Airframe and Miniature, No. 24: Junkers Ju-88
The latest book from Valiant Wings Miniatures,
, features the Ju-88 Family. See what we found in our review…
Read n’ reviewed: Airframe & Miniature No.24: The Junkers Ju 88 Part 2: Ju 88C – T-series
From Valiant Wings Publishing
by Richard A. Franks
256 Pages
Softcover
210mm x 297mm.
Colour Profiles
Scale line drawings
See what we found in our review…
Read n’ reviewed: Airframe & Miniature No.24: The Junkers Ju 88 Part 2: Ju 88C to the T-series
by Richard A. Franks
256 Pages
Softcover
210mm x 297mm.
Colour Profiles
Scale line drawings
A little background on this book…
In Early 2024, Valiant Wings released Part I in a two part series featuring the Junkers Ju 88. It was an excellent book that captured
. The second part of this duo, which features aircraft from the Ju 88C through the T-series, was eagerly anticipated. Richard A. Franks has again penned this book, which is entitled “Airframe & miniature No.24 – The Junkers Ju 88 Part 2 : Ju 88C – T Series”. This book is in its physical form. This book has a very schmick look, thanks to its glossy blue cover. The pages are also thick and not opaque. They’re easy to turn because of their feel. The book was opened flat to photograph it. This is something I do often to test the structure of new books and see how they age after being handled. I could see that the binding did not suffer because of the bending that I took upon it, so the glue is flexible enough to withstand some punishment and the book should last you a while indeed.
I like the front cover artwork by Jerry Boucher…
Contents:
The writing inside is in English, with a fair bit of block text making up the main sections of writing, but plenty of informative cations also from the author, who has an easy-to-follow writing style. This book has eight chapters, each of 15-30 pages, plus appendices and a glossary at the back. The book includes a chapter about camouflage, markings and aircraft colours. The next section is about modelling the kits, which includes a list of all available kit components, a description and kit build, as well as line and isometric drawing. There is also a “in-depth” section with photos and illustrations from the past & present of each part of the series. The appendices cover the kits, accessories & decals, while we also have a helpful bibliography in case you want to read on more about this aircraft.
That’s the general look and structure of the book. We will go chapter to chapter, page-by-page now to show you what we found when we read the book.
Page-by-page…
The first major section contains four smaller chapters. First three chapters cover more than forty pages and are devoted to a selection of Ju 88 aircraft variants, both in terms of their historical and technical development. First, the Junkers Ju 88C and F, followed by the Ju 88G&H aircraft, before the Ju 88P. The technical section begins with a short (because there are many) summary of the Ju 88 C, sub-variants and T series. These chapters come with great photos from the period, which have been placed in a way that is directly related to the information the author provides (very well done). Author talks about Ju 88s captured in Britain and America (and they all have Werk Numbers for identification). The author discusses the captured Ju 88’s that were evaluated in the United Kingdom and the USA (these all come with Werk Numbers to identify the airframes). They keep appearing as subject and group builds for modellers, decal makers, and other groups. The modeler will be able to understand the differences between the different sub-types by looking at the detailed drawings and descriptions. These night fighters really interest me, and who knew (before now) that one was even armed with a Nebelwerfer?
Commissioned for this book, you next see three Ju 88 kits built and painted by Libor Jekl and Steve A. Evans. Steve A Evans shows off his 1/48th ICM Ju 88 C-6 in a 1/72nd Hasegawa G-6 in a show-and-tell. Richard Franks tackles the HobbyBoss Ju 88 for a fast build. The modelling, explanation and images of all three are well executed by all three modellers.
These three varied builds show modellers some good ways to get the best out of their own kits.
Next, in “building a Collection”, we see one of my favourites in these books. Wojciech Sánkowski has created 3-D views in isometric perspective of the Ju 88C and T variants. This is a kind of addendum to the Evolution series. My only question is, why was this not included in the earlier section with side-line drawings? This part includes every possible variant. These diagrams are complete with captions that help to explain what is being said by the author and illustrator. The walk-around part of the book is next. It contains over 60 pages of high-resolution images in colour, black-and-white, as well as period technical illustrations and diagrams. The photos are from various sources, and include some famous museum versions, inside and outside. The nose, cockpit and underside gondola are all included, as well as the internal stations, controls, instruments, and glazed sections. That life raft, which everyone models, is also featured! The images and illustrations include the different engines, electrical, plumbing, and control surfaces. Packs, ribbings, the aircraft framework, and offensive and defensive weapons and mounts are all included. The equipment for radio, munitions, sighting and radar is shown. Detailled information is provided on the compartments, access panels, and the “Tropical Kit” as well as how to lift and jack the aircraft. The “how” of the Ju 88 is shown in this section, as opposed to the when, where, and what the aircraft looked like. the how is incredibly valuable for the modeller as they open the mind to showing their creations in different ways and incarnations.
Making an appearance at the end of the book, we have the appendicles; with the kit list (this time simple lists, with no other explanation apart from dates), photo-etch, resin, decals, masks, and lastly an extensive bibliography of all books that are known to feature the Ju 88 latter variants as their main subjects.
One last thing! A fold-out set of 1/48th scale scale plans that covers the main variants in this book. Great for scale modellers!
Firstly, the quality of the book, its writing, research, photographical sources, artwork, drawings and the kits made, with research on available models that are selected leaves the reader with another one-stop-shop (I’ve always said it) in this series. This is exactly what a book on an aircraft should be. The model builds also seem out of place and should be moved to the back of the book as a bonus for modellers not to tap out before the end. the model builds also, seem out of place, and should be moved to the back of the book as kind of a bonus and a reason for modellers not to tap out before the end.
Speaking of tapping out, this review has gone far too long, but I think you will understand that I loved this book, and found it an excellent addition to this great series, pretty much the best in this genre right now.
Adam Norenberg
Thanks to Valiant Wings for sending this book to us to read and review. Valiant Wings sent us this book to read and review.