First Look.

Printed on glossy high quality paper and in A4 softback landscape  format, it has 92 pages.

The 100 black and white photographs are of museum quality along with the 5 sets of 1/35-scale plans. It also contains 3 colour photographs and 25 sketches highlighting close up details. The centre pages are full of 21-coloured artwork; all side view and the quality is stunning. The book is bilingual and has sections on the history of each of the  following types or marks:

Sdkfz 139, Sdkfz 138, Sdkfz 138/1,Sdkfz 138M,Sdkfz 138/1M, Sdkfz 140 = and Sdkfz 140/1.

Each section gives the full history and production batch numbers of  hulls. It has a full table of all known hull numbers with date's produced and ultimate fate if known. The plans are of the following vehicles and are split into the  following:

Sdkfz 139, side view only of Sdkfz 138, side and plan of Sdkfz 138m, Sdkfz 140 full plans, side only of Sdkfz 138/1M, 138/1, 140/1.

The draughtsmanship is truly outstanding and of the highest  quality. The concluding sections deal with the surviving vehicles and location and in some case's photographs of them now. A small section deals with the combat utilisation of the vehicles. History of the Marder in the Slovak Army, Self-propelled guns, antiaircraft and reconnaissance tanks in combat. Camouflage of the tanks themselves and lastly the technical description of the Pzkpfw 38 (t). All these sections are backed up with a very careful selection of action and factory photographs.

Two photographs stands out on page 29, here is the full interior of the Grill, all the questions answered in those two photographs. They are worth the price of the book alone.

To sum up, the authors are to be congratulated on a work of outstanding quality and clarity. The selection of photographs and quality of printing puts many western publishers to shame. Good things come in small packages; well this is one such small but well researched and written book. It will stand the test of time as setting the standard for others to follow.

If you need to know the details of the smallest item on any of the vehicles listed above, then this is the book for you. I list this under the must have for model makers who build German models and it will turn ordinary models into show stoppers and winners.

I recommend this book very highly and it deserves a well-earned place on all model makers reference selves, it will be truly well used. Go out and buy your copy now to avoid disappointment.

Ian Sadler

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