The Modern Hog Guide, 2nd Edition: The A-10 Warthog Exposed

I'm working on the notorious Trumpeter 1/32 A-10A kit and am converting it to an A-10C. I obtained technical specs for things like the cockpit and instrument panel dimensions elsewhere, but this book has filled in a lot of gaps regarding the appearance of things.Seeing the cockpit without the ACES II seat, for example, provided a lot of insight into details that are normally obscured. I'm really looking forward to scouring the pages to correct the many flaws on the Trumpeter kit.It's only a 4-star from me because I wish there was more in the book. Some sections of the aircraft seem a little glossed over. Jake's 1st edition is highly coveted by modelers, but I think this 2nd edition is ideal if pursuing a C-model build as it includes many of the updates the plane has undergone.

Although I enjoyed the recent Haynes "manual" on the A-10, I was disappointed by the relative lack of "guts of the airplane" type photographs. Although I've never been much of a modeler, I've always wanted to know what goes on "under the skin" of the A-10. My curiosity has been rewarded tenfold. I've never seen a modern combat aircraft presented in such detail before, and I'm seriously considering buying the other books in the series before they go out of print again."The Modern Hog Guide" is essentially a Squadron/Signal "walk around" publication kicked up a notch or seven. The amount of detail presented in the photographs is absolutely mind blowing, and I could probably spend hours poring over every little detail. Every maintenance panel on the plane has been opened up to reveal the details inside, you can read the labels on every switch and gauge in the cockpit, and count the number of screws around every antenna. There are close-ups of details as small as the helmet bag tube, gun cooling vent, stall warning transducers, rudder actuators, boost pump access panel, and engine external air receptacle. There are more than 1,000 pictures altogether, all of which are in color, and the vast majority of them are very crisp and clean.I could probably go on for some length about how amazingly detailed this book is, but I'll save everyone my rambling and include some preview pics with this review. This book has a few very minor flaws (there's a couple typos here and there, a few pictures are slightly out of focus), but if you're a serious A-10 fan, I can't imagine not owning a copy.

I am a hog enthusiast, so I find this book a lot of fun. However, the fun is tempered by some flaws. First, the price. For the $40 price point, I would like a hardback, like the Jane's series of coffee-table reference books. Second, the page layout. Most pages are a jumble of pictures and text. For example, the two-page spread making up the Table of Contents is essentially unreadable (see photo). Most pages are a similar struggle to parse through. The dense bricks of text attempt to identify the picture being reference using positional descriptions ("above", "top right", etc) which often could mean any number of pictures on the page. I often find myself unable to identify the picture even after strenuous parsing of the positional description. Third, the text itself. Much of the text feels amateurish. For example, in one section the author mentions the "infamous titanium bathtub". I am baffled by this word choice. In no description or publication of the A-10 have I ever read any mention of controversy surrounding the A-10 titanium armor. On the contrary, this innovation is nearly always touted as a unique and loved aspect of the A-10. I feel this book needs a couple of good editing/peer review passes, as well as a major refactor of the page layout, perhaps taking inspiration from the excellent "Star Wars Incredible Cross Sections" series of books, to bring this publication up to a professional standard.

This is the best reference book I've ever seen or owned, this is the first book that I purchased made by Jake Melampy and nothing compares to it. The pictures are stunning to say the least, I wish all my armor books had even a 10% of what this book has. If you are going to build the warthog or just a historian buff this book kicks ass, I purchased two other A-10 books and they are good but this is the only one needed for model building. When I'm finished with my A-10 I plan on buying the F-18 book by Jake, expensive but like I said, nothing I've seen yet even comes close to the beauty of each picture.

Pretty sure, you will not find a better reference book for the A-10

If you like the A-10 Thunderbolt II then this is your book. It has many pages filled with photos of every detail of the Warthog. It's a modellers delight as there is nothing left out. Undercarriage, engines, gun, ammunition, cockpit, ejection seats, aerials, sensors, chaff ejectors, ordinance and seeker systems. You name it, it's here, in detail.

This book is great to learn and understand how the A-10C works. I'm a virtual A-10C pilot in the PC Game DCS World and it is great to have those pictures and explanations available. The amount of highly detailed pictures is amazing. I would buy this book again.....and again.....and again ;-)

The "must have " book about the hog ! Specially if you are a modeller. All the différences between the différents versions are clearly shown, so push for it

The best guide for anyone wanting to build a scale model of the hog.

Excelente libro, no hay parte de éste avión que no haya sido fotografiada. De especial interés para modelistas a escala. Superó mis expectativas.