MMP/Stratus | Finnish & German Seaplane Colours: Finland 1922-1945

Reviewed by Kevin Williams

Publisher: MMP/Stratus
Author: Kari Stenman, Korila Hołda
Publishing date: 2021
ISBN: 978-83-65958-48-8 (Hardbound)
Pages: 224

I must confess that despite owning many MMP/Stratus (Mushroom) publications, I've never really understood the breakdown of the colors series at all. This particular volume falls under the heading of the "White" series, and is dedicated to the (predominantly of German origin), Finnish Seaplanes and their wartime colours (colors) in WWII.

Whilst the photos themselves are all B&W, the color profiles, and there are several of them, can easily instill in one, the desire to model one of the subject aircraft. In fact, I'm already seriously considering chasing down a kit (regardless of scale) of the quite nifty looking Heinkel He 115, a real impressive beauty of an aircraft.

Table of Contents:

Typical Photo/Illustration Excerpts

This publication is a nice blend of many black & white photographs, with very nice artwork, usually in the form of detailed elevational view drawings of different types. All books in this series that I've seen thus far, are printed on good quality glossy paper, which I also consider to be a big plus in their favor, adding a great additional dimension to the overall appeal of the volumes.

(Worthy of note, are the many razor-sharp photos peppered throught this volume, really nice stuff.)

Summation

Containing an impressive 224 pages (roughly 3/4" thick), and weighing roughly 2-1/4 pounds, with virtually all photos being black & white, this volume is seen by me to be a spectacular value, giving lots of information and photos that should allow the average German seaplane fan gobs of visual material to drool over (though some coverage is decidedly light). For those that are fans of 1:32 kits, most of the aircraft covered, are unfortunately not presently available in this scale, the one certain exception being the Arado Ar 196 (Revell kit, two versions), though with any luck at all, we may eventually (hopefully) see some of them in injection molded kit form some day (Do 24 anyone?).

My review copy compliments of Casemate Publishers. Thanks a ton to Casemate, it's truly an outstanding reference book for the various seaplanes and schemes used by many of the German and Finnish aviation Forces aircraft during the War II time-frame & pre-war; really top-notch stuff, and one that I'll most certainly be proud to add to my own personal library.

© Kevin Williams 2021

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This review was published on Thursday, December 02 2021; Last modified on Sunday, December 05 2021