Read n' reviewed: Airframe & Miniature No.24: The Junkers Ju 88 - Pt.II from Valiant Wings...

Valiant Wings Publishing's latest Airframe & Miniature book features the latter-model Ju-88 family. This comprehensive second part promises to detail the Ju 88C to the T-series - so we were keen to read it. 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 Twin
From Valiant Wings Publishing
by Richard A. Franks

256 Pages

Softcover

210mm x 297mm.

English text.

Colour Profiles 

Scale line drawings

200+ Colour & B&W photos.
ISBN: 978-1-912932-31-3
Price: £28.95
Product Link on the Valiant Wings Website

A little background on this book...

In Early 2024, Valiant Wings released Part I in a two part series featuring the Junkers Ju 88. This book captured the V1 to A-17 plus B-series of the airframe and it was a great book. We looked forward then, to the second half of the  duo that features the Ju 88C to T-series aircraft. this volume was called (unsurprisingly) "Airframe & Miniature No.24: The Junkers Ju 88 Part 2: Ju 88C to the T-series", this book is again penned by Richard A. Franks. The book includes many of the enticing features that the first book on the Ju 88 & indeed this series is well-known for.

The book in it's physical form:

The book follows the form of the previous versions of the Airframe & Miniature series, with a glossy softcover, this time housing 256 pages, this is a lot for a part II! The look of the book is that of a schmick looking title, with that lovely blue gloss cover and pages that are thick enough to not be opaque and easy to keep turning due to the feel and content inside. When photographing this book, I opened it right up flat, it is a test I often do on new books to see their structure and perhaps how they will age when being handled and pinned to a workbench. 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. The book is broken up into eight chapters of about 15-30 pages plus some appendices at the end (as well as a handy glossary near the start of the book).

Inside you will find chapters on the History & development of the aircraft - one each for the C-F, for the G&H, and the P&T series. A chapter on camouflage and markings with plenty of great aircraft colour profiles included. Modelling the kits is next, with a kit list and description, kit builds and line and isometric drawings. We also have an extensive "in detail" sections, with period & current photos & illustrations of the various parts of the aircraft 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. The first three cover over forty pages, and focus on a few Ju 88 variants in their technical & historical development. The Junkers Ju 88C through F come first, then the Ju 88G&H, and then the Ju 88P-T aircraft. This technical section starts to describe the history and development of the Ju 88 C and sub-variants through to the T series in a brief (there are so many to cover) round up of their history and peculiarities. Accompanied with these chapters are great period photos, placed so that they have direct relevance to what the author is talking about (very good).

In fact throughout the book there are a total of over 200 photographs, that include wartime & current-day images, all of which are clear & informative to me. The author talks about the Ju 88's that were captured and evaluated in the United kingdom, and the United States (these all come with Werk Numbers to identify the airframes). I know a LOT of modellers will want to know about these captured aircraft, as they keep on coming up in modeller's collections, decal maker's subject & group builds.

With the aid of side profile line drawings (inside and out) and captioned photographs, we next look at the evolution of the types, C- F Series. Each of the changes for the sub-types are listed and drawn for great explanation to the modeller. 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). The Ju88E Series is identified here easily by it's extended and expanded glasshouse cockpit, while the Ju 88F concept is discussed and shown in line drawings. The Ju 88G & H Series follows, with their (almost) iconic look of the Ju 88 night fighter with their christmas tree antennae on the nose immediately identifiable. There is a lot of discussion about the different radars used, with very different changes to the noses being the most obvious changes. The author takes us through change-by-change in an authoritative package of text and images that informs the reader as to what was changed and when. The Ju88H series is also described and shown, but the run was mostly in converted aircraft. The big-gunned Ju 88P models, the short lived R and S variants, and lastly the glazed nosed recon Ju 88T series are shown and explained in their evolution. 

You really have a great starting point in this technical explanation and airframe series evolution of the first section of the book.

To add life and  colour to the aircraft, we next have over thirty-five pages of explanation of the camouflage and markings of the C through T series, the basic splinter pattern for the aircraft is shown, but expanded with the excellent coloured profiles from Richard J. Caruana. The author talks us through the changes in the camouflages of these kites from the C variant around the time of D-Day in both daytime and night-time schemes. The colours changes from the typical 70/71/62 three tone RLM colours to overpainted squiggles, white wash and all-black birds, solid noses painted to look like glazed noses to fool their opponents. The reconnaissance D variants have some attractive schemes, with the more standard three tone patterns in amongst "Trop" colours, and incorporating large identifying bands and wingtips. Only one photo, but a few colour profiles of the big gun Ju 88P is present with the Ju 88G, a firm fan favourite next. 

These are very nice schemes in mostly RLM 76/75  and other variants for the modeller (and of course for reference for the serous historian ahem). Great late-war photographs, coloured profiles and insightful explanation show and tell the reader the changes of the colours and some of the reasons why. Smaller items either left in their original colour on an otherwise painted aircraft are examples of the research that has gone into this book's conception. 

The Ju 88H, R & S feature, in some really beautiful schemes for this aircraft that will attract many modellers to their forgotten stashes. It seems that no two of these are similar, and a large variantion of types are selected for the reader's enjoyment. The piggy-back "Mistels" and unit codes (in a table) are explained and shown as well as a line drawing of the data stencils on the aircraft, again, helpful to the modelling folk. 

Aha! but what about those Ju 88's in foreign service you ask? Well, these countries' aircraft are also covered, in the captured French, RAF, USAAF and bought and paid for Spanish, Romanian and Bulgarian versions explained in text and shown in photos and profiles like their Luftwaffe cousins.

We look at the models next, with chapter 5; This section of eighteen pages takes us through every known kit of the Ju 88 C-T airframes in all scales, and each of them is described, sometimes shown and evaluated in a few chapters that note the decals, kit notes, main aircraft components, with a round up for each kit 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. The subjects  are the 1/72nd scale Hasegawa G-6 variant in a skilful show and tell, then Steve A Evans comes in with his attractive (aforementioned painted glass nose) 1/48th scale ICM Ju 88 C-6. 

Finally, Richard Franks takes on the HobbyBoss Ju 88 in a quick 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. 3-D isometric views of all Ju 88C through T variants from Wojciech Sankowski. A kind of addition to the evolution series. One of my only queries is why this was not incorporated into that earlier section that had the side line drawings? 

Nonetheless every single variant that can be is included in this part. The diagrams complete with helpful captions and side plan drawings that show what the illustrator and author is talking about. Photos (albeit smaller ones) of these aircraft are also included as a helpful prompt, and I must say after reading most of these books that this is the most detailed section in the whole series so far.

We move on to the walk-around section next, with over sixty pages of close-up and high resolution images of the latter Ju-88's in black and white, colour and period technical diagrams / illustrations. These photos come from a various source list, with some well-known museum versions starring, both inside and out. There will always be some omissions due to unavailability or rareness of the aircraft concerned, but period images are a good replacement here.

From the nose, cockpit, underside gondola, internal stations, instruments and controls, glazed sections, that life raft that everyone seems to model is also included! 😂

Images and illustrations of the various engines, internal plumbing and electricals, the wings and tail, control surfaces, RATO (!) packs, ribbing, aircraft frame work, offensive and defensive guns and their mounts (of many different types as is needed) are also here. Ordnance, sighting, radar, countermeasures and radio equipment are shown and illustrated. The compartments and access panels and how to jack and hoist the aircraft is shown in detail  as well as the "Tropical" kit. This section really shown you the "how" the Ju 88 series worked as apposed to when, where and what they 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 scale plans in 1/48th scale that cover the major variants shown 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. It really is what all modellers need in a book covering an airframe. 

I do think that the isometric drawings could be moved to after the earlier evolution section where you see the aircraft's changes and the new side profiles included. 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. You can purchase or find more about these books on their website...