Osprey Publishing

"Modelling the Messerschmitt Bf 110"

Product # ISBN # 1-84176-704-2 

Product Article by Steve Bamford on Dec 4 2003

 

 

 

Review sample sent in by Motor Books International

This new book from  Osprey Publishing is written by well known modeller and webmaster of Hyperscale....Brett Green with assistance from Robert Oehler.

Brett Green is well known for his deep interest and knowledge base about Luftwaffe aircraft during WW2.  Considering Brett's high level of modelling and Osprey's reputation for producing high quality books, I was more than a bit curious to crack open his latest book to see if it lived up to his reputation.  I was not disappointed.  

With this book Brett walks you through the process of building a Bf 110.  This book is 82 pages of detail and information and many, many pictures..... 193 colour pictures to be exact. Chapter 1 begins with some history about the Bf 110......it's short comings and how it finally found a role it could perform well.  This plane was a failure against single engined RAF fighters during the Battle of Britain.  But the Bf 110 had great success in other theatres of operations from the Eastern Front to North Africa.

Brett also goes into some detail with text and tables and a Black and white line drawing about the many different variants of the Bf 110 that served in many roles during the war.

In chapter 2, the book shifts to it's main focus....model building.....the fun begins.  Brett starts off going over the 7 different  Bf 10 kits available in 1/48.  Most are reboxings or variants of another kit and Brett talks about each one.  

In chapter 3, Brett pulls out the Fujimi Bf 110C/D/E and builds it.....in carefully photo rich step by step detail.  Brett chose to build this one more or less out-of-the-box as an in-flight display model.  By doing so Brett avoided the 2 main problem areas of this kit.....the poor cockpit and landing gear detail.  Watching Brett build this kit step by step gives the modeller a chance to sort out some good basic building techniques to achieve a very fine finished model.  I like to think of this model as Brett just warming up for the next phase of this book.  

Brett did use a True Details instrument panel and some Tamiya figures for his spares box to help detail the sparse cockpit as well as a "wash" to add shadows in the cockpit.  Brett built this one with the huge 9001 drop tanks under each wing.  Every modeller has struggled with canopy painting and Brett went with Fast Frames by True details to mask the canopy on his Fujimi Bf 110.  The panel lines were darkened with a  pencil, a wash and some airbrushing.  Brass wire was used for a lower antenna.  Although the model appears nicely weathered (exhaust stains etc), Brett does not mention the techniques he used.
Brett then moves on to build the same kit but with a night fighter paint scheme and  a resin True Details cockpit.  Brett explains some very helpful techniques to achieve cockpit shadows to help accentuate the raise detail of the resin parts.  Resin flaps and scratch built slats were used to help add detail to the otherwise plain looking kit wings.  Certain Eduard PE details parts were used in the cockpit to add detail to specific areas, such as the instrument panel.  Brett went with post shading and airbrushed panel lines to finish off the details on this black Bf 110 night fighter.  A Vac-u-formed canopy was used as well wire to detail the landing gear.  Paint chipping the the high traffic areas of the wings were also add.  At each step Brett goes into concise detail about the different techniques he used to get the beautiful results.  Although I have not scanned a photo of his black night fighter.....trust me....it's a beauty. 
The next model is a ProModeler Bf 110G-4 built by Chris Wauchop.  Chris has built his Bf 110 more or less out-of-the-box and displays what can be done using various techniques to achieve a stunningly painted and weathered  out-of-the-box model.  Chris goes into detail with pictures and text about the many simple but quite effective techniques he employed to build his Bf 110.  By following Chris's way of doing things you will achieve some very impressive results.  Chris talks about detail painting the ccokpit with hand brushing, airbrushing and washes.  The photos in this book of Chris's cockpit show that he is the guy to listen to......his instrument panels are perfect.  Chris used post-shading to detail his panel lines.  the result looks very much like pre-shading and Chris spend the necessary time with text and photos to explain each of his techniques.  His finished model is stunning..... especially considering it built out-of-the-box.
Well, now that you're all warmed up and feeling like you can build a Bf 110, Brett starts into his final article of the book.  This is where Brett lets out all the stops and goes for broke.  This is the ProModeler Bf 110G4 with the addition of the following aftermarket items....
  • Cutting Edge engine nacelles set to correct kit parts
  • Aires resin cockpit detail set
  • Cutting Edge nose radar set
  • Black Magic masks for masking canopy
  • Cutting Edge exhausts
  • Cutting Edge resin control surfaces

Brett then went to work cutting up this kit to fit all the resin goodies.  The cockpit was a sight to behold.....fantastic and subtle painting and shading to give it the look of the real aircraft.

Wings and fuselage had their panel lines pre-shaded.  Brett finished off this masterpiece with weathering that he talks about to further explain to the reader what is involved.

The second to last section of this book talks about making a diorama base for your Bf 110.  In this case Brett makes a base that includes a specially built ramp to raise up the tail of the Bf 110 to permit gun testing on the ground.  This is called a "compass platform" and Brett used a resin one made by Verlinden.  Brett covers all the basic steps to paint and detail and weather a diorama base.  This books features a nice selection of how-to photos of the process to make the diorama base for Brett's Bf 110.  Brett also talks about painting figures as well. 

The final section is a gallery of three different Bf 110 models.

So what's the final word on this book?  I'm quite impressed.  There is a wealth of information for anyone from beginner to expert to use if they are building a Bf 110.  The book also includes many techniques that would help to build any model, but the focus of this book is the Bf 110.  I give this book 2 thumbs up for it's approach to helping you build a better Bf 110 by using lots and lots of photos and I look forward to future editions to this series.  This book would be a fantastic addition to any modellers library.  

Steve

Special thanks to Motor Books International for the review copy.

This book is published by Osprey Publishing and distributed by MBI Publishing Company in the US.  It is available in bookstores everywhere, through Classic Motorbooks.  To buy this book.....visit motorbooks.com or call (800) 826-6600.

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford