The Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse

inc. Me 210 and Me 310

by Richard A. Franks

Valiant Wings Publishing
Airframe Album No.16

Reviewed by Graham Carter

162 pages of semi-gloss high quality paper are enclosed in a card case-bound cover with a nice rendition of a pair of Me 410Bs from Egr.Gr.KG.51 especially commissioned from Arkadiusz Wróbel on the front. The paper enables excellent reproduction of images both in colour and B&W and drawings. It follows the familiar format for this series of books from Valiant Wings.

The volume is divided into 6 sections plus three Appendices. This begins with a twenty-page Preface/Introduction giving a history of the development and operational use of the Me 210 and Me 410 by the Luftwaffe, as well as other Axis nations.  A brief treatment is also given to the captured ones in Britain and the USA, all illustrated with a selection of useful photos.

Section 1 covers a Technical Description in sixty-seven pages full of excellent, well-notated images from contemporary manuals and modern examples held in museums, specifically the Me 410A-1/U2 in the RAF Museum at Cosford and the Me 410A-1/U1 in storage at NASM at Silver Hill, Maryland, USA. These modern images are in colour and are very useful. The nine elements of the aircraft treated are the Fuselage ( including the cockpits), Tail, Wings and Controls, Engine, Undercarriage, Armament, Electrical Systems and Miscellaneous things like access panels and ground equipment.

Section 2 covers the evolution of the type from Prototype, Production and Projected Variants in 34 pages. These are covered by the usual 3-D isometric renderings with annotations for specific features by Wojciech Sankowski. There are the usual weird and wonderful projects here, including the B-1 with a six-barrel rotary Wurfgranaten launcher in the belly bay - actually tested on the ground and resulting in so much damage to the fuselage that it was abandoned immediately! Also illustrated are the numerous C projects with Daimler-Benz 603E engines in annular nacelles that lend a very different look to the plane. It is also here that we meet the Me 310 pressurised high altitude night fighter that never went anywhere.

Section 3 is an eight-page set of official side drawings on the Projected Development of the Me 410 with English titles but all notes are in the original German. Some interesting ones here for the technophile.

Section 4 is wrongly headed Section 3 on all twenty pages - what pity!! Nevertheless, there is much information contained here on Camouflage and Markings. The section covers all the schemes worn by Me210 and 410 aircraft from the prototypes through to the captured ones at war’s end with both photos and nice side views in colour from Richard Caruana  with a top view of two typical upper surface schemes on the rear cover. A single page shows the location of stencils in 1/48th scale. There is also coverage of Hungarian, Japanese , Russian, as well as US and RAF examples.

Section 5 is a single build by Steve A. Evans of the 1/48 Meng kit over six detailed pages with ample photo coverage to inspire the modeller in any scale.

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Thumbnail panels:

The book is rounded off with three appendices :

• a single page of kits available in all the major scales from 1/144 to 1/32,

• three pages of accessories in resin, PE, masks, and decals, and

• a full page bibliography of official documents, publications, and periodicals.

Valiant Wings have again produced an excellent book for the Luftwaffe modeller and one that will appeal to those working on any of the scale kits that are available, and it comes highly recommended. There is plenty of inspiration to super-detail one’s model and to answer questions about aircraft features and different variants.

This is a really valuable book for the Luftwaffe modeller and one that will appeal to those working on any of the scale kits that are available, and it comes highly recommended.

Thanks to Valiant Wings Publishing for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2021 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 21 April, 2021
Last updated 21 April, 2021

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