A short while ago Hobby Boss released a charming model of a rarity – the Hungarian 39M Csaba armored car, which clearly shares an ancestry similar to the French Panhard armored car of roughly the same vintage. Although Hobby Boss seems to have done well in the overall design of this kit, it is somewhat let down by the soft rubber tires, which fall below the quality of the rest of the model. Ironically, what detail is evident on the tires is soft and inaccurate, and even includes a misspelling!

The book explores the early development history of the British tanks from 1915 to 1939. To be honest I had never read known much about the early tank development, but this book really does provide all the knowledge you could want on the early tanks and their success and failures.

It is writing so everyone can grasp and understand the history and technical details of this important piece of the tanks creation.

It covers all the prototypes and concepts of the British Tank development including the main variations and their uses. The many pictures really add to the books ability to clearly show the primitive tanks as they evolved into practical working armored vehicles.

I cannot recommend this book enough I finished during one long flight. The booked helped me learn and understand the early years of the British Armor.

Thanks go to Osprey Publishing for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them

As the First World War progressed, it became clear that one important arm of many nation’s military, the horse mounted cavalry, were doomed to extinction. The era of trench warfare, with its use of barbed wire entanglements and the mass use of machineguns spelled disaster for unprotected men on live animals and who required unobstructed solid ground to be effective. Cavalry required speed and mobility to gain maximum shock value.

The book, "M10/Achilles, A Visual History of the U.S. Army’s WWII Tank Destroyer" by David Doyle, starts with a short introduction that details the start of US Army WW II Tank Destroyer strategy and then a brief history from the early war period thru the end of the war.

The book is divided into 2 sections, the M10 and the Achilles.

Each section has both black and white photos from the war years, and color photos from the surviving museum examples. Most of the photos are well done and in good focus. Some of the wartime photos are little grainy, but give a good idea of the M10/Achilles in action.

The color photos are a mix of wide shots and detail close-ups. These close-ups are very well done and will help the modeler get the details done accurately.

The captions on the photos explain what you are seeing and give additional details about the subject.

The Introduction is appropriately named ‘The Legacy of Shep Paine’ written by Jim DeRogatis. These four pages offer a wonderful view into the late Sheperd Paine’s life’s work and modeling history. Many of us older modelers first became aware of Sheperd’s work through his tip sheets that came with select Monogram kits of the 1970's then later with Tamiya kits during the 1980's. Shep was also an avid military historian and collector of military artifacts.

The book's contents are divided into two sections, 'The ‘Basics’ by Sheperd Paine and ‘Projects’ featuring eight projects by different modelers. The ‘Basics’ covers all the bases from the fundamentals in chapter one of ‘Assembling Armor Kits’ including a helpful ‘Parts of a Tank’ tutorial.

Researching the subject, its uses, its environments are explained by Shep in ‘Doing Research’ chapter two. Shep also addresses working with scale drawings and evaluating conflicting references.