Mushroom Model Publications

Shipbuster: Mosquito Mk. XVIII "Tse-tse" An operational history & by  Alex Crawford Submarine Hunter: Fairey Gannet ASW.1 in service with the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm by  Zbigniew "Ben" Patynowski

Reviewed By  Paul Bradley, IPMS# 35554

MSRP: Shipbuster: £12.99 (Approx. $20) ISBN: 978-83-89450-45-6 Submarine Hunter: £25.99 (Approx. $40) ISBN: 978-83-89450-57-9 Web Site: www.mmpbooks.biz Two new books from Mushroom Model Publications that take the theme of anti-naval vessel warfare, in two different eras. The first is a look at a very specialized aircraft, the Mosquito XVIII "Tse-tse." In an effort to create an effective anti-ship weapon, DeHavillands fitted a Mosquito with the large 57mm Molins gun, originally designed as an anti-tank gun. Only 17 of these aircraft were built, and these equipped two squadrons of Coastal Command, but there were problems with the installation and, as the advent of the 25lb rocket negated the need for the Tse-tse, they disappeared before war's end. Author Alex Crawford has produced a compact history of the type, its development and service, getting right down to the individual aircraft service histories. The text is accompanied by numerous fascinating photos, plans and colour profiles not only of the aircraft, but of their opponents - the ships that they attacked. There are a number of photos of a preserved Molins gun - it will be interesting to see which aftermarket company will be the first to produce a conversion for the new 1/24 scale Airfix kit! I liked this book - it's a nice compilation and tells an interesting and little-known story. The second book up for review from MMP is Submarine Hunter; as the unwieldy sub-title suggests, this book is about the use of the ungainly Fairey Gannet anti-submarine aircraft in Royal Australian Navy service, and is mainly made up of reminiscences from ground crew and aircrew. Now normally, I welcome the addition of this type of material; it adds immensely to the human element that can all too often be missing from our hobby. However, this book relies very heavily on this source, to the point where it seems that everyone who had any contact with Australian Gannets has his story told, and this has a tendency to become very repetitive and, frankly, dull as we hear the same story from the fourth or fifth viewpoint. Additionally, some of these reminiscences appear to have been transcribed directly from taped interviews, with no editing or proofing done on them at all, and containing a lot of inside references, which makes for rather heavy weather at times. I'm afraid I really struggled through this book. Some of the stories are fascinating, and the photos and color profiles that accompany the text are nice for the modeller. This book was obviously a labor of love for the author, and I don't wish to be seen to be knocking the contributors, who I am sure the author felt obliged to include; however, this is more like a class reunion souvenir than a rounded history or a modelling book. For it to work for me, it would have needed (and could have stood) heavy editing to bring it to about half its current length. It may be that I have been spoiled by the "From the Cockpit" series from Ad Hoc Publications; indeed, by coincidence I received their new Gannet book at the same time as this book. It is a much tighter, more polished book that I enjoyed immensely. Applying the same principals to this material would have produced a much better book. So very much a mixed bag from Mushroom. I really enjoyed "Shipbuster", but had a hard time with the Gannet book. While I can thoroughly recommend the Mosquito book, in the end, whether you buy "Submarine Hunter" is down to whether you have an interest in the subject. Our sincere thanks to MMP for the review samples. Mushroom Model books are available from the www.mmpbooks.biz, or from Squadron in the US.

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