ASBL

Luftwaffe Gallery 1-Photos & Profiles

by  Eric Mombeeck Illustrated by Thierry Dekker

Reviewed By  Floyd S. Werner, Jr., IPMS# 26266

MSRP: Approx. $18.25 ISBN: 978-2-930546-03-2 Website: www.luftwaffe.be Eric Mombeeck is one of the world's well known Luftwaffe researchers. He has an extensive collection of photos, logbooks, and first person accounts in his collection and now he is sharing that with us. Previously known for his unit histories, Eric Mombeeck has opened up his extensive photo archive for us to enjoy, and best of all, at a reasonable price. Luftwaffe Gallery No.1 is the first in what looks to be a bi-yearly publications from the author's archives. This softbound book contains 56 pages of high quality photographs and drawings. This entire book contains mostly brand new photos, not just black and white ones either. There are marking, colour, camouflage, emblem and equipment galleries so there is something here for everyone. One thing you will notice right away is the high quality paper which reproduces great photos and drawings. The color photos are quiet impressive in their scope and content. The drawings are done by artist Thierry Dekker and are first class. They are interspersed throughout the book and add a nice touch. They will be a motivator for modelers. The first gallery is a marking gallery and addresses the JG-53 red stripe. Color photos are the big highlight of this area. Each photo is accompanied by a description of the photo or drawing.

The second gallery discusses yellow tactical markings including some unique color photos of some 109Fs. It is really unique to see how the camouflage and yellow markings varied from unit to unit and sometimes aircraft to aircraft within the unit. The third gallery includes the white tactical markings on Bf-110s, just the type of stuff that a modeler would need for their Dragon or Eduard kit. A colour gallery of the Ju-88s provides some unique markings and shows the colors of the bombs really well. The cross hatch pattern is discussed and shown next. If you like 109Es then this section is particularly interesting. Luftwaffe Lapel Pins are something I never knew existed or paid attention to but they provide some interesting information on unit badges and markings. It is interesting to see this little known feature. The one photo that stuck out to me in this section is a Gunther Rall Bf-109F, "Black 1". Modelers will want to take some notes on this aircraft. The Bonzo cartoon dog from JG2 is the highlight of the final section. I've seen the dog before and even modeled it once or twice, but there is a photo that is really interesting in the cartoon interpretation. I loved this book. It has a lot of the things I look for from the modeler perspective, color photos, beautiful drawings, interesting content and new photos both color and black and white. The cost makes it quite attractive to the budget minded modeler. There are a lot of Bf-109s, Bf-110s, FW-190s and Ju-88s so if you are interested in any of those aircraft or the history of these sections this book is for you. The next book should contain sections on the Condor Legion, cars of the experten, fighter bombers, late war aircraft and the Mickey Mouse emblem. I can't wait. Highly recommended. Thanks to Erik Mombeeck for the review copy. You can obtain your copy directly from him at www.luftwaffe.be . While you are there check out the great unit histories, which I can also highly recommend. When you order please tell him you heard about it here at IPMS/USA.