I'm probably going to sound like a broken record on this, but once again, MMP has outdone themselves in providing a much needed and highly desirable book on the first of the MiG fighters.

One of the more interesting portions of the book is the early history of the type and its development. There was quite a bit of political maneuvering going on with a number of people facing a firing squad for failures real and perceived. This airplane started as a Polikarpov project and while he was out of the country, the entire thing was handed to Mikoyan and Gurevich. Thanks to Mikoyan's political ties, he was not shot or sent to the gulags when the MiG-1 project ran into trouble.

When the aircraft did get to the squadrons, most pilots did not like it. It was not a fun airplane to fly and though fast, was not a good low altitude fighter, being designed to intercept high flying enemy bombers. Thousands were produced and many lasted until the last days of the war

The author provides a sterling historical background as well as an operational history of the type. This is further enhanced by a huge number of superb color profiles, something that I really like to see in these books. There are also a large number of good period photographs as well as the usual drawings showing the differences in the airframes. It also includes information on follow up aircraft based on the same airframe, none of which were successful.

This is all finished up with close-up images taken from surviving airframes and from period images and illustrations. All of it top-notch stuff for the modeler.

In all, I'd have to say the MMP team has outdone themselves on this one and you really need to go out and get it. A great value and a superb reference.

October 2006

Review book courtesy of Mushroom Models Publications.

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