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• Cybermodeler.com • 2015-12-18
• Flugzeug Classic 2015-11 • 2015-10-03
• Aeroplane 11/2015 • 2015-09-26
• http://speedreaders.info website • 2015-09-09
• Model Airplane International 09/2015 • 2015-09-01
• SAM 09/2015 • 2015-08-30
• ModelingMadness.com • 2015-08-24
• SAMI 08/2015 • 2015-07-27
• IPMSUSA.org • 2015-07-09
• Amazon.co.uk customer review • 2015-07-07
• Airfix Model World 57 • 2015-07-02
• Amazon.co.uk customer review • 2015-06-18

• Cybermodeler.com • 2015-12-18

  Finnish Fighter Colours 1939-1945 (Vol 2) Book Review

  By David L. Veres

  Date of Review	December 2015	Title	Finnish Fighter Colours 1939-1945 (Vol 2)
  Author	Kari Stenman, Karolina Holda	Publisher	Mushroom Model Publications
  Published	2015	ISBN	9788363678449
  Format	208 pages, hardbound	MSRP (USD)	$69.00

  Review

   

  MMP continues its superb study of Finnish World War II fighters in Vol 2 of Finnish Fighter Colours.

  Contents and pagination pick up where Vol 1 left off. This time, subjects include the:

  • Hawker Hurricane I & II
  • Caudron CR 714
  • Curtiss Hawk 75A
  • Messerschmitt Bf 109 G
  • VL Myrsky
  • I-153
  • I-16
  • LaGG-3 and
  • Curtiss P-40M Warhawk

  MMP’s lavishly illustrated sequel proved a sumptuous smorgasbord, indeed. I happily and hungrily sampled this fulsome feast in non sequential fashion – dining on the VL Myrsky, Caudron CR 714 and Curtiss Hawk 75A; noshing through captured Soviet equipment and Hawker Hurricanes; and desserting on the Curtiss P-40M Warhawk and Messerschmitt Bf 109 G. The last understandably dominates most of the book.

  Once again, individual aircraft coverage broadly divides into three parts. With occasional “Winter War” overlap, summaries largely focus on “Continuation” conflict service, camouflage & markings notes, and selected aircraft examples.

  Chapters include photos – many previously unpublished – and extended captions. Individual tables recap – among other entries – subject serials and fates. And detailed comments and reference shots accompany Karolina Holda’s outstanding color profiles.

  Absorbing anecdotes season the study. And research appears totally trustworthy. Looking for an accurate suite of Finnish Bf 109 stenciling? It’s here!

  I absolutely loved this brilliant book. It – and its companion volume – probably offer English-language readers the finest study of WWII Finnish fighters to date. Get both!

  Rabidly recommended!

  With thanks to Casemate for the review copy.

• Flugzeug Classic 2015-11 • 2015-10-03
  
• Aeroplane 11/2015 • 2015-09-26
  
• http://speedreaders.info website • 2015-09-09

  Finnish Fighter Colours 1939–1945, Vol. 2

  by Kari Stenman & Karolina Hołda

  For background on the topic the reader is directed to our review ofvol. 1. All remarks regarding scope and execution apply to vol. 2 but the list of aircraft it covers can now be more specific: Hawker Hurricane I + IIA, Caudron-Renault CR 714, Curtiss Hawk 75A, Messerschmitt Bf 109 G, Myrsky (Storm, a domestic product built by the State Aircraft Factory), Polikarpov I-15bis, I-153, I-16, Łavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3, and Curtiss P-40M Warhawk.

  Both volumes are consecutively numbered, which can’t hurt but is of no specific advantage as there is no Index or cross-referencing. Each book has its own five Appendices and only vol. 2 has a Bibliography. For the reader the division of Appendices across two books is of course not user-friendly (especially as the ones in vol. 1 are not individually named on its Table of Contents) because they obviously pertain to all the aircraft covered jointly by the two books.

  The color profiles in vol. 2 have one distinct difference, in fact it would seem new to this whole series: some aircraft have certain markings that are stenciled on the actual airframe called out as a sort of close-up in large type or an enlarged graphic. This could be service instructions such as tire pressure (on a plane with German markings: Reifendruck; on a Finnish one: Rengaspaine) or graphics for, say, octane numbers or where not to step on a wing etc. This sort of detail is easy to get wrong for the modeler working only from photos.

  Stenman, who runs his own publishing company in Finland and has written over a dozen books on the subject of the Finnish Air Force in World War II, has certainly turned over a huge amount of material to compile these books, and if this is your area of interest it is safe to say that there’s no point in even looking elsewhere, certainly not in English and definitely not for modelers. As before, many or most photos have not been seen before.

  The publisher offers both books as a set at a 16% discount under SKU “Tg 01.”

   

  Copyright 2015, Sabu Advani (speedreaders.info).

  Finnish Fighter Colours 1939–1945, Vol. 2

  by Kari Stenman & Karolina Hołda

  Mushroom Model Publications, 2015

  206 pages, b/w & color illustrations, hardcover

  List Price: $69 / £35

  ISBN-13: 978-8363678449

• Model Airplane International 09/2015 • 2015-09-01
  
• SAM 09/2015 • 2015-08-30
  
• ModelingMadness.com • 2015-08-24

  MMP Books' Finnish Fighter Colors Vol 2

  Author:	Kari Stenman & Karolina Hołda
  Publisher	Mushroom Models Publications
  Price	$69.00 SRP from Casemate Publishing
  Reviewer:	Scott Van Aken
  Notes:	#9128   ISBN 978-83-63678-44-9 200 pages, hardbound, 8.25x11.5 inches

   

  Finland had a rather odd position in WWII. The nation was initially invaded by the Soviet Union at the end of November 1940 in what would be called the Winter War. It was short lived and the Soviets, despite their overwhelming superiority in numbers of troops and equipment were initially unsuccessful, but three months later, having gained the terriorty they wished, signed a peace treaty ending the war. During this time Finland was woefully lacking in sufficient modern fighters and though Finnish pilots were quite successful in the air, more aircraft were needed. While some of these were delivered and used during the war, most did not arrive in time to participate.

  With the Continuation War starting when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, the Finnish Air Force was much more capable in terms of numbers and Finland retook all the land ceded to the Soviet Union over a year earlier. During this time, only the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand declared war against Finland. Because Finland was fighting on the same side as Germany against the Soviets, German equipment was provided, and not just obsolescent aircraft, but up to date Bf-109s, which really bolstered their fighter force. In late 1944 as a result of a treaty with the Soviet Union, Finland turned against the Germans, forcing them out of the Lapland, though the actual fighting was pretty half-hearted.

  In this, the second book on Finnish aircraft colors, the authors have concentrated on later receipts. Each aircraft type is provided with a history of the type in service followed by pages of large photos companioned with superb color profiles and three views based on the photographs. Naturally, those aircraft with longer service and in larger numbers have the most entries in these sections with the 109G having the largest presence.

  Aircraft covered are the Hurricane I, Caudron CR.714, Curtiss Hawk 75, Messerschmitt Bf-109G, and Myrsky. The Finns also flew captured aircraft, though not all of them saw combat. In this group are the Polikarpov I-15 and I-153, I-16, Lagg-3 and P-40M Warhawk. In the appendicies we are provided with  Finnish AF unit structure, aviation ranks, the location of airfields, trainer markings, Aerial victories (this section covers the careers of the top scoring pilots) and finally each of the units and the aircraft they flew. The Finns took a lot of excellent, high quality photographs of their aircraft in service, quite a few of them in full color. We are the fortunate recipients of this dedication and the high quality period images is what really makes this book stand out as much as the equally high quality color profiles. It is a book that no fan of the Finnish AF should be without. Most highly recommended.

  August 2015

  Review book courtesy of Casemate Publishing  where you can get yours.

• SAMI 08/2015 • 2015-07-27
  
• IPMSUSA.org • 2015-07-09

  Finnish Fighter Colours. Vol 2 1939-1945

  Published: July 8th, 2015      

  • Aircraft
   
  • Publications

  

  Book cover

  Author: Kari Stenman and Karolina Holda

  Reviewed by: 

  Pablo Bauleo, IPMS# 46363

  Company: Mushroom Model Publications

  ISBN #: 978-83-63678-44-9

  Other Publication Information: Hardcover, 260 pages, illustration paper, 200+ period B&W pictures, handful of period color pictures, about 100 color profiles.

  Price: $55.59

  Product / Stock #: White Series 9128

  Web Site: MMP Books

  Product Web Page: View

  Product provided by: Mushroom Model Publications

   

  Mushroom Model Publication has released the second volume of the Finnish Fighter Color series. You can find a review of Volume 1 athttp://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/finnish-fighter-colours-1939-1945-vol-1

  This book, as Volume 1, is structured by aircraft type. Each aircraft type has two chapters. The first one is devoted to the historical introduction on each type including how it was procured and how it did perform in Finnish service. In many cases there are plenty of historical details on different missions including date, location, number of airplanes involved and mission kills/losses. There are no first-hand narratives of pilots involved in the action, so I suppose the information is coming from squadron records.

  The second chapter of each airplane type is devoted to the main topic of this book: camouflage and colors. Typically the first few pages in these chapters would describe the camouflage scheme and colors including wherever possible pictures showing the whole upper surfaces and profiles of representative airframes. If any specific change to the camouflage was applied due to official orders that would be described at this chapter.

  Finally the “meat” of the book is full color profiles accompanying B&W images of the same airframe shown in the color profile.  If any assumption was made on the color profile due to the pictures being black and white it is clearly indicated.

  This volume covers the

  • Hawker Hurricane,
  • Caudron-Renault Cr. 714,
  • Curtiss Hawk 75A,
  • Messerschmitt Bf-109G,
  • The locally designed Myrsky,
  • Captured examples of I-15bis, I-153, I-16, Lagg-3 and P-40M.

  Some chapters are more in-depth than others. For instance the Bf-109G chapter is about 50 pages long, while the Myrsky and Hurricane are 12 and 18 pages respectively. I would say that the length of each chapter is proportional to the relevance of the type for the FAF during WWII.

  Most of the pictures (over 200 of them) are in Black and White and there are a handful of color ones. There are almost 100 full color profiles and for each one there is an accompanying picture showing the actual aircraft that the profile is based upon. 

  This book is more than just a research on colors and markings. There is plenty of historical research on the operations of each type within the Finnish Air Force. Reading this book will teach you more than just camouflage patterns, be sure of that!

  The last section of this book contains tables that describe the Finnish Air Force structure and all the victories and claims by Finnish pilots during WWII.

  Full book trailer available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDU5Ly73PtU

  This book is simply excellent. Highly recommended to modelers due to the reference book value (color profiles and pictures) as well for the historical research value of it.

  I would like to thank Mushroom Model Publications and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

• Amazon.co.uk customer review • 2015-07-07

  Second installment measures up to the first

  By Sopwith on 7 July 2015

  Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

  The second installment of Stenman's series on fighter colors continues to explore the camouflage used on a variety of fighter aircraft used by the Finns during their Winter and Continuation wars with the USSR, from the famous to the truly obscure. This series is perfect for modelers interested in reproducing wartime Finnish aircraft. I especially enjoy the pairing of wartime photos (including a few color shots) with full-color artwork. Outstanding!

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  Five Stars

  By George Bracken on 25 Jun. 2015

  Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

  Excelent coverage of the fighters used by the Finnish Air Force with both Photos and color profiles.
• Airfix Model World 57 • 2015-07-02
  
• Amazon.co.uk customer review • 2015-06-18