From Wikipedia: The A7V was a heavy tank introduced by Germany in 1918 during World War I. One hundred chassis were ordered in early 1917, ten to be finished as fighting vehicles with armored bodies, and the remainder as Überlandwagen cargo carriers. The number to be armored was later increased to 20. They were used in action from March to October 1918, and were the only tanks produced by Germany in World War I to be used in combat.

Following the appearance of the first British tanks on the Western Front, in September 1916, the German War Ministry formed a committee, under the auspices of its Allgemeines Kriegsdepartement, Abteilung 7 Verkehrswesen ("General War Department, Section 7, Transportation"), to investigate tank development.

The Panzerkampfwagen IV (appropriately truncated to Pz.Kpfw. IV, Sonderkraftfarhrzeug 161, Sd.Kfz 161, or even better, the Panzer IV) was developed in 1937 with the Panzer IV Ausfuhrung (ausf) A, and was the most numerous produced tank in the German Army and Waffen SS in World War II. The Panzer IV had the ability to be upgunned and uparmored, allowing it to serve on equal terms with American and British tanks through the German surrender with the Panzer IV ausf J. After the war, Panzers continued to soldier on through at least the 1967 Six Day War, but that is a story for another review.

The book was originally printed in German and published by Vaerlagshaus Wurzburg GmbH & Co. in 1977. There was a revised edition in 2009 and this new edition published, and I suspect translated by Greenhill Books. The book is divided into 10 chapters and starting with the formation of the unit in 1940 and it ends with their last battle in South-Eastern Front in 1944-45.

I was impressed by the numerous photos in the book. You will find candid shots, action shots as well as the different equipment used by the unit. The book is basically a unit story and takes you through the many battles in which the unit was involved from its formation to its end. It will, also introduce you to some of their personnel and awards.

The book reads like a “unit story” and that is what its basically is; throughout the book you are introduced to the unit challenges during the battle and the outcome of those battles and many of the members of the unit.

OKB Grigorov specializes in resin, photoetch and turned metal barrel conversions for armor. One of their latest releases is the tracks for the Russian T-34 mod.1940 third variant.

This aftermarket set includes parts in grey resin. As you can see from the pictures, the casting of the parts is pretty good, without any bubbles in the resin and small attachment points.

This set provides you with 4 sections of track and the pictures show the fantastic level of detail of the tracks, both inside and outside sides.

The sections of track are cast flat, so you would have to gently bend them to shape, using the wheels from the kit to get the proper curvature radius. The resin is very thin, so this should be relatively easy. I would suggest to dip the tracks in hot water before bending them around the wheels and dipping them in cold water afterwards to “set” the curvature in.

Introduction

An Austro-Hungarian engineer, Günther Burstyn, designed a "land-ship" vehicle in 1911, which was tailored to cross trenches, provide infantry support and crush barbed wire entanglements. This was the Burstyn Motorgeschütz. It was relatively small, with a revolving turret and potentially armed with a light 37 or 47 mm gun, and a crew of two. The unique aspect of this experimental design was the articulated arms that could be deployed to assist in trench crossing, and "push down" barbed wire. These arms were lowered to help cross trenches, angled to push down wire entanglements, and up for normal terrain . Burstyn received a patent and built models and a wooden mock-up; but the design went no further. He proved to be a visionary. His design anticipated trench warfare years before WW1 and included the basic layout of a tank.