Number 20 in Osprey's successful 'Modelling the' series is on the T-55 Main Battle Tank. The book follows a standard format with introduction, build articles, gallery and appendices.

The introduction has a very brief background on the T-55 itself and covers several available kits. This is followed by a short section on tools and materials that are used during the construction of the models in the rest of the book.

There are four full build articles; three in 1/35 and one in 1/72. Like many of these books it is 'Tamiya-centric', in this case to the exclusion of all other 1/35 kits of this tank. I realize that these folks want to use the latest and greatest when doing these vehicles, but there are other 1/35 T-55 kits out there and perhaps it wouldn't be such a horrible thing to use one of these from time to time. Anyway, none of the builds is straight from the box and all are assigned a level of difficulty depending on how much things were modified.

The builds are:

1. Czech T-55 AM2B (Intermediate)

2. Knocked out Iraqi Type 69-II (advanced)

3. T-55, Northern Alliance, Afghanistan (master) This is 1/72 scale

4. Bosnian T-55/M18 Hellcat hybrid (master)

All of these articles are very well illustrated and go into a great deal of depth as to how various additions and modifications are done. In fact, I'd say this is one of the better books in the series in this regard as often you'll have a "I did so and so" without any images of the process. This is not the case with this book, making it very useful.

The build articles are followed by a gallery of images of other 1/35 Tamiya models.

In the final sections, the authors provide a listing of available kits and accessories as well as references used. Interestingly, no listing of museums where these tanks are to be found, though I can imagine that there are quite a few of them since the tank is so recent.

Overall, this is really a fine addition to the series and is a book you should actively seek.

December 2005

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