Mushroom Model Publications

Hawker Fury & Nimrod

by  Alex Crawford

Reviewed By  John Ratzenberger, IPMS# 40196

MSRP: £13 ($27.35) ISBN: 83-89450-41-0 Orange Series #8105 164 pages (92 in colour), 1/72 and 1/48 scale plans. www.mmpbooks.biz Following reasonably hot on the heels of their Bulldog - Gauntlet book published in 2005 and their Gladiator book published in 2002, Mushroom Model Publications book on the Hawker Fury - Nimrod gives us Silver Wings fans hearts a reason to thump loudly. At this rate, they'll cover the 'tween wars RAF and FAA fighter aircraft in about 10 more years ... but, hey, who's complaining ? The Hawker Fury is widely claimed to be the most beautiful biplane ever and certainly the well-known cover shot of K1944 goes a long way to stake that claim. Me, I tend to round-sound and the Flycatcher or Gamecock but that's another day. Contrary to many beliefs, the Nimrod is not just a "naval Fury" but a different aircraft created to a different specification. There are similarities, but a lot more differences, more like cousins, not siblings. Chronologically the Fury fits between the Bristol Bulldog and the Gloster Gauntlet, while the Nimrod fits between the Fairey Flycatcher and the Gloster Sea Gladiator. You can see that Mushroom now has a series of books that cover a good portion of the 1930's and into WW2. Hopefully, they continue backward into the 1920's and also cover two-seaters based on the Hart family. The Fury and Nimrod aircraft served from 1931-2 until 1937-9 in the RAF and FAA, respectively, although not in great numbers. They also had some foreign service in Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Persia, and Japan. The book is standard Mushroom - a history of the aircraft and its development, operational notes by squadron, lots of period photos, and lots of drawings. In this book, the majority of the drawings are 1/72 scale and are in the book itself. There is a 1/48th scale 4-view of both aircraft included loose-leaf. There are wing and fuselage cross-sections, but few details (other than photos) of construction, the cockpit, etc. As usual, there is a section of detail photos of a current or restoration aircraft. Unfortunately, there aren't very many of these around. Most of the photos are of the Duxford Nimrod, and only a few of a Fury. Not as many or varied as some Mushroom titles, but still well worth-while and beautiful. There are 16 pages of color profiles, with most the foreign aircraft being two-views (side/top, or side/bottom). The majority of RAF/FAA aircraft are side-view only, but with most are included the top wing for the squadron marking. One must be careful in this period as there were changes to roundel size/location, rudder flashes, and shape/location of squadron markings - add to this coloring of wheel covers for flight and fins for flight/squadron leaders. In short, you have to be careful to consider dates when comparing drawings and photos. I did some spot-checks and found no markings errors in the color profiles although one text caption (pg161) erroneously states the profile of Nimrod K2826 reflects markings in 1925 vice 1935. This book is highly recommended if you have any interest in the period or either of the two subject aircraft. If you don't have any interest now, a few minutes looking at the flying shots and you'll change your mind - they are good choices for an intro biplane because of the fully enclosed inline engine, and the single bay wing and N-struts that cut down on complexity and rigging. My thanks to Mushroom Model Publications for including Silver Wings in their catalog and for providing this book for review. As always thanks to IPMS for allowing me to review it.

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