MMP Books – Yellow Series
Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun

by Jan Forsgren

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

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Following hard on the heels of MMP’s excellent Yellow Series book on the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch is this similar guide to the Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun.  Like the Storch, the Bf 108 was an important communications aircraft that served with the Luftwaffe on all fronts in World War 2.  The Bf 108 was a beautiful, highly streamlined design with clear family links to Messerschmitt’s later Bf 109.  These points, along with the wide variety of Taifun livery and the availability of several excellent kits on the subject, make the Bf 108 an attractive modeling subject.  And if you are contemplating a Taifun project, then you will likely find this book very useful.

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Author Jan Forsgren has structured his guide as follows:

• Taifun genesis and development, including a description of events at the 1934 Challenge de Tourisme International in Poland where the Bf 108 design was vindicated in competition, and extensive period photographs of the initial Bf 108 A variant.

• Detailed coverage of the main Bf 108 B variant, including technical information and production and service details, again accompanied by numerous period photos.

• Descriptions of three further variants:  the abortive Me 208 and Me 108 F designs (the latter a 1970s attempt to restore the type to limited production), and the more successful Nord 1000 series, which was the result of continued output from the Bf 108 production line in France until mid-1946.

• Extensive coverage of Bf 108s operated by or in countries other than Germany – I counted 19 – accompanied by a very useful combination of photographs and colour profiles, followed by a brief photo essay of Bf 108 survivors.

• The book concludes with nearly 50 pages of walkaround detail photographs, covering most parts of the airframe.  The photos are a mixture of period and current photographs, enabling you to compare similar details on different machines.

• A separate fold out sheet, four times larger than the book itself, of Bf 108 plans.  One side has upper and lower view plans in 1/48 scale, while the other side has 1/48 Bf 108 A, Bf 108 B, Bf 108 C-1, and Bf 108 D port profiles, as well as a front view of a Bf 108 B. 

The overall quality of the publication is very good.  The author’s writing is easy to read, and the illustrations are well chosen and clearly reproduced.  The only thing I can be critical of is a pagination error – after the first 50 pages or so, the page numbers listed against the chapter headings don’t match the page numbers that the chapters are really on.

This minor gripe aside, I can highly recommend MMP’s ‘Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun’ to anyone with an interest in this important design, from either a modeling or general interest perspective.  I know that when I do drag my 1/48 Eduard Bf 108 kit from the stash, this guide will be on my bench as a one-stop reference for when I am detailing and painting my model.  My only problem, I think, will be choosing which of the book’s many interesting and colourful schemes I will depict on my model!

Thanks to MMP Books  for the sample.

All MMP Books are available direct from the publishers, who now accept credit cards (Visa, MC, Amex, Switch)  

North American distributors are MMD, Australian distributors are Platypus Publications. In Europe, the books are available from any good bookshop (via our UK distributors, Orca). Contact MMP direct in case of difficulties. 

Thanks to Roger at MMO Books  for the sample.

Review Copyright 2013 by Brad Fallen
This Page Created on 1 December, 2013
Last updated 1 December, 2013

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