French
Light Tank Review by Terry Ashley
The 204mm x 290mm book with laminated card covers has 72 pages packed with colour photos of two preserved vehicles, one the French FT and the other the U.S. M1917 as well as B&W period action photos plus 1:35 and 1:48 scale plans of the FT and M1917. The photo text is kept to a minimum with just a brief introduction giving a history of the preserved vehicle featured in the photo walk around and the photo captions to explain the images with most of the space devoted to the excellent detail photos.
The first 26 pages has a detailed close-up walk around of the French Renault FT with every aspect of the exterior covered and as it is only a very small vehicle many of the components such as the suspension, engine deck, rear trench skid and the turret plus other details are shown in great detail. There are also four pages of interior shots showing the basic driver's controls and lower hull details.
The next 20 pages deal with the U.S. M1917 and again every aspect of the exterior is covered in a series of extreme close-up shots of the hull, running gear/suspension and turret with many of the photos dealing with a single component and illustrate nicely the many detail differences between the FT and M1917 such as the turrets, rear trench skids and other details. There are two pages of engine compartment shots showing the engine and fittings as well as the radiator that can be seen with the engine covers removed.
Another five pages have interior shots of the fighting compartment and turret showing some nice details for what was a fairly spartan interior in any case.
The final 20 pages have a brief history of the FT development followed by numerous action photos of the French and U.S. tanks during WWI that gives a good impression of the small size as well as markings and weathering seen on the vehicles plus the 1:48 and 1:35 four view plans of both the FT and M1917 tanks.
Conclusion:
This is another superb book in the Armor Photogallery series
that covers virtually every detail of the two types and apart from a detailed
technical description leaves very little wanting in the detail stakes.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to Wojciech from Model Centrum for the review copy.
Page created November 13, 2006