Customer Reviews

Schwere Panzer in Detail (Heavy Tanks in Detail)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having a couple of books already from Ryton I had a bit of an idea as to what to expect from this their latest offering on the "Heavy Tanks" of the German Army.

It is in landscape form which is a little annoying (yes I knew that when I bought it) and just fits on my bookshelf. But I guess one of the reasons for this type of format is the the colour armoured profiles and line drawings fit on the page easily and you do not have to tilt the book.

The book covers the development, production and specs of the "Heavy Tank Family" namely the Tiger II, Ferdinand, Elephant and Jagdtiger.

It shows in a large number of closup photos of various areas of the tanks, such as tracks, hull,and photos of the turrets and fighting compartments.These are all interwoven with shots of the vehicles in the field, on the move or in maintenance (which was pretty much on par with these types of vehicles).

The photos are all black and white with line drawings of the various designs, and colour spreads of the types mentioned. If you ever wanted to be up close and personal with what the drivers station is like, or the commanders position then this book is for you.
There is the brief introduction about the type of AFV being studied but not in great depth, as the strong point of the book is the large amount of photos some which are new, most are not. It is these photos and captions that the authour uses to describe the tanks.

If you are a modeller this book could be of some use to you, with the various closeup shots of the vehicle may clarify an area of the model you are working on.

For those looking for a comprehensive history of the vehicles or units you will be disappointed, and I think if I had to describe this book it is a bit of a cross between Speibergers Tigers I & II and their variants and is very similar to Jentz and Doyle VK 45.02 to Tiger II book.

However if you are Tiger tank fan such as myself, and although similar to the aforementioned books, it makes a nice addition and different perspective to them.

This book is a excelent source for modellers who want to reproduce the heavy panzerz, with a lot of diagrams, photos and views!