Warpaint volume 3: British Army Vehicles 1903-2003
Author: Dick Taylor
Publisher Mushroom Model Publications
Price £19.99
Reviewer: Scott Van Aken
Notes: 4109 in the green series, 168 pages
ISBN 978-83-61421-23-8

Continuing with their larger books in the 'green' series, this one is on a subject about which I have seen very little written. As the title suggests, it is on the colors and markings of British Army vehicles from the turn of the 20th century to the Iraq invasion of 2003.

This is the third volume in the series that covers  from the end of WWII until 2003. I somehow missed volume 2 on WWII, but it is out there as is an upcoming fourth volume.

The book  opens with the camouflage changing from WWII OD to the British Bronze Green scheme. It then goes on to the black and green scheme and from there takes off into what are a myriad of special and localized schemes. This include the urban scheme, Iraq scheme, Cyprus scheme, desert scheme and UN scheme just to name a few. Each of these sections is illustrated with examples and towards the end of the schemes section there are a number of color profiles that help show what these looked like.

However, this is only the first major section of the book. The rest of it is chock full of information and color images of the various arm of service markings that were carried on vehicles from the earliest days to the present. Each is segregated into period to help make things much easier to understand. This includes corps and division and brigade markings and looks to me to be superbly researched. These markings have been reproduced in color with an explanation, where known, of just what the various markings mean.

It all makes into an outstanding reference book for those wanting to make some sense out of British Army markings, and an interesting read to boot. A book that needs to be on the shelves of any serious military modeler.

August 2011

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