This thread is dedicated to all the various kinds of magazines, books, drawings, etc. that provide us with the detailed information we need to do our scale modeling. Last weekend, I acquired from a clubmate something like 150 past issues of Japanese RC magazines. I'll go through them quickly, saving the ones mostly dedicated to scale and scale building, clip out some articles from the rest then trash(recycle) the rest. And like most of us here I also have a nice collection of Windsock datafiles, a few old Profile publications, and a small collection of books. However, I have been making a conscious effort not to sink too much money into books.

So what do you have on your shelf?

Here's a book I found in a Japanese model shop. It's got so much detail it almost makes me want to build a 1/3 scale Japanese WWII model. I'm not sure if this has also been printed in English.

I am currently reading a book called "The Speed Seekers" by Thomas G Foxworth. It covers air racing from its inception to about 1927. Lots of photos and three views and a veritable trove of information on early aviation specially from the close of hostilities of WWI to about ten years later. I borrowed this one but feel I should have one and have located several on Amazon starting at 19.00 and up It covers the european races and those in the US in the time period mentioned ie The Pulitzer, The Kings Cup and Gordon Bennett and The Coup Deutsch de la Muerthe. Also the Schneider is covered in good detail. Many other races detailed.
Doc

I would say my collection is weak compared to some, but I got some gems. Some windsocks, and Profiles, standard. The local library has all the Profiles so I know where to go if I need a look. Some of the Smithsonian restoration books from the 80s. Usually if it says Spitfire or Camel, book or mag, I get it. When I was a kid in the hobby, it was all WWII, so lots of P-51, Spit, ... from those days. My dad liked WWII too so he would pick stuff up for me. Now it is mostly WWI stuff even though I did pick up a Hurricane book that is close to a step by step rebuild of one as possible. Some of those Japanese books are very detailed.

I have a fairly large collection of pre-WWII as Lucky Dog and Warbirdmustang can attest! I even educated a local Porsche guru with one of my airplane books! Doc, if you have an interest in air racing then for Heaven's sake get an early version of Schmid and Weaver's The Golden Age of Air Racing published by the EAA. The reason I say early version is that the later version uses 'bond' paper in lieu of glossy. The photos are better with the glossy paper version. See? I told you I have a lot of books...
Abu- I'd like to find some books on the 'Kate', 'Val', 'Myrt' and 'Judy' (and maybe a Ki-100). If you have a source then maybe we can 'do business'!

ARUP, I have it! Great stuff those early racers, sooooo much style!
Doc

I have late 70s through 80s RCMs and Model Aviations. MA during those years had scale doc material. I remember air racing on Schneider Cup and F1 with three views and back stories, The Mew Gull racer, Bellanca Columbia. Good stuff. Flying models also use to have three views on the last page.

I'll keep my eyes open for any interesting materials. You might see if you can find any of the old "Maru Mechanic" issues on eBay. They are packed with technical drawings, probably taken straight out of maintenance manuals. The 3-views are also incredibly detailed. I've got three old ones. I swear I have a profile on the Saijun somewhere...but maybe I just looked at in a shop. I think it was the Koku-fan profile.

For nostalgia sake I also picked up a couple of old model airplane magazines.

Reprints of the The Maru Mechanic series are available here:

http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist?SeriesID=964

Thanks Abufletcher!