Book Review: Bren Gun Carrier, Robert Jackson

Fantastic! I'm a little surprised at how I've grown to love, or perhaps rather become fascinated by the 'umble Universal Carrier. I can't deny that seeing YouTuber Lindybiege choose it as his second favourite tank (!?)* has been an influence. Prior to that I'd always rather cocked a snook at this little vehicle.

2/7th Middlesex Regt, Anzio, 21 February 1944. [1]

In this, the third of the Land Craft series from Pen & Sword, Robert Jackson elucidates the history in brief of this funny little runt of a vehicle. The story starts in WWI, with the fabulously Frenchified sounding British Major Giffard le Quesne Martel. I won't recapitulate what Jackson imparts very well here. But it's an interesting subject, covered in a brief but comprehensive and highly enjoyable way.

As well as black and white photos of old and current surviving examples, there are eight 3-D renderings and eight pages of colour profiles. The latter aren't the best of their type in the Land Craft/Tank Craft series, but they convey the necessary info. Within all this the book covers numerous variants. There are also the usual segments, Model Showcase and Model Products. Three of the four showcased models are 1/35, the fourth (presented first) is 1/72, my own favoured scale.

Timothy Neate's amazing 1/72 RA OP Mk II.

All four showcased builds are stunning examples of the modelmakers arts. I'm particularly in awe of Timothy Neate's splendid 1/72 Mk II Royal Artillery OP (observation post vehicle), a heavily modified IBG models kit. I've included an image of Neate's model above. I'll be getting/building some of these IBG kits as soon as the occasion presents itself. I may also try adapting some of the chunkier PSC kits as well.

There's quite a bit of useful info on model products in various scales as well. But the book as a whole returns to narrative text and images about the service history of these highly useful and adaptable vehicles, ending with a brief look at a selection of Contemporary Light Tracked Vehicles of the 'tankette' type, such as were based on or influenced by the UC, such as the Polish TK-3, the Russian T-37 and the Japanese Type 94.

A great view into the interior spaces of a UC.

For my money this is an example of this often very useful series at its tip-top best. Reading it and perusing the images is inspiring me to build some more of these interesting little vehicles (I recently built the re-issued Airfix 1/76 kit, with 6pdr gun), whilst simultaneously inspiring and informing on the subject. Highly recommended.

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* Okay, so it's not a tank and he knows it, nevertheless, the charmingly manic Lindybiege chooses the Universal Carrier as his #2 'tank' in his very entertaining 'Top 5 Tanks' video for The Tank Museum on YouTube. The whole thing is worth watching. But if you want to get to the Bren Gun Carrier segment, it's about 17 minutes in.

NOTES:

[1] Photo by Sgt. Dawson, No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit (source, IWM).

Book Review: M2/M3, ed. Robert Jackson (Land Craft, 2)

After the disappointments I mention in my review of the previous publication on the Jeep, it's great to be able to report that this, the second in the new Land Craft series, is back on track (boom-boom!). 

This iteration of these very useful publications follows the standard form - Design & Development, In Detail, Variants, Camouflage & Markings (aka 'colour profiles'), Model Showcase, Modelling Products, In Service & In Action - covering each aspect with a good balance of clarity and thoroughness. 

The archival and contemporary images are superbly chosen, conveying maximum info with great concision, and the colour profiles are excellent, and include front, back, side and plan elevations, for maximum coverage. The difference in quality between the rather poor illustrations of the Jeep in the previous title, and these - crisply detailed, terrifically coloured, and with nicely rendered shading/texturing - is very noticeable.

M3 mounting 75mm gun, Sicily, (1943?)

Whilst no 1/72 examples are included in the Model Showcase section - they're all 1/35, with the lone exception of one 1/16 example - they're much better covered in the Modelling Products segment, with mention made of PSC, the Italeri fast-build kits, Hasegawa and Academy kits. The old Airfix 1/76 is there as well. And they even cover the large range from Milicast, also in 1/76, a manufacturer I haven't seen mentioned in this section until now.

As is normal for me now, when I enjoy these books as much as I've enjoyed this one, I feel more than a little tempted to acquire a model or three and have a crack at building and detailing them, using the images herein as inspiration. Uh-oh... I can feel a trip to either the Ely model shop or Creative Models in Chatteris coming on!

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Thanks to the middle of the black and white photos on the cover, of an M3 ambulance, I fancy making up one kit as this vehicle, as well as some more typical variants. So I tried to find that very photo, but couldn't. I did however find the following:

Possibly taken at the same photo-shoot as the image I can't find?

An example in context.

A contemporary survivor.

Looks fab!

Book Review: T-34, Robert Jackson (Tank Craft series)

This is my second Tank Craft book. And I have to say that, so far, I really love them. Although I mostly make 1/72 German WWII models, I do have several T-34s, and a few other Russian vehicles. This book provides inspiration and information, in turn giving motivation, to finish those kits. 

As Tank Museum curator David Willey notes in his excellent 'Tank Chat' on the T-34, this vehicle has become an icon of Russia's Patriotic War, as a result becoming - as with many German Panzers - wrapped in layers of myth (check out the bizarre Russian film White Tiger, if you're in any doubt about this!). 

Author Robert Jackson gives what I believe is a balanced account of the facts as we know them: like many of the fabled German Panzers, Russia's T-34 had a bumpy genesis, and was beset by problems throughout its evolution. But, as this book's subtitle - 'Russia's Armoured Spearhed' - suggests, it was undoubtedly essential, as was the Sherman for the Western Allies, to eventual victory.

My current clutch of Russian WWII armour, all T-34s.

The first two chapters, Development and Design and The T-34 in Detail, address this historical situation with admirable concision and brevity, before chapters on Camouflage and Markings, Model Showcases, and Modelling Products address the modelmaking aspects. Into Service and Into Action and Enter the T-34/85 flesh out the campaigns of WWII on the Eastern Front, examining the performance of the t-34 and its variants in context, before the book concludes with a brief look at the postwar use of the T-34, in theatres from the Middle East to Asia and the Balkans. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this slim but info-rich and superbly illustrated book. I'm no expert on the T-34. But I feel I know it much better now. And this book has prompted me to order several more kits of both the 76 and 85 variants, which I look forward to making. The models in the showcase are all very well done. Most are 1/35. My only real gripe re this book (and the series as a whole, insofar as I'm getting to know it) is that I'd like to have seen at least one 1/72 build.

Richardson's exquisitely realised 1/16 T-34/76.

The most impressive model is Brian Richardson's 1/16 Trumpeter T-34/76, which has been completed to a stunning level of realism, with an amazing paint job topped off with terrific weathering. 

At £15 a pop (RRP being £14.99 at the time I'm posting my review) these slim Tank Craft titles are reasonably dear. But I think they nonetheless represent decent VFM (value for moolah), as they combine a lot of useful info with copiously rich visual reference. The colour profiles section is terrific, with nine pages of well executed illustrations to inform and inspire. 

I look forward to more titles from this series, which admirably meets its stated brief of providing modellers with 'a new standard of primarily visual reference of both full-size tanks and their scale models'.