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TopDrawings 54 – Junkers Ju.87B (9788365437914)


Mike

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TopDrawings 54 – Junkers Ju.87B (9788365437914)

Kagero Publishing via Casemate UK

 

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The Junkers Ju.87B Stuka was a weapon of terror that saw extensive use in the early days of WWII, soldiering on to the end despite needing fighter protection due its slow speed.  It has been a popular subject with modellers for years, and that shows no sign of changing any time soon.  We have kits in all scales for example from Airfix in 1:72, through the Hasegawa kits in 1:48, and a variety in 1:32 and even 1:24 from various sources.  The TopDrawings series majors on scale plans, which is the main thrust, but also includes a little background information, some pertinent profiles, and often a bonus of decals or masks targeted at the subject matter in hand.  With this edition, you get a set of pre-cut vinyl masks in 1:72 and 1:48, which will be a boon to speed the job of masking that greenhouse canopy.

 

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The book is written in English on the left of the page, with Polish on the right, which translates to top and bottom for the captions to the various drawings within.  The book itself is bound in a card cover and has 20 pages, but in addition you get a sheet of loose A3 plans of a B-2 printed on one side in 1:48 and on the other, printed in full colour is a 3-view profile of a B-1 by Arkadiusz Wróbel.  The first half of the bound plans show the variants up to the B-2 and includes weapons and the engine in 1:48.  The four pages of profiles show eight B-1 and B2s, including a tropicalized airframe at the bottom.  There are more plans in 1:48 of the aircraft from front and back, as well as the tropicalized B2 seen in the profile section.  The final section of the plans shows the evolution of the aircraft through the B series in 1:72, with differences marked out in grey and captions discussing the nature of the changes, which were fairly minor and cosmetic for the most part. 

 

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Conclusion

These books are essential for the modeller that wants to compare their models against scale plans, to obtain as accurate a model as possible, with the masks a useful bonus if you happen to model in those scales.  The 1:72 scale folks will have to do some quick calculations to scale down the plans, but it's good to be able to see the airframe at a good size on the page.

 

Highly recommended.

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Review sample courtesy of

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