Reference literature answers what the real machine looked like. This section holds type monographs, photographic guides, books on weapons and infantry equipment, and histories of individual campaigns and battlefields - the source material behind every decision about variant, camouflage and markings. It differs from modelling literature in one respect: it teaches nothing about method, because its subject is the original rather than the bench. Below we explain how to choose a title and how to work with it during a build.
All the main fields are represented. Aviation monographs run from fighters and bombers to post-war jets; the ground section deals with armour and with interwar and post-war weapons; further titles cover infantry equipment. Campaign and operation books form a group of their own, describing a whole theatre rather than a single machine, from the Normandy landings to the fighting in Italy. Many volumes are picture-led, with photographs and colour profiles outweighing text.
The most direct choice once you own the kit. A single-type monograph describes the production versions, the differences between them and usually offers colour profiles of specific machines. With long-production types, check which versions the book covers, or you risk painting to a profile that does not match your parts.
Books built on close-up photography exist for adding detail. They show how a cable run was routed, how equipment was stowed on a vehicle, what the surface texture really was. Keep this kind open while you work rather than reading it through in advance.
If you are heading towards a diorama or a specific machine of a specific unit, a campaign history often beats a type monograph. It establishes terrain, season, markings and the state vehicles were actually in.
When the question shifts from the original to the technique, move across to modelling technique books.
