This is the third part of AirDoc's continuing series on the He-111. While I reviewed the first volume in 2006, which covered the initial 'step nosed' aircraft, I somehow missed part 2 in the intervening years. Now we have pretty much the rest of the versions starting with the He-111H-6 through H-20. This includes the incredible He-111Z glider tug.

As in other books in the series, the authors provide a general history of the type, breaking down each variant and covering the salient features that make each version different from the one before. As with many Luftwaffe types, there were modifications made to extant types and aircraft put together from several sources so that there are times when specific features will show up outside the norm for a particular airframe.

Once past the historical background, we then find page after page of superlative period photographs. Many of these images were new to me and I have always found it a delight to see something that has not been constantly published. In fact, you can gather much about a certain aircraft variant by reading the well done captions to the photographs, even if you did not read the historical background information. Each subtype is pretty well covered in sequence in the photo section, and that includes more images of the He-111Z than I have ever seen. Despite their being only a dozen of these planes built, they very much grab the imagination of readers and modelers alike.

Also typical of AirDoc books, there are a couple of pages of full color profiles in the back of the book as well as drawings of each of the different sub-types to help in identification. Naturally these are in a rather small scale; typically 1/100 so they will fit on the pages.

The book itself is in both English and German. I did find a few odd syntax uses in the English part of things, but nothing that would detract from the readability of the book. As in other AirDoc books, I found the faded background images used behind the writing to be distracting and it made the page more difficult for me to read. I know it is considered 'artsy', but I really wish the background was just a plain white. Same for the captions on the images, which have little grey 'blocks' behind parts of them. I would also like the English portion of the captions to be the same larger font as the German.

Overall, it is an excellent book to have if one wants a nice background book on the He-111. It is one that will be an inspiration to modelers and also one that enthusiasts will find useful. In all a book that I can quite easily recommend to you.

August  2012

My thanks to AirDoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct at www.airdoc.eu

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.