using masks over the original stencils so that they are still visible. This feature stands out on many of the photos in this book. The special schemes vary to the very simple to the complex.