56 pages, full colour, soft cover

Review by Terry Ashley

The book actually features the Ausf.D up-gunned with the 75mm KwK 40 L/43 used with the Ausf.F/G and also has had most of the running gear upgraded to later types such as the drive sprocket, idler wheel and wheel hubs as well as gun and turret details. Most of the hull details are for the standard Ausf.D but have some features of the later Ausf.D with added hull armour and later style rear smoke dischargers.

The soft cover book has 56 pages entirely in colour except for the two pages with four view 1:35 plans of the up-gunned vehicle as well as of the standard Ausf.D and there are brief text notes on the vehicle in general as well as for each sub-section that highlight some of the features shown in the photos.

The book is broken into sub-sections dealing with a specific part of the vehicle and has a small vehicle plan “key” at the top with the section being covered indicated so you know what part you are looking at.

The photos are all extreme close-up shots of the exterior and interior with the only overall shots of the vehicle being on the front and back covers of the book.

The details shown in the photos are superb with items such as the hull and turret hatches having shots of the inside and outside to give an overall view of the details as well as shots of the added hull armour taken from the sides and at angles showing the mountings to good advantage.

The hull and turret interior are also covered in the same close-up detail although the interior is not in the best condition the photos still show some useful details for the modeller.

The book as well as the photos has been prepared with the modeller in mind with additional notes added specifically for modellers and the close-up shots are just the thing modellers wishing to super detail their kits are always after.

Conclusion:
This is a superb photo book on the Ausf.D but as mentioned some of the vehicle features have been updated and you will need to be aware of these when using the photos for reference on the standard early or later Ausf.D but the 1:35 plans help identify the updated features.

This type of photo reference is very useful when detailed the latest generation kits of the Panzer IV Ausf.D from Dragon or Tristar as well as old museum piece from Tamiya and it will be interesting to see if future volumes target available kits.

Highly recommended

Sample pages

See the Model Art Website for additional details
Thanks to Model Art for the review book.

Page created April 24, 2006