This latest addition to the Ampersand Group's Visual History Series contains a wealth of information not only for the historical buff but, to the serious modeler whose dedication for detail will provide immense resource. David Doyle and Ampersand Group, Inc. have provided the serious modeler a welcomed addition to his library.

At first glance one sees a clear, detailed, color cover page depicting the crew of a M48A3 at Fire Base Bastogne in Viet Nam on 16 April 1968. The back cover shows an image of a damaged M48A3 at the 218th Collection, Classification, and Salvage Company at Long Binh 14 June 1967. The book is broken down into various sections including;

The Introduction consisting of the first 13 pages giving a brief history of the M48 Patton series of medium tanks from the inception and development, to upgrades and modifications.

The M4 series of tanks, popularly known as the Sherman tank, was the most important U.S. medium tank of the Second World War. It fought on every front, from the steamy jungles of the Pacific campaigns, to the dusty baking hot desert environs of North Africa, to the freezing snowy conditions of the Russian front winters. The culmination of the design, at least during WW2, was the M4A3E8 variant, known by the troops as the “Easy 8”. This variant first saw combat in Western Europe in December 1944.

This is a multimedia kit comprised of 470+ styrene parts on 24 sprues, DS tracks, one photo etched fret, decals and the set of instructions that need to be reviewed very carefully before gluing any parts together. The DS tracks were packed well enough to not be misshaped with the guide horns flattened as it has been noted in the past.

Most Dragon models today are a collection of old sprues and new sprues added to create a new kit variant. In this case, Dragon has done so and you will have some sprues with the same letter but are called out by the color and sprue letters in upper and lower case.

There are not many options for you to choose between and none require you to do so before you start. You can pick as you go along.

For any of us that frequent the many scale modeling shows and contests, follow the abundant online forums, blogs, and websites, as well as read any of the numerous modeling technique publications it is very evident that WWII German armor is a niche that alive and well…and kit manufacturers and aftermarket producers are keeping this hunger well fed. A perfect complement to this appetite is a book brought to us from Osprey, “History of the Panzerwaffe Volume I: 1939-1942.” This book is extremely helpful for students of this genre (myself included) to understand the story behind the most recognized armored force in history.

Was the Soviet T-34 the most important tank of the Second World War? It certainly was produced in the largest numbers, 57,000 between 1941 and 1945, more even than the ubiquitous M4 Sherman series. And it was undoubtedly superior to the Sherman in many areas, including armor protection and main armament. And without doubt the most massive and arguably most important armored battles of WW2 took place on the Eastern Front, where the T-34 dominated Soviet tank strength numbers. Did in fact the T-34 “win the war” for the Allies, responsible as it was for inflicting massive damage to more Axis divisions than any other Allied military vehicle? Whatever your answer to this question it is undoubtedly true that the T-34 was an extremely important cog in the Soviet military machine that crushed the Germans and their allies on the Eastern Front.