PMMS

bookLECLERC - The French "Ground Dominance" MBT

Stefan Marx.

Tankograd French Special No 8001
Soft cover, A4 size, 64 pages

Review by Peter Brown


Very timely in view of the recent release of Tamiya’s Leclerc is the first in what is a new series from Tankograd. As well as the usual German and English texts, this not unsurprisingly has a French translation as well. It is to the same format and high standard as other Tankograd books, with lots of clear photos with informative captions and background text.

The text describes the development of Leclerc, then gives a brief photo study of Series 1 tanks, a longer section on the Series 2 including photos of it on transporters and having an engine change plus a chapter with closeup detail photos of the Series 2 with shots of the fuel drums being loaded on and the engine. Then come shorter sections on the tank in Kosovo in French service, the export version for the United Arab Emirates showing it on display and in Kosovo in European-style camouflage, one page on the Series 3 and two pages on the MARS recovery vehicle which is the gun tank without main gun.

Variants are also covered, the Depannage Nouvelle Generation armoured recovery vehicle including walk-around closeups, the Bison E-Force support vehicle based on it with mine-plough which would be a modelling dream (or nightmare) and the dedicated Engineer Vehicle with articulated arm. Bringing the coverage to a close is a short section on planned bridgelayers.

All in all good coverage, the differences between Series and production batches are covered though the export version is not shown in enough detail to allow a conversion to be done there are still several great photos. For anyone modelling the Leclerc there is lots of detail and ideas for colours and markings as well as some diorama ideas. There is very little on the interior but more than enough of the outside for most people.

Well recommended, this is available from Tankograd distributors, for more details contact the publishers Verlag Jochen Vollert on jochenvollert@tankograd.com My thanks to Justin Gainham at Bookworld for the review copy.



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