The book Ferdinand/Elefant: Detail In Action by David Doyle is a nice addition to the library of any German armor modeler. It is packed with 80 pages of drawings, photos, and information on the Ferdinand and Elefant tank destroyers. This book also contains a small part in the front covering the Porsche Tiger, which was the predecessor of the Ferdinand/Elefant. In fact, Ferdinand Porsche designed the suspension of these three behemoths.

My favorite part of these In Action books is always looking at the pictures of the actual vehicles during the war. From these photos you can get a sense of how used these tanks were, and how the paint schemes look as compared to the museum specimens. I enjoyed looking at the photos of these giant monsters. An interesting comparison is the photos of the damaged Ferdinand #501 as seen during its capture and, later, in modern times at the museum.

There are a lot of great pictures and information in the book which will give you an insight into the making of these tank destroyers. The book also contains photos of museum pieces from the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia and the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum.

I enjoyed reading the part about the Elefant in the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum. If you look at the pictures of the captured Elefant, you will notice that the U.S. Army has no interest in painting authenticity, and this example should not be used by model builders for the paint job. I laughed when I realized that we actually hold ourselves to a much higher standard when recreating history with our models than many museums do.

All in all, this is a very nice book on the Ferdinand and Elefant. I recommend it to anyone who has one of these kits sitting at home, or even if you like German World War II armor.

I would like to thank Squadron/MMD and IPMS/USA for the review sample.