Review by Terry Ashley

The book is written entirely from a modeller’s viewpoint with the text in French and English with plenty of detailed photos.

A brief rundown on the different WC series vehicles is given which lists the kits available for that version as well as conversion and accessory sets available. The lists includes the early out of production kits from MAX and Airfix plus their reincarnation as Italeri and Bilek kits but as you would imagine concentrates on the superb Skybow WC kits now thankfully being re-issued by AFV Club.

A feature of the book is the combination of detailed photos of the real vehicle alongside of the models under construction showing the inclusion of the details from the photos, just the thing for modellers.

The “Dodge in Detail” section covers the main details applicable to all versions such as chassis, hood/nose and body plus four detailed close-up shots of the Braden winch fitted to the front of some versions.

Following this is a section devoted to each vehicle covered and as mentioned has a superb mixture of real vehicle detail photos and model construction photos with detailed text explaining what’s going on, each section also has a brief description of the vehicle being modelled.

The WC-51 is built using the Skybow kit with many detail additions plus an in-depth description of making a canvas cargo bay cover from Milliput putty although mention is made of the cover available from Warriors if you prefer. The methods and final result using the Milliput method does produce a nice looking cover with individual details.

The WC-53 Carryall is based on a combination to the Italeri and Skybow kits with the ADV/Azimut resin conversion for the rear body and again the photos are superb showing many details of the real vehicle, especially the interior as well as the model under construction.

The WC-54 Ambulance is next and uses a combination of the Italeri/Bilek and Skybow WC-51 kits with again good interior shots of the real thing to compliment the construction photos (yes I know this is getting repetitive, by it’s all good stuff).

The WC-57 Command car uses the Skybow kit with many additional small details to improve what is already an excellent kit.

The WC-62 again uses the excellent Skybow kit as a basis with the detailed real vehicle and model photos detailing the building process.

The final model is of the late war WC-64 KD which has a square wood and sheet metal rear body for ease of manufacture and shipment. The KD was based on the lengthened WC-51 chassis used for the M6 37mm gun vehicle.
The conversion is made easy by the inclusion of 1/35th template drawings for the rear body parts which will allow you to easily cut these from plastic card. There is of course a fair bit of work required but with all the panels being flat it should be within the capabilities of the average modeller and the end result will look a lot different form the usual WC vehicles.

The centre 8 pages have colour photos of the finished models plus a general painting guide to further aid the building process.

In all this is a superb modeller’s book on the Dodge WC series and will prove invaluable if you plan to build any of the kits featured in the book.

Highly recommended.

Page created 13 September 2003