Northrop BT-1 (Naval Fighters) Paperback – September 21, 2011

It seems that, according to kit manufacturers, our nation's Navy went from biplanes to Vindicators and Devastators, which just ain't so. We went to the groundbreaking Northrop BT-1, subject of Steve Ginter's book.The book is a lot like the late lamented "Detail & Scale" in that we have lots of shots of the aircraft in service, as well as detail shots for modeling purposes. We also have five side view drawings as well as one overhead drawing, one side view as well as the overhead (along with two color paintings in the back of the book) supplied by Polish kit manufacturer Valom. The detail photos are nice and well worth the price of the book, but I think we could do with more scale drawings as some of us would like to convert existing 1/48 scale kits into the BT-1.Near the end of the book we are told about the aircraft's cameo appearance in the Warner Bros. film "Dive Bomber." Three still from the movie here (along with one of Errol Flynn before he hangs a plaque on the side of the cockpit). Diorama potential here.Rounding out the book are two kit reviews, both in 1/72. One is the Valom kit, the other is a vacuum form kit by Esoteric.All in all, highly recommended.

Another fine book on a rear subject. Ginter's books are a modelers dream.

good book

I must be living right. Following on from Naval Fighters 89 which covered the prewar Curtiss SOC Seagull we have another prewar type for Naval Fighters 90 - the Northrup BT-1.This is a typical Naval Fighters volume, and a typical Steve Ginter authored Naval Fighters volume. It's a stapled, 88 page, 8-1/2" x 11" card cover with color restricted to the front and rear covers. I strongly suspect digital coloring has been employed for the front cover. I understand the marketing logic but can't bring myself to approve of this practice. To their credit the rear cover displays some nice box art from two plastic kits.As with most Ginter authored books his primary concern is to show the aircraft in the markings of all the units that ever operated the type. This is particularly easy in this case since the aircraft served in so few units. This probably explains the relatively few pages.But the general enthusiast is well catered for also. There are numerous closeup photos which detail the features of the aircraft minutely. These are supplemented by contemporary technical documentation.The development history reaches far beyond the aircraft in question. It starts with the Northrup Gamma detailing all the civil and military variants, works through the A-17 variants, through the BT-1 proper, the XBT-2 forerunner to the Douglas SBD series, and the SBD-1. We are also treated to the competitors to the BT-1, like the Great Lakes XB2G-1, the Curtiss XSBC-1, the Grumman XSBF-1, the Brewster XSBA-1, and the Vought XSB2U-1. I'd love for the latter aircraft to get the Naval Fighters treatment.In short, the only drawbacks are are the lack of color and the lack of commissioned drawings. Ginter does his best by calling out colors in captions and using contemporary drawings but these days standards are higher. The drawings by Lloyd Jones have been around for awhile.Still, I recommend this book highly. There are not many books dealing with this type.