1/5/09

5 Best WW2 Luftwaffe aircraft modelling books

I'd like to share some book titles that will always assist you in WW2 aircraft modelling. The best to do improve your building, painting and weathering techniques is to follow advice of more experienced colleagues. 

Nowadays you just google the needed aircraft and watch online blog or forum build. But I guess most of you will agree that it's much more better to watch printed version of builds - full with high quality photos and articles. 

As you might have noticed I'm into WW2 military subject modelling. Aircraft mostly. That's why I spend some time of life searching for trustworthy sources of information about WW2 fighters and their modifications. 

Although sometimes I feel I need to build something different - there's built (but not painted and weathered yet) Tamiya's 1/48 scale Hetzer. 

I guess most of us during our scale modelling career experienced the need for a good trustworthy book about the certain subject. The one with colourful reference walkarounds, black/white photos and detailed scale drawings. The book that will always be there to answer and address most of your questions about your current model build. But it's much more useful if you have the book that assists you in building certain company kits: which problems kit has, how to solve them and how to weather the model. 

I guess you've already understood - I'm talking about Osprey Modelling books. Here are the best books that will help you while building the most popular WW2 Luftwaffe aircraft models (according to me :) ):

Osprey modelling book by Brett Green
Very good book with detailed in-progress build photos and amazing Brett Green's features articles about building Messerschmitt Bf-109 in different scales. Here's a small description from Amazon:
"Detailing six different builds across the scales from 1/44 to 1/24, and featuring aircraft in camouflage schemes and markings from the Western Desert to the Russian Steppes, this book is an excellent source of reference for both the beginner and expert modeler, on one of the most effective killing machines of World War II."
Book consists of 80 pages with rich and colourful high quality pictures and world known top scale aircraft modeller Brett Green feature articles. Highly recommended! ;)

Another Brett's masterpiece covering building earliest Messerschmitt Bf-109 modifications - Breda, Cesar, Dora and Emil. Author uncovers full information about different kits in different scales as well as historical information on various modifications. Here's the description featured on Amazon's subject review: 

"Brett starts off with a well-focused and very useful summary of pluses and minuses on available kits from 1/24 to 1/72 scale. It was refreshing to get this information in a concise package. Some useful color detail photos of a restored Bf-109E-4 are followed up by six sample projects that cover 1/72 to 1/32 scale, including a great essay on the Berta." - Aerospace Modeler (No.9 Volume 3, Number 9)
Highly recommended to all Bf-109 fans.

This is a book by another well know scale modelling expert Geoff Coughlin. It has all the knowledge and information about building Fw-190 Adolph, Fridrich and Gustav scale models. Here's the quote on Amazon's review page:
"Overall, another really great addition to the Osprey series of manuals... Well written, super photography, and excellent instruction all combines into a definite thumbs up1 Highly recommended from this modelers' point of view." -Mark Smith, AeroScale
One small note - books does not cover later Fw-190 modifications - Fw-190D (Dora) and Ta-152. Otherwise, this is the perfect scale model building manual for every Focke-Wulf Fw-190 enthusiast.

As well as all the books mentioned above this one brings top quality historical photos of the Messerscmitt Me-262 (named "Schwalbe"). Apart from that, as you might expect from the book of Osprey's kind, it gives all the information you'll need when building Me-262 scale models (no matter which kit you have). Here's the part from Aeroscale's review on Amazon:
"Overall, this new manual from Osprey Publishing does not disappoint in any manner. It's skillfully written, with accurate build reproductions, unique and interesting variants, superb step-by-step color photography and detailed instructional text. Definitely a two thumbs up, and highly recommended from this modeler's point of view." -Mark Smith, AeroScale
So where's my 1/72 scale "Schwalbe"? ;)

This, I would call it a modeller's manual, is about building scale models of Luftwaffe's twin engine fighter Messerschmitt Bf-110. You've might already seen some preview extract of this book on Brett's article here. So what's Amazon says about the book?:
"While this volume obviously deals specifically with the Messerschmitt Bf 110, the pages are filled with hints and tips which will be of value for all aircraft projects. As regards coverage of the models, it's hard to find fault: the photography throughout the book is superb and each project is shown in detail at every stage." -Rowan Baylis, AeroScale
Thing you should know that this kit has nothing about the recent Eduard's 1/48 Bf-110 kit. The book was published before the mentioned kit came out. But Modelling the Messerschmitt Bf-110 (Osprey Modelling) still worth every penny.

So what do we have? 5 excellent reference book for all your WW Luftwaffe scale modellers. If you're really into building building Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs - these 5 are meant for your. 

1 comment:

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