Modeling WWII Light Tanks and Armored Vehicles

Published by AK Publications

Reviewed by Glen Broman

Those of you that share my love of John Wayne movies will remember the classic line from the movie “The Green Berets”, when SGT Provo walks into John Wayne’s office trying to get a slot on the unit’s deployment to Vietnam.  John Wayne says “I understand you’re a heavy weapons specialist”. SGT Provo responds with “not if I can find a light one sir”.  I can relate to this as a tanker.  I spent most of my time on tanks that weighed in the vicinity of 50 tons or more, but I did two tours on the Sheridan, a 17 ton Sports Tank.  Light is good, the parts weigh less, you can go places normal tanks fear to tread (see what I did there?), and you can get out of trouble as fast as you got into it.   Light is good.  When I saw this book on the Last Cavalry stand at the IPMS Roscoe Turner show I picked it up.

There are builds on eleven tanks by ten authors.  There is some serious firepower in the authors list, with names such as Wilder, Gazquez, Kim, Paojinda, Orczyc-Misialek, Lawler, Pulinckx, Lam and Young.  The subjects are equally impressive, The Hetzer, M3 Stuart, Vickers Mark VIIB, Panzer IIF, BT-7, Semovente, Panzerbefehlswagen I, Stridsvagen M/38, Type 95 Ha Go, M22 Locust with the T-40 bringing up the rear.  Yummy. 

This is a softcover book with 123 pages and full color.  The quality of the photos, text and captions are excellent.  Each article starts with a short vehicle history and a short description of the kit and a few build notes.  There are only a few photos dedicated to the builds themselves, the meat and potatoes is the description of the painting and weathering.  The contents of each build are the standard step by step format.  I find this an excellent way to learn new techniques, or generate some ideas to develop your own style.  Having a highly retentive and unoriginal mind, the way these projects flow really helps get me into something new.  I’m working on a Semovente, and I’m just at the point of starting the exterior paint and I’ll be consulting this book as I work through the painting and weathering process.    

One of the more frightening things I noticed is that I have well over half of these kits in my stash, and several in more than one scale.  Hopefully this book also motivates me to get a few more built and painted.   As one would expect from AK Publishing, the paint and weathering products are AK, but the techniques are all adaptable to other paints and products, as well as tanks that are heavy, if that’s what trips your trigger.  This is a handy book to have on your shelf to refer back to, or guide you on a project that you want to try something new on.  I would say that this book is likely more beneficial to the average to experienced modeler looking to expand his or her skills. 

If light tanks of World War II are your thing, I highly recommend this book.  I purchased my sample from Last Cavalry.  They are available at www.lastcavalry.com along with a great selection of paints and weathering products.

American Artillery in Vietnam

By MP Robinson

Reviewed by Glen Broman

This is volume 2 of the Vietnam series from AK Interactive. The first volume covered Armor, which I also have in my library. This is a large, hard bound book of 272 pages. It’s not a book you can stick in your back pocket for light reading at your local burger joint. I would argue that this is one of the most comprehensive overviews of artillery used in Vietnam. To back up that assertion, I submit that the book contains 366 images in both color and black and white and 209 color profiles. There are also lots and lots of words.

For full transparency, I am not an artilleryman by training, although I have had some experience with towed artillery and was a graduate of the Infantry Mortar Platoon Officers Course at the Benning School for Wayward Boys, so I know my way around a plotting board. As an aside, my Master Gunner and I set up my M60A1 platoon to do indirect fire missions. My Battalion Commander was fascinated, but said if I ever tried to do it with live ammo; I would send the rest of my career, passing out basketballs in a gym in Alaska. Anyway, back to my point, I found the text to be pretty accurate from a technical aspect, but it was also very readable. And of course, being a former Armor officer, I really dig all of those pictures.

So let’s take a look at the books organization. There are what I would call 28 chapters, mostly organized by year, with each year subdivided by various subjects, such as 1967 having sections on The Cannoneers of the Mobile Riverine Force, Task Force Oregon, Reinforcing Pleiku, Heavy Artillery and Fighting on the DMZ. Cool, Yes?

The chapters are followed by what I describe as nine annexes, covering such things as US Army Artillery units in Vietnam, followed by USMC units, sling lifting howitzers ( been there, done that) and the Fire Support Base, as well as other fascinating subjects. The annexes are followed by the Color Profile Section and a bibliography, Further Reading and a Glossary. If you aren’t picking up what I’m laying down, there is a lot of information in this book.

Let’s take a deeper look at the organization. As an example, I picked 1965. There is a good overview of all of the significant artillery actions and organizations for this year, in a chapter of ten pages. It is also profusely illustrated, with a mixture of color and black and white photos. The quality of the pictures is really outstanding as well. I would point out that the breakdown is at a fairly macro level, as a detailed account of artillery actions for each year would make this a multi-volume set that you would need to haul home in a pick-up truck. I would also add that if you are a modeller, and you want details, this is a great reference to have. If you like dioramas, this book will provide a sensory overload of great ideas. I’m just saying.

To really help you get your geek on, the book also covers one of my personal favorites, Arial Rocket Artillery (ARA). We had some of these bad boys when I was in The 1^st Cavalry Division. They were armed with several pods of 2.75” rockets that could make life in the target area a little sporty if you were a bad guy.

I really enjoyed the color profile section, lots of inspiration here, not just the towed and self-propelled artillery, but ARA aircraft, Fire Direction vehicles, Air Defense Artillery, such as Hawks and Dusters, gun trucks and ammo trucks. There are some interesting one offs, like a jeep mounted searchlight and the floating bases used for artillery in the Mekong Delta. As I said, there is a little something for everybody up in here. One of my minor complaints about AK profiles in the past is that they are generally side views. This book carries on that tradition, but there are a number of front views that show bumper number markings in case you want to model a specific vehicle.

So bottom line, this is not an inexpensive book, but it is a large hardcover, profusely illustrated with excellent color and black and white pictures, a solid overview of Artillery in Vietnam and all those yummy color profiles. What’s not to love?

I purchased my book from Last Cavalry, www.lastcavalry.com.

Order here: https://shop.lastcavalry.com/ak-interactive-american-artillery-in-vietnam/

Book Review

The Age of the Main Battle Tank, Western Tank Development 1960-1975

MP Robinson and Dick Taylor

Published by AK, 2023

Reviewed by Glen Broman (review copyright 2024)

Back in 2020, I bought a book from Last Cavalry called “Before the Birth of the Main Battle Tank” by the same authors and published by Kagero. It covered tanks from roughly 1945 to the end of the 1950’s. It was a soft back that was well illustrated and very good reference priced in the mid to upper $20 range. Imagine my surprise when I discovered early this year that it was volume one of a planned three volume series. I have a number of modeling related business pages that I follow in email and Facebook; one of them is Bookworld/Avid Reader in the UK. Roughly every week one of their employees goes through new releases they have received. Bookworld normally gets copies of European book releases weeks or months before they are available in the US. About a month or so, the nice lady from Bookworld showed the second volume in the series, The Age of the Main Battle Tank. This did not look anything like the first volume in that it was huge, over 300 pages, a hardback and published by AK. These are very similar in size, format and price to their recent books “Armor of the Vietnam War” and “Artillery of the Vietnam War”. At the time, it was only available via mail order from Bookworld or AK, in the 50 to 60 Euro/pound range, plus shipping. So one day, I was surfing the Last Cavalry webpage, as one does (www.lastcavalry.com), and I found a copy on his new arrivals page, so I ordered it and picked it up a few days later. That was a good day.

This book did not go to the end of into the reading queue but went right to the head of the line. This is an excellent reference book with a few minor niggles, which I’ll cover later. First, the authors are well known to the armor modeling and research community. MP Robinson is the author of numerous books and articles and is well known to readers of UK based modeling magazines. Dick Taylor has a tremendous reputation in the armor community; he is the official historian of the Royal Armor Corps and was a serving officer. He is the author of the Warpaint series on colors and markings of the British Army, as well as other books in the Green series and the excellent three volume series of British Armored warfare from 1916 to the present day. The list of acknowledgments also reveals the names of many world renowned researchers and authors that assisted in the development of this book.

The book is organized into sixteen chapters, including the Forward, Introduction and Color Profile section. The production values are excellent, and it’s printed in high quality glossy paper. The chapters focus on a particular series of vehicles, countries or cooperative tank development efforts. There is a lot of really good information in this book, some of which was new to me, so that’s saying a lot. A word on the photographs, while there are pictures in this book that have been published before, I would say the majority have not been, which again makes this a great reference. The treatment on Swiss and Swedish tanks is excellent and this information is generally not found with any great frequency in most publications. The photographs are large uniform sizes that show lots of details. They are both black and white and color. The captions are excellent and informative, with very few exceptions, those exceptions usually being American tanks, but again, I’ll get to that. I did not count the number of photos, but it’s probably up in the high hundreds. The written parts of the chapters are also informative and well researched. The final chapter is a nice wrap up and explanation of the impact of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and sets the conditions for what I hope will be volume three covering Main Battle Tanks from 1975 to the current day. The final part is the icing on the cake, 220 color profiles of all those tanks, mostly side views, frequently showing both sides and the top, in cases of vehicles with camo patterns. Yummy.

The color photos were very beneficial to me as they help demonstrate a color conundrum I’ve been wrestling with for nearly 50 years. As a professional Armor Crewman in the US Army both as an NCO and officer, I served in Europe from the 70’s through the 90’s and trained with British, French, German and other NATO partner armor and cavalry units. I was also a modeler way back then and was particularly interested in how the vehicles were painted and marked. Most publications state that Germany painted their vehicles in both and early and late version of Gelb Olive, or simply called it “olive drab”, which was incorrect. The French, I was told, used “Vert Olive”. The problem was that many of the German and French tanks also had a distinct grey green color in the 70’s. There are many color photos in this volume of French and German tanks before the advent of the standard NATO 3 color scheme. The quality of the photos is such that one can discern both the early and late German Gelb Olive as well as tanks with a grey green color. A similar green grey tint also shows up on some French tanks. This goes beyond light, shadows and paint wear and, at least to my satisfaction, shows that there was some variation to French and German tank camo in the 70’s before the advent of standardized 3 color schemes, although to be honest, the French also went a bit off script on the NATO scheme by using a much brighter green than the US and Germany. A bit of Gallic flair, undoubtedly.

Let me cover a few minor niggles. The authors can’t consistently identify the differences between an M60A1 and an M60A3. There are way too many misidentified tanks both in photographs and profiles. On example clearly shows an M60A3 with the thermal sleeve on the barrel, the wind sensor on the turret and the laser port on the right former rangefinder blister in the open position. Perhaps adding a serving or former US Armor officer or NCO to the review team would help correct this? Also, the organization of the chapters, pictures and paragraphs are a bit disjointed. The paragraphs within the chapters jump around a bit and the photos of the vehicles do not always match the text of the paragraphs. While the text may discuss Leopard 1’s, the photos are AMX-30’s, but not to worry, the Leopard 1 photos will follow shortly. This is a very minor issue and does not detract from the overall quality of the product. The color profiles are excellent, but there are very few front or rear profile views that show the full hull markings. Perhaps some scrap views would help and also not take up space or drive up costs. I would also add one piece of advice for the authors, US unit designations should look like this: 3-37 Armor or 1-64 Armor, not 3/37 Armor or 1/64 armor. The slash denotes that the unit to the right of the slash is a tactical headquarters. In the US Army, armor units, with the exception of the Cavalry Regiments, are regimental affiliations, not tactical headquarters. So 1/11 Armored Cavalry Regiment would be correct, but 3/32 Armor would not be. These are not distractors, but are offered in the spirit of making Volume 3 even better.

Now to address the price, as we all know inflation and transportation costs are driving costs up. I paid $87 for this book. So is it worth it? As I mentioned, the production standards are excellent, the content is top notch and the majority of the photos are new to me. The 220 color profiles are also pretty sweet.

My opinion is that this book also fills a significant gap. It is an outstanding single source for main battle tank development. I have volumes of Kagero, AK, Hunicutt, Haynes and other books on individual tanks going back to the old profile series in my personal library that I would have to consult to get the same level of information on each of the specific vehicles. Those volumes generally go into more detail, but what this volume does is also compare and contrast the vehicles and puts them all in the context of the military requirements, financial constraints and political considerations that drove their development. For that reason the product is well worth the price.

I purchased my copy from Last Cavalry at www.lastcavalry.com. 

The subtitle for this book is “Painting and weathering AFV with Vallejo products”. I guess since this is published by Vallejo, no one should be surprised by that. So let me tell you the tale of how I came to pick up this book. I was picking up some paints I had ordered at the World Headquarters of Last Cavalry and mentioned that I had seen this book on the website. They had a few on the shelf so I picked one up. I had also seen a flip through by the folks on the UK Bookworld web page and it looked interesting. I also have to admit I had an ulterior motive in picking this up. I’m experiencing a bad case of painting block lately. I have quite a few kits stacked up in various stages of completion, most in the final weathering stages. There are several reasons for that, first, with the onset of Covid, I got pulled away from the bench because work got crazy and then I started building for relaxation. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, except if you just build, but don’t paint, things start to stack up on the old production line. So I got into siege build mode and starting priming models to get the process started again. So once I got 22 models primed, I got out the paints, right? No, I built 4 more models. Bet you didn’t see that coming did you? Well, neither did I. So, anyway, after taking a look at this book, I decided that this might get the painting juices flowing.

So why did I think this would help get me painting again? Well, it does have some really inspiring photos and it’s really focused on the painting aspect. There are a few other things I found interesting about this book. First, I like the style of painting presented by the author. I am a retired tanker. I’ve been around tanks on active duty and my present job for about 47 years. In all that time, I never saw a modulated paint job on a real tank. If that floats your boat, then hey, treat yourself, but I want my tanks to look like a real tank; dirty, scratched, dusty, muddy and looking generally lived in. Now, I do get the occasional laugh at folks who portray the aluminum bits on a vehicle as rusted, but that will be our little secret. Also, this book is all about painting. There are a few shots of what the completed model looks like before the painting starts, and a good description of the kits and after-market or modifications made.

So the painting aspect is what really puts the meat on the bones in this book for me. First off, the photography is excellent and very clear. I also found the subjects interesting. The subjects covered are an early Stuart and an M5A1, a Dodge 37MM AT Gun Motor Carriage, an LVT(A)-2, several flavors of Sherman’s in Europe and the Pacific and an armored jeep from the Bulge. The painting and weathering steps are shown as step by step, with the products used and descriptions on how there are applied. Perfect for getting those painting juices flowing. There are some great techniques here, although if you are an experienced model builder, you may have your own processes and painting flow, for example, I prefer to do my oil dot weathering on the base coat before I start weathering, rather than after the weathering has started, but your mileage may vary. Even if you’ve been doing this for years there may be some interesting ideas in here. I see the real value of this book as a primer for those folks who are looking to expand their techniques and develop an overall flow of painting and weathering. Oh, and also folks who are trying to get over painters block.

At the end of the book are two interesting chapters, one is a section of color profiles of US vehicles, both Army and Marine in Europe and the Pacific. The quality and colors are okay, not as good as most Guideline publications for example, but still serviceable. There is also a photo gallery of the author’s works. The quality of the work is truly excellent, but the subjects are not limited to US vehicles, or even WWII. Overall, there are some very impressive photos here to motivate you.

Now, a few things that make me go what up with that? First, would it kill to spend a little more time editing the text? There are lots of minor little grammar issues throughout the text. There is also a short historical blurb at the beginning of each build article. Having someone knowledgeable do a little fact checking here would have cleaned up a few errors. As an example, USMC General Holland “Howling Mad” Smith is given the rank of Admiral. Now anyone who has read any Pacific War histories would know that the only thing that “Howling Mad” Smith hated more than the US Army was the US Navy, so I would personally be very concerned with his ghost chasing me down and showing off that famous temper and getting all up in my grill doors. Regarding the title “WWII US ARMY”, I would also like to delicately point out that one does not interchangeably use the terms US Army and United States Marine Corps, or “Soldier” and Marine”. This is also a good way to get someone up in your grill doors, and my goal is for us model builders to get together for one big kumbaya build, so just sharing that little tidbit to help keep the peace and keep those group hugs coming. So all in all, these are just some minor niggles, and don’t detract from the overall quality of the book.

So, we come to the end. Overall, I would recommend this, especially if you are working at the intermediate level of modeling and are looking to improve to an advanced level, or just looking to integrate the various painting and weathering products into a coherent finishing process. I would also point out that even though this book exclusively uses Vallejo products, you can easily transpose the various products of other manufacturers into this process. At $26, it’s very affordable and a good value for money. As I mentioned earlier, I purchased my sample from Last Cavalry (www.lastcavalry.com) 

“The Ultimate guide for painting and weathering with Vallejo water based acrylics”

By Jose Brito

Reviewed by Glen Broman

One would think that with all the time spent in captivity due to the various waves of COVID, you would think I would have cranked out a small mountain of reviews by now. Well, if you thought that, you would have been wrong. This is the first review I’ve done in ages. There are several reasons; first, I actually started building models again. I mean lots of them. Just a few weeks ago I primed 22 models. Second, this is a really big book, it took a while to get through it, and that’s not a bad thing. It is 520 pages, not including the Gallery at the back. So a few thoughts on this, as a low attention span former Tank Commander and Combat Arms officer, this has to be good to grab and hold my attention for 500 plus pages. Also, us tankers love pictures, and this book is full of them. The quality of the photos is amazing and there are anywhere between 4 to 6 per page covering in progress and detail shots of building and painting, to one or two per page to really show off the detail. Be still my beating heart. I would also mention that for those of you who have not heard of Jose Brito, he is a world class modeler.

So a note up front, the author uses Vallejo acrylics, and achieves amazing results with them, if you are looking for a book that covers painting with a variety of medium and brands, this is not it, however, the painting techniques would apply equally to most acrylics and the building and composition techniques are universal. The bottom line is that there is enough in here to keep you gainfully employed trying out new skills on your bench for days.

The book is broadly organized in three major chapters, The World of Scale Modelling, Works, and Gallery. The first two chapters are further broken down into sub chapters; the Gallery is just a big old pile of modelling goodness. The first chapter is pretty much your bog standard intro, with sections on scale, tools, Vallejo products, modelling materials and kits. All subjects are profusely illustrated and well captioned, heaven for a visual learner like me. There also some interesting sections on the workplace, planning and composition, developing bases and research. Ah, I live for research, although sometimes I’ll start researching something fascinating like the 12 tone Serbo-Croatian Border Guards splinter scheme and end up watching cat videos on YouTube. The curse of a short attention span, but I digress. The real meat and potatoes is the Works section, this is a veritable smorgasbord of cool. There are subjects such as detailing, building resin kits, dioramas of various shapes and sizes, modelling water and the intriguingly titled “urban decay”. Oooh, I’m getting all tingly inside just thinking about it. How about a section on “metal and blood” and painting Gladiators. Reminds me of the scene in Airplane when Leslie Nielson asks the kid if he likes Gladiator movies. Okay, need to focus again, back to the book. There are just a ton of interesting subjects in here on a wide variety of subjects, to include civilian vehicles, figures and sci-fi. There are undoubtedly some subjects in here that you will be familiar with, but I would think that even the most experienced modeler would find useful new techniques or approaches in here to apply. The step by step focus and clear illustrations also facilitate the learning process.

The Gallery, as you may imagine, is full of large pictures, some two page spreads of completed models and dioramas. It’s the perfect finish, like a cold one at the end of a long day.

So a note about the price for my notoriously tight fisted modelling friends. As a large book in the 500 plus page with extremely high quality photos and production values, this is not in the $20 range. I purchased mine from Dave Youngquist at Last Cavalry (www.lastcavalry.com) for $55, which I may add, is the best price I’ve found on a number of online sources and Dave’s service is always first class. I view this more as a reference investment than a book and, in my humble opinion, is well worth the price.     

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the author of the Russian section, no less than James Kinnear, who is well known for his books and articles on Russian armor and his use of primary source material for his research. Thomas Anderson is the author of the German section, and is no slouch himself when it comes to research.

So let me back off right now and go into a bit of serious shiny object syndrome on this book. Not only is this a neat piece of kit for the shelf, but it’s the first in a, wait for it, ten volume series in a cooperative effort between Guideline Publications and AV Vallejo. For those of you not familiar with Guideline Publications, they are the publishers of Military Modelcraft International, the magazine that supplanted Military Modelling as my favorite modelling magazine. For those of you not familiar with Vallejo, well, you probably live under a rock or build cars. The series will cover everything from WWI and between the wars, to several volumes of armor today. This is gonna be good.

So any way, back to this volume. The book is printed in a soft cover format with very good production values and is 82 pages long. The core of the book is eight articles, four cover the Russians and four cover the Germans. There are also full color profiles for each article, and full color pictures, when available. In the Russian section, these are mostly from Kubinka and Russian war memorials. Oddly enough, the only color photos in the German section are also from Kubinka. An interesting interlude between the two sections is a small gallery of models from world renowned modelers of the subjects of the articles from the pages of past issues of Military Modelcraft International.

The subjects of the historical articles are Red Army medium armored cars, the SU-76 Self-propelled gun, The Soviet KV heavy tanks and the IS heavy tank series. The top of the batting order for the Germans are “Strange Bugs”, a history of Germany’s late war light panzers, The long barrel Mark IV’s, Kanonenwagen and the Sturmgeschutz III, ausfuhrungF/8 and G. There is some good info I here, and some nice profiles to inspire future builds. Of course, all of the color call outs are from the Vallejo paint range.

I purchased my copy from Last Cavalry, they are available at www.lastcavalry.com. 

Captured Vehicles in IDF Service, Volume 2

A Historical Review, 1967-1973

By Ma’or Levy

Reviewed by Glen Broman

It’s been awhile since I last posted a review on the Last Cavalry website and a small pile of books have built up waiting for my return to the keyboard. Just for giggles, I decided it would be fun to break my ankle. I should point out that the Army has sent me on little jaunts to such garden spots as Kuwait and Iraq; I’ve walked point on border patrols back when the border strip was still mined and I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane while in flight. I got nary a scratch. But I got taken out walking across a parking lot in Michigan. War is hell, but peacetime can get a little sporty too. The second order effect was that I could not walk or do stairs. Guess where my office is? Anyway, I also experienced a significant writer’s block and just recently broke through it. It took a repop of the old Aurora 1/48 M46 to do it, but that’s a story for another day.

Sadly, I received my pre-ordered copy of this book from Last Cavalry the week I broke my ankle, I say sadly because this is a great book and it deserved to go to the head of the line for a review rather than after a four month delay. I also want to be up front and let you all know that excerpts of my review on Ma’jor Levy’s first book were reprinted, by permission, on the back cover of this book. I just want to say there’s no quid pro quo here Sportsfans, this is a great book and a fitting second volume in the series.

In my review of Volume 1, I stated that I was very excited about what future volumes will cover, well, I was not disappointed. The T-54/55’s saw quite a bit of use by the IDF. As we used to say back in the day, waste not, want not. 

So before I wander off into details of the book, let’s talk about the overall product. Like the first volume, this is extremely well researched with very high production values and is logically organized. The selection of photos is also excellent, most of which I have never seen before, which says a lot, as I am a huge tank geek. There are a mix of color, black and white photos, useful charts, maps and drawings to enhance your reading experience. Following the Introduction, there are 8 chapters, “An unplanned treasure at the end of the Six Day War”, “This might be one of our best”, “Potential, deficiencies and modifications”, “Pictures from the conversion line, 1968-1973”, “Mine sweeping, the “bonus”, and Special Operations”, “The 274^th Brigade – a Tiran Brigade”, “Water and steel – pictures of Tiran training for amphibious warfare” and “Plans for an odd future”. This should give you an idea of just how much fun you will have reading this. I would like to take a moment to point out that mine sweeping is only fun if you aren’t the one doing it. I do have an interesting story about this which I can laugh about now, but at the time the humor wasn’t apparent.

I don’t want to ruin the surprise for you, so I won’t give away all of the fun, but there is a fascinating part of this story I do want to cover. This is the issue of putting a foreign tank into service. The IDF captured 860 tanks by the end of the Six Day War. Not a bad haul, by any means, but it does bring along some baggage with it. The captured Centurions, Patton’s and Sherman’s do not present much of a problem, they were already in use by the IDF, so integration was relatively simple, a new paint job, markings and Bob’s your Uncle. Training materials, ammo and spare parts are largely available, along with the logistical tail. For T-55’s, not so much. This book, in addition to covering a very cool tank in its own right, presents a fascinating description of the less discussed aspects of tank warfare, the logistical considerations of integrating captured materiel. This is a great primer on how one brings a captured piece of kit into use, along with all of the technical, practical and political decisions required to make it happen. I could really sympathize with the IDF, first as a Tanker, I have spent some time in a T-55, and have driven one. They are so cramped you have to climb outside the turret just for room to change your mind. Driving one is also special; one does not simply drive a T-55, but beats it into submission, directionally speaking. I also learned that double clutching was probably an art form in the former Soviet Union. Secondly, as a professional logistician, I really geeked out on the technical and training problems the IDF had to work through. Your mileage may vary, but this chapter is very readable and clearly articulates the challenges and very creative solutions on the part of the IDF.

On the subject of creativity, I would also like to point out that the IDF came up with some fascinating ways to employ these vehicles. I would postulate that the Egyptians, who were on the receiving end of that creativity, probably did not see it coming and may not have been as appreciative.

One more thought on the pictures, as I mentioned in my review of Volume 1, the potential inspiration for individual builds and dioramas in this volume is also epic, and not just for Tiran’s. There are pictures of Sherman Flail’s, BTR-50’s and PT-76’s in Israeli service. There are also a few more pictures of the displays of captured equipment. What’s not to love? There are also some really great pictures of Israeli landing craft, a subject that does not normally get a lot of love in the modeling press.

Now I come to my only criticism, the ending. The book covers the period 1967-1973, it even states that up front, but I was really enjoying the read, and the start of Yom Kippur War was coming up and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened. And the chapter ends, “On that day, the 6^th of October. All hell broke loose. War.” I hate cliffhangers! My point is that I did not want this book to end. It was fascinating, informative, well written and, as a Tanker, it had lots of cool pictures. My sole source of comfort is that even now, as I am writing this, volume 3 will soon be on its way.

I purchased my copy from Last Cavalry at www.lastcavalry.com.

The sWS is one vehicle I have to admit I know next to nothing about. I know there are models available but I haven't seen a lot of pictures with them shown. I always thought they might be what if vehicles. Well I know better now. This was the third generation of half track and came from Bussing-NAG.

The book starts with the history and technical description of this half track. It covers development of the armed and unarmed versions followed by their use. I have to say the pictures are of the highest quality and for modelers provide a wide range of ideas for building a vignette or diorama.

Following this we have some very nicely done line drawings of the various versions.The drawings are very crisp and a good size for observing detail.

The next section is all colour plates. Bright and vivid they are well detailed and offer some great ideas for when you build your own version.

The book continues with preserved and museum vehicles. I really appreciate this feature as it helps meld the historical with the now. Unfortunately you cant find all the details you want in older pictures, but you can through preserved current vehicles.

Nuts and Bolts are some of my favorite reference materials. Every subject is covered meticulously. The format is basically always the same wich I really appreciate. It allows toy to find what you want faster when thumbing through. I cant find fault with anything in these books and this volume is no different. It has the history and technical details you want. It has good drawings and fantastic colour plates. No matter if you are a history buff or a modeler it is full of good info for everyone.The book is a glossy soft back and the pages are good heavy quality satin paper.

I highly recommend these books to anyone with an interest in German WWII vehicles. The Last Cavalry has it for $40.00 U.S 

Chris Meddings, Alex Clark, Andy Canning, Darren Thompson

Published by Inside the Armour Publications

Reviewed by Glen Broman

Just when I thought it was safe to start scratchbuilding again, the folks at Inside The Armour Publications publish a new book that causes me to question both my skills and my sanity. Yes, it’s that good.

I purchased the first volume from Last Cavalry (www.lastcavalry.com) back in 2016 and was very impressed. My original review was “wow!” which as you may recall, qualified as my shortest review ever. If I were to expand on that for this review, I think I would go with “Holy crap, they did it again!”

So, before I star to wax eloquent about the content, let me take a quick diversion and tell you about the book itself. It’s a large format softcover with absolutely amazing production quality. The photos are sharp, clear and well captioned. As a result, the techniques are understandable and easy to follow. The text and photos combine to provide a product that is useful to both the novice and skilled builder. As many of you know, I’m a former tanker, so I live for pictures.

I was very happy to see that thy followed what I considered to be a strength of volume 1 in that instead of going for the bog standard build and paint format of most products on the market, they have built the structure of the book around scratchbuilding vignettes on each project, consisting of technique, text and well-illustrated step by step. The book is organized in five chapters, covering a full scratch build of a 1/350 scale ship, designing PE, an in depth case study of scratchbuilding a T-84 tank turret, an IDF detailing and conversion case study and scratchbuilding and converting WW2 German armor.

Fair warning here, if you are new to this series and have not yet read the first volume, the whole experience can be rather daunting, these folks have mad skills and as I mentioned in my volume 1 review, I required a few therapeutic beers while I resisted the urge to commit seppuku with an X-Acto knife as I read the book. I urge you to resist that outlook; once again, the purpose of the authors is not just to inspire, although that is a secondary benefit, but to explain how to approach the development of these skills in a logical manner. In his chapter on scratchbuilding the Suffren, Chris Meddings posits that scratchbuilding “is not an art…talent nor a special skill… It is rather an approach”. That is a very valuable piece of information, bringing a touch of Zen to ones modelling bench. Too many of us are overawed, and thus scared away from trying our hands at scratchbuilding or converting simply because we view it as talent or art. Looking at scratchbuilding as a means to an end makes it a much more accessible tool and allows one to view it as a process. I like that as it serves to remind that we all had to start at square one.

The first chapter covers a full scratch build of the French pre-dreadnought Suffren. Although I likely will never get around to doing a full ship scratch build, this is a very useful chapter as there are some great techniques that can be applied to detailing standard kits. There is also a useful section on doing your own PE.

Alex Clark is up next with a detailed case study of scratch building a 1/72 T-84 tank turret. This is an absolutely amazing build, especially when you consider that many of the pieces pictured are using the tip of the author’s finger as a backdrop. Based on my own experiences with small parts on my braille scale builds, I can’t help but wonder how many of these parts fed his carpet monster at one time or another. Again, there are some very useful techniques described here.

Andy Canning’s chapter covers converting a Dragon M3 Halftrack to an Israeli 90mm gunned version. This is a good primer in converting a kit you have into a kit you don’t. This is right in my wheel house as those are the majority of projects I’ve done over the years, rather than full scratch builds.

The last chapter is by Darren Thompson and covers scratchbuilding and converting WWII German armor. This chapter is different in that it doesn’t concentrate on just one build but is more conceptual in nature as it covers the full process of building and converting in a logical process illustrated with a few different projects and a nice gallery of finished projects at the end. If you are wondering how to lay out a project from beginning to end, this will be a handy piece of kit.

I received my copy from Dave Youngquist at www.lastcavalry.com. 

Modern Conflicts Profile Guide Volume III

Pere Valls and Zachary Sex

Reviewed by Glen Broman

So the two or three of you that follow my reviews on the Blog will undoubtedly remember my brilliant, although somewhat ethically challenged concept of releasing a book, which gets rave reviews, but which I title “volume II”. The intent would be to send everyone madly scrambling to find volume I, which I would then release on EBay as “very rare” a few copies at a time, and make a killing. I wonder if the folks over at AK Publishing may have been reading my reviews. Hey, it could happen!

I probably should explain. AK Publishing released the Modern Conflicts Profile Guide, Volume I earlier in the year. It covered the Middle East Wars from 1948-1973. I really enjoyed volume I and have been excitedly waiting for volume II to appear when, you guessed it, up pops volume III on the Last Cavalry web site. So my first reaction, as we used to say in the Army was “WTF? Did I miss volume II?” So the short answer is no, I didn’t, volume III was next in the batting order.

Now that we have addressed this little conundrum, let’s move on, shall we? Let me state up front that this is not an inexpensive book, but it also nearly another 50 pages longer than volume I and chock full of full color profiles and color pictures. In fact, I don’t believe that there are any black and white photos in this one; it’s all in glorious color. This book has an interesting organization, following the introductory chapter; chapter 2 covers the Regular Arab armies, with sub chapters on Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Turkey. Chapter 3 covers three Arab rebel armies, the Peshmerga, Kurd’s and Daesh (ISIS). The last chapter covers Middle East war machines, with a variety of formerly Russian vehicles in Arab services. As I’ve mentioned before, Russia is the Bargain Bob of slightly used, only one owner, and special deal for you, this week only, armored vehicles. This chapter covers the T-72, T-62, T-55, 2S3, ZSU-23-4, ZU 23-2 and ZPU 14.5mm.

Let me say that if you love off the wall and well off the beaten path camo schemes, this book is for you. If you want to combine a little scratchbuilding with some basic Russian and a few Western vehicles, you need look no further than this volume and keep yourself busy for months building and painting some really whack vehicles. How about a sand and green M1A1 in Moroccan service? Maybe an M113 with a ZPU-14.5mm mounted on top? So let’s really go full gonzo and combine an Ace 1/72 Panhard M3 VTT with an M101 105mm gun. This is like the Hunter S. Thompson guide to building tanks. You can’t even begin to imagine some of the strange crap all up in here. Or maybe you can, in which case, you are scaring me. One that got me all fired up was a Moroccan M56 Scorpion SPAG. I found two of these old Revell kits at a hobby shop consignment sale at Major Art and Hobby (shameless plug for my old local hobby shop), one was always going to be an Army vehicle, but one can only do so much olive drab; one needs color in one’s life, yes? Well, this book comes riding in like the Union Cavalry at Gettysburg and whammo, I have a little color back in my life in the shape of a sand and brown Moroccan M56. Life is good, yes?

Do you have some of those Trumpeter and Hobby Boss Chinese tanks that you maybe won in a raffle and don’t quite know what to do with them because Chinese PLA schemes just aren’t your bag? Well, Sudan has hooked you up with some interesting camo schemes that might just be your cup of tea. I simply can’t describe the hundreds of schemes and subjects in this book, all I can say is that necessity is the mother of invention and there are some real mother’s in here.

The Arab Rebel Armies and Middle East War Machines chapters are filled with color pictures. I can’t even imagine what these guys must have been smoking when they came up with some of the ideas that led to these vehicles, but it must have been world class. Just saying.

If I had one complaint, it would be that something more than a single side view of each vehicle would have been really welcome, you are left guessing as to what the front, rear or other side markings may have been on the vehicles. Overall, I highly recommend this book; it will probably cause you to overdose on inspiration for both conversions and provide something completely different in the way of camo and markings.

I purchased my sample from Last cavalry at www.lastcavalry.com.