For the
other part of Kagero’s miniTopcolors release this month is the German’s turn –
the great aircraft of the Luftwaffe at the part of the Battle of Britain are
covered here in reference and decal for – have they run out of ideas on this
the third part of the Luftwaffe B.O.B. trilogy?
Let’s have a
look!
Kagero - miniTopColors no.26 Battle
of Britain Part III
Written by: Maciej Goralczyk, Janusz Swiatlon & Arkadiusz
Wrobel
English and Polish text.
Pages: 20
Decal
schemes: 8
Decal
scales: 1/72, 1/48 & 1/32
ISBN: 978-8362878055
RRP: 12.80 Euro - Currently on sale!
Available
from: The Kagero Bookshop online
Of the eight
aircraft from the German WWII Luftwaffe six are E Model ME-109s, there is one
BF 110C and an Heinkel He 111P2 ( just in time eh?) and of these aircraft all –
yes all have a decal to match their schemes which are represented on two pages
for each aircraft. The planes are shown in side and top down views with the
exception of the He 111P2 which is shown on a lovely two page spread in the
middle of the book (watch for the staples boys) – Which is almost good enough
to put on your wall!
All of the
decals are made in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scales, though again the He 111p is the
sole stand out in that there are no decal choices for the 1/48th kit
of this type included – I suppose it may have been a space thing as the more “hot”
item was a new 1/32 Revell He 111P rather than any of the choices of this
aircraft in 1/48th which are not as “popular” right now lets say!
This
book/decal combo is the third in the series of all Luftwaffe aircraft which I prefer
over RAF types to be honest – and I think is good sense as if you want spitfires
- well they are in another book . The only thing that is a little odd is the
mixture of types – as many like to specialize and have a few choices of that
particular aircraft type. I suppose the choice for something different is here
if you want it and it’s a plus or minus depending on if you have a few
different schemes to find for alternative aircraft.
The aircraft
double page spreads also have on them the close-up mascot and emblems from each
aircraft so you can see their peculiars – I would not mind a few more pictures
instead of these but with the limited space format they are more eye-catching
than a black and white picture that I suppose you could not tell a real
aircraft colouring from anyway so Kagero have made the commercially sensible
decision here.
The profiles
are skilfully illustrated and look great with the weathering of each aircraft
included. The references for these aircraft are as well in the front of the
book on the first page so if you need to go deeper into the subjects you can.
The aircraft
in this edition cover many prominent Luftwaffe types – they are in order of
appearance…
- Bf 109 E-3; 'White Chevron', flown by
Hptm. Hubertus von Bonin Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 54, Eindhoven, early
summer 1940
- Bf 109 E-4; W.Nr. 5274, 'White 15', flown
by Ofw.Werner Machold of 1./JG 2 Beaumont-le-Roger, summer 1940
- Bf 109 E-4; W.Nr.
1159, 'White
7', flown by Lt. Josef Burschgens of 7./JG 26, Caffiers, 11 August 1940
- Bf 109 E-4; 'White
11', flown by
Lt. Alfons Raich of 7./JG 3, Desvres, September 1940
- Bf 109 E-4; 'White
8', flown by
Hptm. Hans-Karl Mayer, Gruppenkommandeur of I./ JG 53, Etaples, September
1940
- Bf 109 E-4/B;
'Black 6' of 5./JG 51, Mardyck, autumn 1940
- He 111 P-2; W.Nr.
2149, coded 'G1+JL' of 3./KG 55, France, summer 1940
- Bf 110 C-2; W.Nr. 3533, coded 'L1+LL' of 15.(Z)/LG 1, crew: pilot - Oblt. Otto Weckeiser, radio operator - Uffz. Horst Brugow; Socketts Manor, Oxted, 27 September 1940
The decals
to match these aircraft are printed by Cartograf the industry leaders (well one
of them) and SHOULD go on pretty well – they are strong in colour density,
sharp and are well reproduced and are in register and you see this in most
reviews – but how can most people actually tell about the set they are
reviewing?
Well we will
have a look of how they adhere to a plastic kit – I have tried this time some
1/48 decals of tactical numbers and emblems in a few different contrasts to see
how they go.
The decals
held against the light to show you thickness before they are applied – notice the
thickness here and the minimizing of carrier film – Good! I don’t much care for
excess carrier film so that’s a box ticked already for me.
As you can
see the thick decal has thinned out nicely and adhered to the plastic while conforming
correctly around the rivets and also into the creases as shown here. These surfaces have been coated with future and weathered over FYI so they look like the real thing..
The white is not at all see-through and the
colour integrity is there to see.
A great
book/decal set especially for lovers of the Bf-109 and Battle of Britain
aircraft. The national markings re a minor omission but sometimes hard to track
down your specific aircraft, so check you can get them. Otherwise a great match
up of modeller’s reference, decals and a short and informative read – I liked
it a lot.
Thanks to Kagero for
supplying us with this decal and book combo