Those of you familiar with Andrea know that they are into figures in a big way. Not only do they produce quality figures in a variety of scales, but they have expanded into all aspects of the hobby from paints to airbrushes to books. This is not their first book and while they do not do a lot of them, when they do, it is superb. I've reviewed a couple of them over the years and found them to be superbly done.

This book is no exception and concentrates on a specific kit;  that of German attempts to gain access to one of the first British tanks during the Somme campaign of 1916. There is no indication of who makes the kit other than comments that it is a multimedia kit which is basically resin with photo etch and metal parts.

Though the book has seven chapters which include cleaning the kit bits and the airbrush, it falls into three major sections. These are the tank itself, the base, and finally the figures.

As you would expect, there are a ton of crisply done photographs covering every aspect of the build from painting to weathering. Many of these parts include step by step instructions and photos showing one going from the primed item to the finished product. These sorts of things are what make these books so informative as the reader can not only read about the steps, but see them as they progress. This is particularly true of the figures where the paint mixtures of every part of each separate figure are given (using Andrea paints, of course). In fact, nearly half the book covers figure painting.

In all, it makes for an excellent how-to book covering a time in history that is usually not the subject of books like these. It is both interesting and informative and one I know you will be glad you picked up.

October 2014

Review book courtesy of the fine folks at Casemate Publishing. Visit them for more books.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.