German Instrument Panels

Published on
December 13, 2022
Review Author(s)
Book Author(s)
Dariusz Karnas
ISBN
9788366549685
Other Publication Information
Illustrations: 87
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 42
Dimensions: 11.8 X 8.2 inches
MSRP
$25.00
Provided by: Casemate Publishers - Website: Visit Site
Cover

This book from the series “Inside” shows detailed drawings of the German aircraft instrument panels in great detail.

Instrument panels of the following aircraft:

  • Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-4
  • Messerschmitt Bf 109 F-4
  • Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6
  • Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-12
  • Messerschmitt Me 262 A
  • Heinkel He 111 P-1
  • Henschel Hs 126 B
  • Dornier Do 17 Z
  • Fieseler Fi 156
  • Henschel HS 123
  • Focke Wulf Fw-190 A-3
  • Junkers Ju 87 B-1

One would not initially think that a book named “German Instrument Panels” would be an interesting, dare I say fascinating book, but if you’re a modeling nerd like me, yes it very much is. The author has rendered the IPs of several famous, German WWII aircrafts panels into easily identifiable graphics, each accompanied by a breakdown of every dial, gauge, and switch.

Each instrument panel from successive aircraft includes a brief summary of the machine in question, as well as one or two period, B&W photos of the airplane. Several of the aircrafts’ pages include hand-drawn schematics, which are presumably from factory documents.

For each aircrafts’ IP page, there is a graphic of the complete panel, and a page of the panel sans dials & gauges, which are numbered and explained index-style. Each gauge is labeled in English and German, which I found to be very interesting.

Aside from Instrument Panels, the book also breaks down the infamous Revi Gunsight in detail. This is one of my favorite things about this volume, as it truly shows the attention to detail, and dedication of German engineering which carries on today. The coolest part? On the page dedicated to the Revi, is a QR code that, when you scan it with your phones’ camera, take you to a website that features a 3D drag and spin, 360-degree gunsight that you can explore.

I went back and forth quite a bit about this next paragraph, because I’m not sure of the implications one might assume, but here goes anyway. The graphics in this book are so good, that and enterprising modeler could theoretically make a color scan of these Instrument Panels, scale them down to the size they need, then print decals on a color printer and have accurate dials on their next Luftwaffe project. Theoretically.

This is a fantastic reference book for the Luftwaffe modeler, or anyone interested in the minutia of machines gone by. My thanks and gratitude to Casemate, MMP Books, and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

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