IsraDecal

AH-64A/D Peten and Saraf in IAF Service book

Product # IAFB-18 / ISBN: 978-965-7220-15-3 for $39.00

Product Article by Steve Bamford on Feb 23 2011

 

This new book from IsraDecal is written by Ra'anan Weiss.   Ra'anan is a well respected expert on the Israeli forces and the owner of IsraDecal.

This soft cover 100 page book is #6 in IsraDecal's popular 'Aircraft in Detail' series and it focuses on the AH-64A/D Peten and Saraf in IAF Service.  This book is geared towards the scale modeler, so it is loaded with 494 color photos and 24 black and white photos showing all the areas of detail modeler crave.  You get color photos for the cockpit, open avionics bays and all the other tiny details on these helicopters.  You also get 3 color profiles for the Peten and one for the Saraf...plus you get an additional 3 colour profiles with 3 views showing the camo pattern layout for the Peten and Saraf.  These color profiles include the desert camo and well as the overall FS 30145 dark brown color that almost looks like sun faded olive drab.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

The book is broken down into 5 section:

  • Introduction

  • Photo Gallery

  • Color Profiles

  • Daily Routine and Maintenance

  • Walk-Around

Introduction
This first section covers the operational history of the AH-64A/D Peten and Saraf in IAF Service from its development and testing to its introduction to the present time. This is an intensive detail rich telling of the stories, accidents and numerous operations by these attack helicopters. The stories include the tiniest details are a testament to the extensive research effort that was devoted to this book. The stories are too numerous to repeat all of them, but they do cover a UAV shot down by these choppers, a Cessna shot down by these attack helicopters. Further stories include the use of these attack helicopters against various terrorist factions over the years and the aborted mission to take out Iraqi scud launchers during the Gulf War in 1991. The stories go on and on and are fascinating in the level of detail they include and were a very informative read.  This section has plenty of photos including photos of aircraft loaded with weapons and close-up photos of the few IAF AH-64 crashed airframes. Other photos of interest were of training exercises for recovering downed pilots. In these photos you can see the "downed pilots" on the outside of the IAF AH-64's holding on to grab handles as they are "rescued".  Ra'anan Weiss has always been able to get access to some amazing and rare photos which makes his books always a pleasure to own.

Photo Gallery
This section includes photos...photos and more photos. Most of these photos are of full airframe operation photos, both on the ground and in-flight. This section is of particular interest as it shows various loads carried on the weapons pylons including extra fuel tanks and various weapons loads.  Also there are various odd colors such as dark colored landing gear on a desert camo aircraft or grey weapons pylons on the desert camo aircraft etc. These photos will help you plan your paint scheme and weapons loads etc to match operational aircraft. 

Color Profiles
These 2 pages include beautifully done color profiles of 4 different aircraft.

Daily Routine and Maintenance
This section has 20 pages of photos of these aircraft at their bases undergoing various maintenance procedures. These are rare photos inside the IAF airbases inside the hangers with various panels opened up etc. If you're pondering a diorama of one of these choppers undergoing maintenance, then these are the photos you have dreamed of.

Walk-Around
These are your classic high resolution large color photos showing everything from cockpit to weapons, vents, lights and all the tiny exterior details as well as the all important main rotor and tail rotor assemblies.  I'm sure there must be some areas that weren't covered in these walk-around photos, but I couldn't think of any. 

As usual this book is geared towards the scale modeller or anyone with an interest in IAF operations and aircraft.  This book will prove to be a priceless addition to your reference library and a invaluable asset if you plan to build the Israeli versions of the AH-64 Attack helicopter.

I would like to thank IsraDecal for providing me with this review sample.

Steve Bamford

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford