Toadman's Tank Picture CDs
A34 Comet
Walkaround CD #14
Review by Terry Ashley

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Chris “Toadman” Hughes's web site (www.toadmanstankpictures.com) with some excellent walk around photo series on various vehicles which is well worth a look for anyone wanted detailed vehicle photos and he has also released a series of photo CDs which contain many more detailed images from those on the site of which we will look at here.

This CD on the A34 Comet will be just the thing for those after references for the just released Bronco Models kit of the Comet (kit #CB35010) or the Accurate Armour resin kit.

The CD contains 262 large format .jpg images (1500 x 1000 pixels) of an A34 Comet from the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation(MVTF), Portola Valley, California and covers virtually every aspect of the vehicle with excellent close up shots of the exterior of the hull including the undersides, the suspension and turret with additional images of the hull and turret interiors for a comprehensive coverage.

The photos are broken down into sub categories on the CD menus for the hull exterior, turret, suspension and hull and turret interiors so you go directly to the section you want making finding the image you want easier.

The Comet featured in the photos is mostly complete except for rear view mirrors and also has the early type Type A exhausts and not the later Type B "fishtails" of the Bovington Tank Museum vehicle and has the later style ribbed idler wheels.

Also included on the CD is a brief history of the vehicle and a listing of additional printed reference books for added reference, but additional information has been made thanks to Peter Brown which should also be included on future Comet CDs

Notes on the Comet by Peter Brown:
Comets stationed in Hong Kong and West Germany were British owned and crewed with the tanks taken to Hong Kong in 1949 and disposed of in 1957 - some may have been sold in Hong Kong but they did not have any armed forces so could only go for scrap - while Comets in British Army of the Rhine in the early years with a special unit for the defence of Berlin, 1st Independent Tank Squadron RTR which was formed in 1952 and disbanded in 1957.

The sample images here are reduced in size considerably from those on the CD to give and indication of the details included in the images.

The CDs have an auto run feature when used on a Windows based PC but MAC users will need to manually run the Title.htm file to get things going and the images are presented on a web based interface in your browser so the feel is just like looking at a regular web page with menus to navigate through the pages and images, all quite easy really. You can also use any other image thumbnail program to view the images if this is preferable and of course they can be printed for easier reference as desired.

Another excellent photo collection this time on the Comet with large clear images to show the details well with an easy interface to browse the images and will be very useful reference sources.

Highly recommended

See Toadman’s web page for details of additional Photo CDs available as well as the on site walkarounds.
Thanks to Chris “Toadman” Hughes for the review CD.