Andrew Birkbeck
Reviews By Author
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German and Russian Tank Models 1939-45Published:
The author of this tome, Mario Eens, is well known to those on the international modeling scene as an award winner at European model shows, together with being a regular contributor to the excellent French modeling magazine, Steelmasters. The book itself consists of a master class in building, painting and finishing scale models, divided into five chapters, and spanning 128 pages measuring 8” x 10”. Despite the title stating the contests are about tank models, one of the five subjects is a figure. I also find the subject choices rather scattered in nature. The German subjects didn’t see action in Russia, which I thought might have been the theme of the book just looking at the title, and the subjects are a mixed bag when it comes to scales. Three of the five chapters cover 1/35… more |
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Challenger 2Published:
Kagero Publishing is one of the world’s preeminent publishers of military vehicle and aircraft books aimed at the modeling community. The book under review is from their Photosniper series, and the author, Dick Taylor, is a leading author on British military vehicles. The book is 88 pages in length, with a card cover. The pages measure 8.3” by 11.7”, on glossy paper. All the photos within its covers are color, with good production values. There are also three pages of color profiles, covering 6 different vehicles. The book is divided into four chapters, starting with Chapter 1: Design & Development. This describes the tortured development of the Challenger 2, resulting from a failure of Britain’s previous Main Battle Tank, the Chieftain, to effectively meet the requirements… more |
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Legends of Warfare: Stuart Tank, Vol. 2 The M5, M5A1, and Howitzer Motor Carriage M8 Versions in World War IIPublished:
David Doyle is one of the most prolific US writers of books on military subjects, and over the years has penned literally dozens of excellent titles on military aircraft, ships and armored vehicles. One of his most recent is this book on the Stuart Light Tank of WW2 fame. The book is 112 pages in length, and is printed on high quality glossy paper, the pages measuring 9” x 9”. As the title suggests, the book is divided into main sections on three variants of the Stuart. The Light Tank M3 Stuart had been powered by a radial aircraft engine, but as the US ramped up production of tanks AND military aircraft, efforts were made to find alternative power plants so that the radial aircraft engines could be reserved for actual aircraft. Thus was born the Light Tank M5 Stuart, which retained… more |
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Panzer III On The Battlefield 2Published:
If you are a student of WW2 German armored vehicles, or enjoy modeling subjects such as the German Panzer III and Panzer IV, then the name Tom Cockle should be very familiar to you. Mr. Cockle is a prolific author on such subjects, and has written or co-written books for Osprey Publishing, Concord Publications, Squadron Signal Publications as well as European publisher Peko Publishing. Mr. Cockle is also a frequent commentator on such matters on military vehicle model websites such as Missing-lynx.com. The book under discussion today is the 18thvolume in this wonderful series by Peko Publishing. I have 8 of the titles in the series so far, and plan on picking up others as my reference budget allows. Volume 18 follows the tried and tested format of the previous titles. The… more |
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The Complete Guide to German Armored VehiclesPublished:
Given the massive interest surrounding the Nazi armed forces during World War 2, it isn’t surprising that publishers want to produce books that cover the entirety of the military vehicles used by the Germans, in one volume, at an affordable price. And for a reader interested in this topic, it might be very useful to have a handy guide to said vehicles all in one volume. Over the years, there have been a number of such tomes published. I myself have one from 1969 titled “German Tanks of World War II: The Complete Illustrated History of German Armored Fighting Vehicles 1926-1945” edited by Peter Chamberlain and Chris Ellis. However, to do it right, is surely a daunting challenge to any author? And what, exactly, is “doing it right”? From my perspective, doing it right would… more |
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The Japanese Destroyer ShimakazePublished:
Kagero Publishing of Poland has two lines of books that include titles with a nautical bent and aimed at scale modelers: Super Drawings in 3D and Top Drawings. The former covers a ship in great detail via the use of color 3D renderings, while the latter covers a ship in great detail via black and white line drawings. The books are sized differently, with the 3D books numbering 80 to 90 A4 sized pages, while the Top Drawings books number 20 to 30 A4 sized pages. Prices reflect the size and content differences, with the 3D books priced $28.95 to $36.95, and the smaller Top Drawings books priced $19.95 to $24.95. Kagero cover the IJN destroyer Shimakaze under both titles, and it is the Top Drawings book that we are reviewing today. Shimakaze was… more |
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German Tank Destroyer Sd.Kfz. 173 "Jagdpanther Ausf. G1"Published:
BackgroundOf late there has been a plethora of new WW2 German Panther tank kits in 1/35th scale from multiple manufacturers, and where there are Panther kits, there almost certainly will soon be subvariants of the Panther. Sure enough, having recently released kits of the Panther Ausf A and Ausf D, together with a Bergepanther Ausf A, Meng has added to their Panther pride with a Jagdpanther Ausf G1. The Jagdpanther was a devastatingly effective attempt to mount a more powerful 88mm anti-tank gun to the Panther tank chassis, as such a gun was too large to put into the turret of a Panther. Also, producing tracked mobile anti-tank vehicles without the complexity for the need of rotating turrets made such vehicles cheaper to produce both in terms of financial cost, and… more |
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The Battleship Bismarck (Anatomy of the Ship)Published:
“Sink the Bismarck” was the very first war movie I ever saw as a young lad, with my Scottish Father telling me it involved “the greatest naval engagement undertaken by the Royal Navy in the Second World War”. The Bismarck, one of two Bismarck-class battleships laid down by Nazi Germany’s Kriegsmarine prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, was fast and extremely powerful, armaments wise. She had a very short career, undertaking only one offensive operation, in May 1941, codenamed Rheinübung. Together with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, Bismarck sailed into the Atlantic on a mission to block shipping carrying… more |
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T-34-85 After WW2 - Camouflage & Markings 1946 - 2016Published:
The T-34 series of tanks together with the M4 Sherman series are THE most important tanks of the Second World War from the Allied point of view. The Panther tank, perhaps the most influential tank of WW2 from the German perspective was a direct result of German forces running smack bang into the T-34/76 on the Eastern Front, and the demand for German industry to provide a counter to it. In turn the T-34 needed to be upgraded once the Germans introduced more thickly armored tanks such as the Panther and the Tiger, and thus was born the T-34/85, an upgrading of the T-34 series from its original 76mm main gun, to a more lethal 85mm gun. Production of the T-34/85 continued post war in the Soviet Union for a short time, and then for much longer periods licensed production took place… more |
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The History of the PanzerjagerPublished:
According to Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law describes the action of warfare as well, and so when the Allies introduced the revolutionary “tank” onto the battlefields of Western Europe in 1916, the opposing German forces quickly attempted to blunt the tank with the introduction of anti-tank weapons together with dedicated anti-tank units, known as Panzerjagertruppe. During the Second World War the anti-tank units were known as Panzerjager, or “Tank Hunters”, a separate arm of the Wehrmacht dedicated to the destruction of enemy tank forces. These troops utilized a wide variety of weapons, from man portable items such as anti-tank rifles, to towed artillery pieces such as the 3.7cm PaK and 8.8cm Flak 18, and self… more |