German GTK Boxer AFV Walkaround DVD - AK Interactive

[Mike]

German GTK Boxer AFV Walkaround DVD

AK Interactive

The new GTK Boxer is the modern Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) for the German and Dutch armies, which has recently been kitted in 1:35 by Revell unsurprisingly. AK Interactive have added this to their new line of multi-media Walkaround DVDs that was launched recently to accompany their range of traditional paper-based walkaround books. The disc arrives in a standard DVD Jewel case in translucent plastic, with a full colour sleeve and a six page booklet that includes a three profiles of the Desert Camouflage, Prototype, and the Dutch Medical Prototype, plus three overall views of a German machine, one per page. The disc is a multi-media presentation of a highly detailed walkaround of the vehicle taken in high resolution at a native resolution of 3000 x 1993 pixels for each photo - approximately 6 megapixels.

Photo deliberately low-resolution to protect copyright

There are two methods for viewing the content using the provided menu system, which are both available in each menu as you drill-down through the sections of the vehicle to the required area. You can view a slideshow of each area that cycles through all of the pictures, or you can choose the gallery view, which presents you with pages of thumbnails to quickly select a particular picture.

Some sections deal with the AGDUS training simulator vehicles, while others cover the FLW Remote Weapons Station equipped vehicles. These acronyms could have been better explained, but if you've just read the preceding sentences, you now know. The same can be said of the A0 and A1 variants, although it's fairly intuitive that these refer to the initial production vehicles (A0) from 2009, and the upgraded A1 variant from 2011 onwards that has upgraded armour to cope better with IEDs, and a raised weapons platform to give a better field of fire close in to the vehicle.

The main menu is as follows:

• Turret > FLW, AGDUS
  
• Crew
  
• Engine
  
• External > A0, A1
  
• Interior Crew > A0, A1
  
• Interior Driver > A0, A1
  
• Suspension

As mentioned earlier, each sub-menu has the option of running as a presentation or a gallery. I'm not 100% convinced of the usefulness of the presentation, but there it is. Perhaps as general inspiration during building? The gallery pictures pop up to full screen when you click on the thumbnail, the resolution of which is limited to your screen size, and once there you must go back via your player's Title Menu command as there is no easily clickable (on a computer) back button to take you to the thumbnails again. Even a full HD screen doesn't permit the full resolution however, so if you want to look at the photos on a pixel-for-pixel level, you are going to have to go back to Explorer and find the pictures manually.

Photo deliberately low-resolution to protect copyright

The disc is laid out simply, having one folder VIDEO_TS containing the DVD content, and all of the photos in the root folder. The photo naming convention is sensible and includes the details of the section and variant in the format VARIANT_SECTION_NUMBER.jpg. Checking the thumbnails in the bottom of your Explorer window or switching up to Extra Large Icons in Windows 7 should make finding the pictures you want a lot easier. Each image rightfully has an AK logo and a copyright notice, reminding us all about the consequences of theft of intellectual property.

Conclusion

This is a very handy title, and I suspect that most computer users will use it as a data disc containing 646 high resolution photos. The DVD content is frippery for the most part if you're using it on a PC, but if you perhaps wanted to view it on your TV via a Blu-ray or DVD player, it does have some use. That's also a boon if you don't have a PC on your workbench, but do have a TV of some description.

The picture quality is first rate, and at full resolution it leaves you wanting for nothing. Everything is very clear and unsullied by deep shadows, and focusing is as crisp as you could want, although the EXIF data has been stripped out so we have no way of knowing the camera or lens used. If you have a Boxer kit and want to do it justice, it would be a great tool to assist in your goal. It even includes some photos of the typical crew, including their clothing, equipment and arms, which is handy for those of us that like to include figures in and around our models.

Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of