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251 Half-Track Ampersand Group by David Doyle When you think of a German WWII half-track, most people will automatically conjure up the Sd.Kfz.251 in some shape or form, unless they've fallen for all the 60s and 70s movies where the American Half-Track was substituted with some suitably Germanic paint-jobs, mostly because there just aren't that many of the original left, as evidenced by the high prices they go for in the vintage military vehicles world, unless you fancy cheating and converting a Tatra TO-810 at a fraction of the price. The basic chassis was developed and converted to mount all manner of weapons beyond the original troop transport role, some of which defied practicality and you could argue sanity, as you will see within the pages of the book. It is landscape bound in a hard back with a glossy cover that should stand up to plenty of wear, and has a black card inner leaf to further protect the pages within. There are 168 pages on thick glossy paper, all printed in black and white due to the fact that all the photos are contemporary from either official sources that survived the war, or from personal collections. The book's strapline is "A visual history of the German Army's Sd.Kfz.261 armoured half-tracks", which is a perfect description as you would imagine from leafing through the pages. The introduction briefly details the development of the initial vehicle and its chassis before discussing the major variants in a potted format over the following few pages. For some reason they gave up numbering the variants after 22, but as there was only one following this that was only a semi-official Luftwaffe anti-aircraft conversion. As we've come to expect from this publisher, the quality of photos is high, with only one exception where a large scratch is still visible across the centre of a picture, which could have been Photoshopped out with a little care to leave the reader non-the-wiser. The captions are informative whilst brief, allowing the maximum space to be devoted to the primary reason for this book. The photos. A great reference on this once ubiquitous Wehrmacht workhorse that will both give the reader plenty of detailing opportunity as well as some inspiration for load-outs and diorama ideas. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Luftwaffe In Colour The Victory Years 1939-1942 Casemate UK Once the nascent Third Reich had broken cover and begun rearming in the open during the latter half of the 1930s, their publicity machine went into over-drive to convince their people that they were übermensch, and that their armed forces were the best in the world, in anticipation of their successive land grabs to expand their empire. Colour photography had been available for some time by that point, although it was expensive, but the Publicity Machine run by Dr Geobbels used it to a great extent in their propaganda drive. The resulting stills were printed in the major propaganda organs of the day, such as Signal and Der Adler, but colour photography was sometimes used by those that could afford it during the early years of the war, which has resulted in some really useful colour evidence that was gathered incidentally to the real subject matter of friends and colleagues as they documented their experiences in the war. Colour developing wasn't as exact a science as it is today, so we have to make some allowances for this, and for the possibility that some prints have been reprocessed over the years, but it is still impressive to see, gathered together in one volume. Compiled and written by Christophe Cony and Jean-Louis Roba, the book extends to 192 pages in a portrait A4 format, with a perfect bound cover and quality glossy stock, which is unsurprisingly printed entirely in colour. There are 300 photos within the book, and they are of a wide variety of subjects, varying from candid snaps to posed publicity and unit archive style photos. The book is broken down into sections based upon location and campaigns, as follows: Introduction The Pre-War period From Poland to Sitzkreig Blitzkreig in the West The Battle of Britain and the Blitz Marita & Merkyr: Blitz in the Balkans Operation Barbarossa African Adventure and the Mediterranean Front In the West The Second Line: Schools, Factories and Training Photography throughout is excellent, subject to the limitations of the source material of course, and it is good to see so many of them printed large enough to see the details without squinting! There are all manner of aircraft types within the pages, from the ubiquitous Bf.109s to the Heinkel He.115 float planes and beyond. The final chapter regarding training shows some interesting shots of the gliders that were used initially to circumvent the Versailles treaty embargo on Germany having an air force, and later to test the aerodynamics of such advanced projects as the Me.163 Komet. The next volume in this series will document The Years of Defeat, following the Luftwaffe to their ultimate downfall and near annihilation at the hands of the Allies. Review sample courtesy of

Modelling WWI Tanks Histoire & Collections via Casemate UK WWI AFV modelling is enjoying somewhat of a Golden Age at the moment, with new toolings of kits popping up from mainstream manufacturers in injection moulded styrene, the likes of which we have never before seen in 1:35. As someone that is keen on the subject myself, I think back to when I first built an Emhar Mk.IV and there was so little out there in styrene that it was almost a little depressing. Now we have Meng, Takom, even Hobby Boss bringing out major and minor variants of vehicles such as the St Chamond, the diminutive FT-17 (correctly called the FT), and almost all of the British Marks of tank, even down to the Tadpole and Mark I. Whilst you don't require hugely different techniques to build and finish a WWI kit, some of the methods you will use might be subtly altered to give the best finish, such as sharp demarcations and massive quantities of mud! The book is perfect-bound and contains 128 pages in glossy A4 in portrait orientation, with plenty of text and photos throughout. The author is Frédérik Astier, a talented French modeller, figure sculpter and contributor to magazine Steelmasters, as French language AFV magazine. His grasp of English is excellent, either through his own skills or those of the translator/editor (it isn't made clear), and this is kept up throughout the volume, It aims to help WWI modellers to expand their skillset, as well as assisting them with that often elusive (certainly to me) skillset of creating dioramas. Using a series of set-pieces, the author guides us through the build and finish process of various models, with the added bonus of lots of useful hints and tips about diorama creation on the way. He is clearly unaffiliated with any particular brand of paint, as we see AK Interactive, Tamiya, AMMO, Lifecolor and even Mig productions products through the book. The vehicles he builds are as follows: Tamiya Mark IV Male Takom Mark IV Female Takom St Charmond Tardif Hobby Boss Schenider CA1 Meng Sturmpanzerwagen A7V Meng Renault FT (FT-17) The first two are built as a "face-off" between the two brands to establish which makes the best base for your model, and I'm not about to spoil the outcome of that for you, so I guess you'll have to read it to find out. The result may (or may not) surprise you. Between each section are a couple of pages of period photographs of the subject just modelled, which are informative and incredibly crisp for their vintage. The diorama content is interspersed through the builds, and is incredibly informative, although Frédérik is clearly a master of that particular genre to say the least. Of course some of his techniques would be a little daunting to the novice, but a great many of them are surprisingly simple, and use every day household (or DIY) items. Conclusion Whether you're a WWI modeller or interested in diorama techniques, or both, you should get plenty out of the book, and the photography shows off the author's work to the best and is a real treat for the eyes. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

German Panzer I The Ampersand Group via Casemate UK The Panzer I was the first mass-produced tank made available to the newly reformed German Army, and as such saw extensive service, with a large number of variants during its service life. It was used to great effect in the Blitzkrieg campaigns in Europe where its light weight and speed offset its relatively poor armour and armament, extending only to a pair of turret mounted machineguns. This book, authored by David Doyle and Jeff Kleinhenz is hardback bound in a landscape format with 168 pages that contain over 200 photos, many of which take up the whole page and are contemporary, with some of them quite informal, while others are more definitely posed. The photos are very well printed and the larger than usual size gives you the opportunity to examine the small details that might be lost in smaller reproductions. After the introduction, there is little text other than the captions to the photos, but there are quite verbose and full of useful information, which will bear re-reading during ownership. After a short introduction the book is laid out as follows: Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. A Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. B Leichte (funk) Panzerwagen Kleine PanzerBefehlswagen Pz.Kpfw.I Variants Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. C Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. F Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. A in detail Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. B in detail Pz.Kpfw.I Ausf. F in detail Those last three sections contain photos of preserved examples in museums, with colour used and much great detail visible due to the march of technology. Conclusion This is an excellent photo-reference for this diminutive but important little tank, and would serve just as well as a coffee table book or reference book for a modeller, as well as the general AFV or WWII buff. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Sea Combat From WW1 to the Present Day Amber Books Ltd This is the third and last book in the series that we’ll be reviewing and it follows the same style and set-up as per the other two reviewed HERE and HERE. The book actually begins with the Naval arms race between 1900 and 1913 before moving on to the Naval encounters and designs of WW1 ending with the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow. As with the other books there are some superb photographs, which I’m sure will be familiar to others, but were new to this reviewer. Naval Expansion deals with the inter war years, which is a bit of an intriguing title considering the various treaties that prevented expansion. WW2 is well covered, and I particularly enjoyed reading about the invasion of Norway and the battles of Narvik, but then I’m biased as the HMS Warspite was involved in the 2nd battle. Each intermediate section covers a different theatre of operations, and it s good to see that it’s not all about the big front line units, but also about the smaller units, such as the destroyers, commerce raiders and Q Ships. The Battle of the Atlantic section has some rather harrowing pictures included to remind us of the human cost of war, as does the Mediterranean theatre section. I certainly learnt a few new facts about our forces in the Pacific, which is always good, amidst all the information that has been well written before. The Cold War era begins with Korea and has some more great photos from the 50’s and 60’s of Russian and US warships in use up to and including Vietnam. It then moves onto the Falklands War and the final years of the Cold War before the Wall came down. Unfortunately this si pretty much when the book ends, as there isn’t anything from the latest conflicts where naval power has been used, not even from the first Gulf War, The Balkans, etc. This is a real shame; if you’re going to go to the trouble of updating a book, at least add some new information as there is so much more that could be added. Conclusion There we have it, another well produce and printed book, that doesn’t quite make the grade. There is so much that could have been included, but it doesn’t look like the publishers let the author loose on it. It could have added another 100 pages with what’s happened since 1998, the last picture in the book, let alone 2008 and the last publication. Review sample courtesy of

Sd.Kfz.161 Panzer IV Ausf. H/J Kagero via Casemate UK The Panzer IV was one of the most common tanks fielded by German forces during WWII, but gets overshadowed by its more advanced brethren, despite their shortage and shortcomings. The H entered production in 1943 with thicker armour and a zimmerit coating to defeat magnetic mines that never materialised in significant quantities. By the time the J was introduced the war was going less-than-well and "improvements" to save build time, weight and strategic materials ended up worsening the situation. It still saw the end of the war, despite originally planned as a short-term measure while Tiger and King Tiger production ramped up. The Book This is number 25 in Kagero's TopDrawings series, and is card bound with a set of 1:16 plans loose inside that will be welcomed by anyone that has the new Trumpeter Ausf.J that we reviewed recently here. Each set of drawings within the book are marked with a letter, and have a bilingual (English/Polish) caption detailing specifics for the mark. Some sets are more detailed than others, and some detailed drawings of specific parts of the vehicle, such as the cupola and exhaust system. The last few pages are filled with profiles of individual vehicles, showing their markings and colour schemes. As a bonus, you get a set of pre-cut vinyl masks of all the vehicles that have a red star next to them in the profiles in 1:16, which confirms my suspicions regarding timing of its release. Conclusion Some useful drawings from different angles from the norm, that may give you some additional insight into how various aspects of the later Pz.IV marks and variations went together, a double B2 sheet of 1:16 plans, and a free set of masks for four 1:16 tanks in one handy package. Highly recommended, especially to the 1:16 builder. Review sample courtesy of

Hi all! This was my first ever build and I wanted to do it so that I could be a bit more involved in this fantastic community who are always so keen to buy our modelling books! I started the build thinking that I would do everything in a very neat, ordered way, however I quickly wanted to start gluing and seeing it take shape, so I became a little sloppy with my orderly ideas! I had several issues with the build (a couple because of my own fault and one or two which I will blame the kit for!) My biggest issue was the engines and them not fitting on the wings neatly despite how much i wiggled them! I would like to get some filler or something to hide the gaps between them and the wings as I am sure you will see! The paint along the sides needs to be tidied up a bit and there are a couple of green fingerprints on the glass at the front as well as my untidy engines. I only used five paints for this (a metallic silver, a muddy brown, a standard looking green (colours on wings for green and brown), a yellow for the tips of the propellers, and a matt black) all Humbrol Enamel Paints. They were all pretty good I thought! Despite getting furious at the pieces for not working properly several times, I really want to do another kit to see if I can do it better and make something that looks a little tidier and nicer than this! Maybe a nice simple fighter plane! Any suggestions are welcome! Cheers all! - Andy

Hello all! Casemate UK are sponsoring a group build on britmodeller and we distribute loads of modelling books (Kagero's etc), but do we really know what is involved in the art of creating and building these model kits? I decided that it was definitely time to give it a go and *attempt to* build my very first model! I have bought a 1:72 Scale Lancaster B.III Dambusters kit from Revell and will be posting my progress on here. Please feel free to let me know any hints or tips and feel free to tell me off for any blinding blunders and modelling faux-pas that I'm making - all advice will be needed and welcome! - Casemate UK (Andy)