Riverine Craft of the Vietnam Wars is a decent primer on these vessels and a good reference guide for those seeking to model the Indochina and Vietnam Wars. While the text may be relatively minimal, there is a good selection of images and profiles, especially of the early French conversion efforts often overlooked in the historiography. For modelers, the products section offers a good rundown of available kits paired with commentary on their availability and accuracy, augmented by the standalone and diorama builds of the Show-case.

The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord 31, No. 1 (Spring 2021)

"The beauty of this Ship Craft offering is the Modeler’s Showcase, a section dedicated to precise color photography depicting sixteen fine representative and inspirational dioramas, most by the author, Roger Branfill-Cook, plus several excellent products by Jack Carrico, and three other individual artists offering one diorama each."

The Naval Historical Foundation

"Perhaps most impressive are the dioramas of Jan Vererstraeten and Jack Carrico, with the former being a highly detailed Riverine Patrol Boat and Command and Communications Boat diorama, and the latter being multiple detailed pieces created using kits from Masterpiece Models. Unsurprisingly, Branfill-Cook includes many of his own creations in this section, offering good examples of kit conversions to represent French and South Vietnamese craft as well as a variety of American vessels."

The Northern Mariner

Ship Craft series books are always a visual treat and contain many rare or specially commissioned images. The primary target readership are modellers but these books contain many important images that simply do not appear in military histories. – Most Highly Recommended

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Firetrench

Magnificent. Masterpiece for our Library.

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Miniaturas JM

An unusual and different subject for the ShipCraft series, but a book that should ‘whet the appetite’ of modelers looking for something different.

International Plastic Modellers Society

An interesting selection of well finished models and a good survey of the various types of equipment used in the region over the years. Plenty of inspiration for modellers in here, and interesting for anyone wanting to find out more about the Riverine equipment used in Vietnam over the years.

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Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland

The author is an avid modeller of these brown water navy vessels and his interest comes through the title to the reader.

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Armorama

Riverine Craft of the Vietnam Wars is a book in the ShipCraft series published by Seaforth publishing. The author Roger Branfill-Cook has written this book as a guide to model makers. He provides clear and succinct descriptions of the various craft Used not only by American forces but those of the French and South Vietnamese Navy.

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Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)

Another very interesting section is that of "Modelmakers Showcase", in which there are many models assembled by the author, a real authority in the field of boats that were used in the Vietnam War and the Indochina War.

What more can we say? Also in this case, a volume of the Ship Craft series is very useful for the model maker and the historian, even if in this case the attention is more focused on the model maker. The numerous and particular production of these boats, the result of design and modifications, finds an excellent book that puts order on this theme, providing the reader and the enthusiast with excellent ideas for creating beautiful original and modified models of boats (and amphibious vehicles!).

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On The Old Barbed Wire

As featured on Scale Modelling Now

Scale Modelling Now

Modelers will find Riverine Craft of the Vietnam Wars an invaluable and attractive source of information. The reference page also makes this book a useful jumping off point for further exploration into books, websites, and model manufacturers. However, as someone studying America’s Vietnam War, I found this survey interesting and informative too, and Roger Branfill-Cook answered in passing many of the questions I had about this peculiar form of warfare.

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Beating Tsundoku

With its unparalleled level of visual information, paint schemes, models, line drawings and photographs, this is the best reference for any modelmaker.

Bookseller Buyers Guide