Kagero books
 

I've not bought any, so far, for two reasons. One is the large stock of books testing the joists in my loft already. The other is I feel that I will have to pay for stuff that I don't want. I only model in 1/72, so wouldn't want the 1/48 transfer sheet - I probably don't even want the 1/72 one! No, I don't read Polish.

So is there really enough new and interesting stuff in these books to justify paying the money? If so, which are the best ones?

Re: Kagero books
 

I bourght a couple of the 'miniiatury' unit histores including no.6 ''JG 5 Eismeer'' these are in Polish and English and I found them very good. I suppose it depends on how much knowledge one has already, certainly worth buying one to start with,
Regards
Brian

Re: Kagero books
 

Don't know about these books in general, but I bought the two volumes regarding 112 Squadron; they were not so cheap - 20 € each that, in Italy, is the same price of the Osprey "Aircraft of the Aces" books - they contained some stuff for modelers as photoetched deatails and decals and I'm not a modeler; but at the end they were not disappointing at all. Inside the 100-112 pages volumes there were quite a lot of photos some of them I've never seen before, colour profiles were nice and the text was quite interesting -at least compared with Robin Brown's classic on the subject.
Regards

Ludovico.

Re: Kagero books
 

Graham, I would obviously recommend the ones I wrote myself :)

This is the latest:
http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=KG3024

As with all previous volumes, it's a Polish-English edition, full of rare photos (most of them from the San Diego Aerospace Museum archives, I daresay never published before), superb colour profiles (if anyone wishes to have a look at some samples, please PM me), and - last but not the least - the book offers Thunderbolt's quite detailed operational record ETO June-December 1944. It's packed with quotes from various P-47 pilots' memoirs and lots of action, which hopefully make a smooth and enjoyable reading
And don't be scared off by my English, the book was thoroughly proof-read by an English speaker ;)

Re: Kagero books
 

Have anymore been added to the 'miniatury' series after no. 33 ''Me 262 Units''

Re: Kagero books
 

Next one is Vol IV of JG 27 (1943-45)
Overall I prefer them to Osprey - the A-4 size of the monograph series works in their favour and the Luftwaffe titles utilise some interesting sources & photo collections (Barbas, Stipdonk, Crow to name a couple )- they do tend to regurgitate what has appeared before and if you have an extensive library (Prien etc) then they're not at all essential..a number of their works merely offer a slimmed down version of other hard-to-find works..Pegg (Hs 129), Jurleit (Me 262 units)- whether or not this is with the agreement of the original authors I have no idea..other titles - Me 410 combat history, JG 11, JG 52 (1939-1941), Bf 110, JG 301- are/were produced in collaboration with well-known authorities such as Petrick, Barbas, Reschke and/or offer English-language versions of rare German texts - ..overall I tend to think their publications are quite 'collectable' - super little titles for the modeller & ridiculously good vfm especially if you purchase directly from http://www.kagero.pl - on that front there's simply no 'western' publisher can compete with them. Having said that ..check out the rendition of Hajo Herrmann's wilde Sau Fw 190 in a recent Fw 190 monograph..it is spectacularly inaccurate and rather unfortunately coincided with the new pictures in the Lorant/Goyat JG 300 book..

Re: Kagero books
 

What FalkeEins said - if you collect the 'big' sources, these are mostly redundant. Also agree with the 'buyer beware' alert. Some of these Eastern European titles are quite good, some are flights of fancy. 10 years ago when this stuff first started to appear I bought a bunch, and was both happy with some, disappointed in others. Now I prefer to see before I decide to buy.

Re: Kagero books
 

does anyone have any thoughts on the recently released JU 88 vol III title? it has not made it to my local hobby store yet and fear I may have to order it direct?
Kevin

Re: Kagero books
 

I can wouch to what FalkeEins and Jim P. have written, at least RE: the Hs 129 book.

I flicked through the Kagero book in the local bookstore and could not find a SINGLE new photo of this highly interesting aircraft type. Moreover, the indifferent quality of many photos raise questions about their original sources.
Based on the few paragraphs I read in haste, I could find no new information in it either.

I would like to point out, however, that I am not familiar with most of Kagero's other titles, so this particular book could be the exception rather than the rule.

Re: Kagero books
 

I currently only own (FW 190 vol. IV) one but I was very happy with the quality although some of the content is a bit suspect at least according to other sources and this forum.

With this in mind I did find some interesting tidbits of information that I was able to verify (and enjoy) Additionaly I really feel the technical diagrams in the book are very well done and it has somoe nice colour profiles.

Overall they are the Cliff Notes version and open the door to further reading.

Regards,

John

Re: Kagero books
 

This publisher has serious problems both with copyrights and quality.
My opinion: avoid and beware.

Re: Kagero books
 

I have Vol 2 of 112 Sq . Inaccurate profiles poor research not worth the money

Re: Kagero books
 

Guys in an effort to help me and other can you provide some more specifics about what you found wrong and what the correct information is. Additionally how about some alternate sources (i.e. other books) I for one would like to know...

Regards,

John

Re: Kagero books
 

Owning none of the titles myself, I can not speek about the text, however looking over several of the titles they have at the local hob store yesterday I will say, for the most part the photo content seems to be excellent. Ju 88 vol I and II had several photos I had never seen before. unfortunatly the Ju 88 vol III was not in stock... and this is the title I want due to NJG content. it seems to me that they do a very good job of digging for unpublished or rarly seen photos... and for this I say great job.
Kevin

Re: Kagero books
 

The books I have seen were simple rip offs of old stuff eg. from Motorbuch monographies. The text - horrible, though I have heard their English improved. Here an off topic note - I have seen several enthusiastic reviews on some websites and none ever noticed unreadable text! Do not trust web reviews!
The other thing are copyright violations to such a high extent that I cannot recommend the publisher and in my opinion it is enough to avoid them.

Re: Kagero books
 

Franek,

Thanks for the extra information - I agree with you on web reviews from the simple fact that the reviewer is given the material for free and sometimes wants to keep that going so he gives better reviews... that being said - can you give a specific example from Kagero and the book you feel the material came from. Additionaly please provide your thoughts on the better book to buy on the topic.

Regards,

John

Re: Kagero books
 

I have their "Luftflotte I 1939" and "Luftflotte VI 1939" and although the english is awfull (even for my taste) and photos not much, I liked it because it dealt with a subject I didnt know much about.
I was recently able to take a good look at most of their titles, including all the Ju 88 and Fw 190 volumes and Kaiser's Aces. In my opinion, the text was compilation of known books, nothing new.
The photos are quite suspicious. Few were very good, and they were from collections of some known western authors and collectors. But they were the only ones worth. About 80% of the photos were very well known, and were printed in bad quality. Why? Obviously because they were simply scanned from published sources. Interestingly enough, these photos were signed as comming from late mr. Heinz Nowarra (hmmmm???) or some Polish and German collections I never heard of, nor saw in any other books.
In the end I dropped the idea of bying any of these.

Re: Kagero books
 

Boris, since it's the "Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces" forum, I understand there's little interest in books I co-authored or wrote myself (the P-47 Thunderbolt series, as I mentioned in my earlier post), but since some of the remarks posted here use a general and vague term "Kagero books", I'd like to point out a couple of issues:

1. The photos in all three P-47 volumes were not stolen from anyone or scanned from other books. They all come from the James Crow and San Diego Aerospace Museum collections. They were paid for, take my word for it.

2. They're not slimmed down versions of anything. Yes, I read every P-47 book I could get hold of, and was actually surprised how many mistakes one can find in them, even in books by renowned authors.

3. I have translated all the three P-47 volumes into English myself. They were then proof-read over and over again by English native speakers. I don't think the English you can find in them is horrible but it takes an English native speaker to judge such things, doesn't it?

Regards,
Tom

Re: Kagero books
 

John
If you have eg. Caldwell's JG 26 or old Motorbuch's JG 5, you will be not very surprised reading JG 2, JG 26 and JG 5 monographies. If they are not simple rip offs from single books then they are compiled from few well known volumes, though, I admit, often forgotten.
What to buy instead? Definetelly good stuff. It is more expensive but the choice considering quality is too obvious.

Tom
It is purely your choice, where you are publishing. I have not seen anything valuable from Kagero (I have not seen your books) over the years, more, I have noticed plagiarism and copyright violations several times.
Regarding English, no, there was no native speaker needed, well sometimes it was essential to be a Pole to roll on the floor. Really.

Re: Kagero books
 

Franek, these are pretty heavy accusations, you know - and honestly, I don't believe them. Of course, everyone is entitled to his opinion. I sincerely hope that yours is not biased in any way. I'm only a bit taken aback by your exclamatory vocabulary: "beware", "avoid" and the like.
My advice is - everyone judge for yourself, these books are not that expensive. Lots of people like them.
Btw, are you coming to the Goraszka Air Show this weekend? Drop by, it will be my pleasure to show you some books.

Regards,
Tom

Re: Kagero books
 

Hi Tom,
it was nothing personal. I haven't seen your book but I have no reason to doubt what you wrote. Photos from James Crow are among those excellent ones that I mentioned in my post. However, the remaining stuff in the titles I mentioned - Fw 190, Ju 88 and Kaiser's Aces - is below average.

Re: Kagero books
 

Yes, they are heavy but get a Fw 190 vol. I booklet, open it on p. 25 and compare Schroedter's account with the one published at Caldwell's JG 26 vol I. p.187-188. This is a sample (my favourite) of both horrible English and plagiarism, not alone unfortunatelly.
Beware and avoid - definetelly! I have had enough problems in obtaining documents and photos just because some people decided to stop their contacts with Polish researchers after ripping of their works. Also, I am awared of a least one case, when Kagero's activities (publishing with copyright's violation) blocked a publication of a fully legal article by an actual author.
To make this even more funny, in one of recent Kagero's publications, there was a very minor, though extremally clear case of quoting my work without noticing it in bibliography. Nonetheless, I am not going to sue them - I have had enough laugh of that by myself and friends.
PS No, I find nothing interesting there for me.

Re: Kagero books
 

It looks like your mileage may differ depending on the actual titles in question and your personal taste. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned for all parties involved.

I'm locking this thread as it has run its course.