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Airframe and Miniature, No. 24: Junkers Ju-88

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

– A Complete Guide to the Luftwaffe’s Legendary TwinV1 to A-17 plus B-series of the airframeFrom Valiant Wings Publishing


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?

The Ju 88D Series is next to be examined, type-by-type, with the mostly glazed nosed aircraft used for recon (even meteorological). Here, the Ju88E Series can be identified by its extended glasshouse cockpit. The Ju88F concept will also be discussed in detail and illustrated with line drawings. Next, the Ju 88G &H Series are shown with the (almost iconic) look of the Ju 88 Night Fighter with its christmas tree antennae. The noses are the obvious differences. There’s a lot to discuss about different radars. In an authoritative text-and-image package, the author takes you through each change. This will inform you of what and when it was made. It is shown and described, although the majority of these aircraft were converted. This section of the book provides a great starting point for the technical explanation and airframe series evolution. The first part of this book is a good starting point for you. It explains the technical aspects of airframes and their evolution. Author talks about the different camouflage patterns of the kites around D-Day, both in daytime and at night. Colors changed from 70/71/62 RLM three-tone colours to white washes and black birds. Solid noses were painted so they looked like glazed ones to trick their enemies. These reconnaissance D versions have attractive colour schemes. They feature the standard 3-tone patterns mixed in with “Trop”, and include large identification bands and wingtips. The Ju 88G is next, with only one picture, and a few color profiles. These are some very beautiful schemes, mostly RLM 75/76/75. They’re great for modelers (and for serious historians ahem). The reader can learn about the color changes and the reasoning behind them by looking at great late-war photos, colour profiles and informative explanations. The research done for this book is evident in the small items that are left unpainted or painted with their original colours on an otherwise-painted aircraft. The Ju 88H R & S is featured in some beautiful schemes that are sure to attract modellers from their stashes. There are many different types of aircraft, none of which are the same. There is a section on “Mistels”, unit codes, and a drawing showing the stencils. This will be very helpful for modelers. These countries’ aircraft are also covered, in the captured French, RAF and USAAF versions as well as bought and paid for Spanish. Romanian. Bulgarian. The next chapter, Chapter 5, is dedicated to the Ju 88 C-T Airframe in various scales. Each kit, including the main components and decals are described and shown, as well as evaluated by the authors. This leads on to the kits “in the flesh”

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!

That was all they wrote! But what do I think?

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.

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About Haluk Cetin

I'm Haluk, everyone calls me Hulk. Skydiver, Scale modeler, and Frontend Developer. Hobbyzero.com author.

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