Military Model Scene

Title: Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe in Profile
Author: Daniel Uhr & Dan Sharp
Publisher: Tempest
ISBN: 978-1-911658-62-7

This new landscape format 226-page hardcover book is a collaborative effort between Dan Sharp, well known for his knowledge on the wartime Luftwaffe jet aircraft design projects, and skilled artist Daniel Uhr, who has created a set of first class colour profiles of 200 of them.
The Introduction sets the scene nicely, and features plenty of images of various original design drawings. It also sets out the different competitions instigated by the Luftwaffe design bureau, and how the different manufacturers responded. There were competitive tenders for fighters, night fighters, bombers and so on. These are all illustrated in the following 13 chapters. These include early jet designs at Messerschmitt and then potential development of the success of the Me262. One or two of these designs look very nice, while others rather less so. Another successful jet was the Arado 234 and some of the possible developments do look interesting. Then there are other designs, from a mix of manufacturers, using Rockets, Pulsejets, Ramjets and specialist machines such as bombers, night fighters and so on. Some show features that can be recognised in a number of post-war developments and a few look positively outlandish. One that sticks out in my mind is the Fiesler Fi-166, a turbojet powered fighter but launched with a rocket under the back which looks like a miniature V2! There are plenty of others, some of which flew as prototypes but many never got off the drawing board, but which are brought to life by these high quality artworks.
Knowledgeable and well written text accompanying high quality colour illustrations, I am confident that this will be enjoyed not just by modellers but also historical aviation enthusiasts. These day there are kits available of many of these interesting designs even if they never flew in real life, so perfect if you are looking for some ideas on camouflage and markings. A lovely book.
Thanks to Tempest Books for the review copy.

Robin