84 pages, A4 portrait, soft back book that contains a brief description of the how the assemble ships came into being, the necessity for them, and the difficulties of forming up several hundred aircraft without breaking radio silence. That is all in the first 19 pages, the rest of the book is given over to incredible artwork profiles and detail illustrations from Jacek Jackiewicz, which I will come back to. 

The book is incredibly well researched, with first person accounts and official records, black and white images together with colour images, there really is a lot to like about this title, the content of which is all about the assembly ships of the Mighty Eight, ie there is no padding here. 

The majority of the text is given over to explaining the various schemed featured, some quotes from the pilots and crew, and historical notes - like how some aircraft were retired after being deemed war weary, or tales of the crews' service. 

I really enjoyed reading this and marveling at the artwork, I confess to having hot flushes about modelling several of the schemes before admitting to myself that most would be beyond my modelling ability (otherwise known as patience). 

Some of the schemes are positively nauseating whilst others are more understated, for example a B 24 in olive drab, pages 90-91 against a B 24 in olive drab but with large yellow circles covering the entire aircraft page 142-143. The bare metal finishes with racing red stripes would be one of the easier to model, along with a black B 17 or green B 17. Only a few of these actually kept their armaments, too, which surprised but then these are assemble ships, not bombers. 

The strength of the book is in the colour profiles, which would be impossible to describe, and these are rendered in incredible detail; the author has done a great job on these. There are numerous four view plans of the aircraft; the fighters mentioned are represented in single profile only. I will include a sample of the more fetching schemes of the book and the detail of the aircraft. 

Easily recommended to those interested in the Mighty Eight or colourful schemes for that B 17 or B 24 in the stash, whichever scale it is. 

Thank you MMP for the review sample, I know I will be reading this again some time soon.