Toadman's
90mm Gun Tank M47 Patton
Photo Detail CD
Walkaround CD#18
Review by Terry Ashley
This latest photo CD from Chris “Toadman” Hughes (web site www.toadmanstankpictures.com) follows the same formula as previous CDs with a series of excellent walk around photos of the 90mm Gun Tank M47 Patton taken at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, Portola Valley, CA, 1st Cavalry and 4th Infantry Division Museums at Ft. Hood, Texas, and the George S. Patton Memorial Museum at Chiriaco Summit, CA.
The CD contains 318 large format .jpg images (mostly 2240 x 1488 pixels) with the photos broken down into sub menus with the introduction followed by sections for Profiles, Turret exterior, Hull exterior, Suspension, Turret interior and the Driver's compartment. These allow you to go directly to a particular section and while there are no actual thumbnails each section has a list of image titles making finding the image you want fairly easy.
The Profile section has a series of general shots taken from around the vehicle for good overall views as well as putting the following extreme close-up shots in perspective.
The turret exterior has every conceivable detail with details of the turret casting that shows the surface cast texture, the various casting numbers and welds as well as extreme close-ups of the side mounted binocular sights and the main Commander's sight and Loader's periscope. Other details include the cupola and hatches shown inside and out as well as the .50cal MG mountings. aerials and tie down loops and grab handles on the turret sides for a very detailed coverage.
Next is the hull exterior which again has excellent close-up shots of every detail from the front lights, hull machine gun mounting and lifting hooks along the fenders showing the storage boxes and the exhausts which have shots taken from various angles to better show the details. On the top are numerous shots of the front crew hatches inside and out plus many shots of the engine deck showing the louvred engine access doors again from different angles for good perspective. The rear plate shots show the distinctive three large circular access ports as well as the tail lights, lifting hooks and towing pintle for another good all around photo coverage.
The section on the suspension has detailed shots of the drive sprockets, road wheels, return rollers and idlers as well as the hull mounted shock absorbers and axles arms with shots taken from underneath and between the components to show detail not usually seen. The tracks again have shots from various angles and there are also a few shots of the axle stubs without the wheel which give nice details of the hub bolts.
For the turret interior there are shots taken panoramic style around the walls with close-ups of the gun breech and associated gun controls, sights and mountings to the crew seats, ammo racks and lower turret basket for an extremely detailed look at the interior.
This is followed by an equally detailed coverage of the driver's station with shots of the driver's controls, seat and instruments as well as shots of the lower hull escape hatch to show just about every detail possible.
give and indication of the details included in the images.
Technical Stuff:
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.
Conclusion:
Another excellent photo CD from Toadman's Tank Pictures providing superb close-up details
of the M47 that includes every part of the vehicle other than the engine for a wealth of detailed information invaluable to modeller's.
Highly recommended 8/10
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.