Luftwaffe Fighters: German WW2 Designs Paperback – 15 July 2022

The variety of WW2 German camouflage patterns never ceases to surprise. A complete bright red paint job for airfield defence ?It was hoped it would stop them being shot down by their own flak!!

Unfortunately, my local W.H. Smiths had two copies, going for the RRP of £8.99 each, that were totally wrecked! So, I paid a couple of pounds more to have one delivered. Very highly recommended, and they are full of beautiful aircraft profiles and a lot of very interesting, and detailed, information that you may not find in an Osprey or Squadron Signal publication. Highly recommended, and I hope the reprint the bomber issue soon.

Luftwaffe Fighters is a fantastic little magazine for the aviation enthusiast. The production value is very high, and it is printed on thick paper. The text walks through the various models and subtypes of German fighters used during the Second World War, and is very informative regarding development and design. The color plates by Claes Sundin are magnificent, and illustrate the different types with a brief description about the theater of operations and the pilot. For the price, this is really a no-brainer, and is a superb reference for the modeler or aviation historian.

So first off the art work is good & there is a fair amount of information on each plane. But there were a couple of things that just aren’t great. Firstly it’s the actual paper is WAY too thin to be called a book. And I mentioned the artwork - well it’s smack dab in the middle of the spine so it’s sort of broken up. The price is fair for what you get but I still can’t recommend. I will be looking for an actual “book” next.

I have been following Claes Sundin's work for years his profiles are very good for the accuracy and details of the subjects. But in this book it seems that they destroyed the art profiles by puting them in a bad print format. Many of the profiles were split between the two pages and made it frustrating to try to look at the whole profile with the seam right in the middle, you just can't. Good art profiles But bad print format.