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Book Review
11
Panther pt3
Panther and Jagdpanther units: The Eastern Front: part 3
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by: Tom Cromwell [ BARKINGDIGGER ]

introduction
This is the third book in Bookworld’s Panther and Jagdpanther Units series of softbacks from the pens of Dennis Oliver and Stephen Andrew. The previous two covered the numbered Army units, while this third book covers “named” units, independent panzer brigades, and SS units.
contents
The 33 pages are crammed with text, some period black&white photos, drawn colour profiles of selected tanks, and several full-page crew drawings to illustrate uniforms. There’s a handy table of contents on the inside cover too. This is all on thick glossy paper, with heavy card glossy covers, in A4 format (297mm high by 210mm wide).

An introduction to the subject of the war on the Eastern Front and the panzer units takes up the first page, followed by five pages on the named HEER formations. Next come four pages on the independent panzer brigades, and a single page on the Waffen-SS. Most pages have a photo taking up a third of the space, with two columns of text. I am not a dedicated Panther researcher so cannot say if the photos are new or already well-known - I know my way around the different types, production history, and units, but can't claim to have seen every photo that’s been printed in the past. Image quality varies from sharp to grainy of course, reflecting the quality of the original battlefield photography.

The colour profiles are the heart of this book, taking up eight pages in the middle. Most are gun tanks, but there are a few jagdpanthers too. Each is based on photos, with some discussion of colours and markings to guide the modeller – definitely the best part of the book for most of us! These are followed by four pages of crew uniforms, but here I have a problem. The discussions accompanying the illustrations talk about black items, but the illustrations all show them as more of a darker olive green instead. This could be a simple case of technical printing limitations when adding “light” to worn-out black uniforms, but the black collar insignia really stand out against the green of the cloth, so I have to wonder if there is a slight mismatch between text and drawing. [Edit: Stephen has sent pictures of the original artwork, and indeed the "dark olive" is meant to be black! Looks like something went awry in the page-layout operation. See below for the correct images.]

Another eight pages on the SS units follows, and then three pages on the Hermann Goering Fallschirm-panzer unit that rounds out this book. There's a lot of useful detailed information in these text sections for the dedicated Panther historian.
conclusion
This third volume should be of great use to the dedicated Panther modeller. And at only Ł14.99 it won’t break the bank!

My thanks to Justin at Bookworld for the review copy. (No doubt UK modellers will see it soon enough on his Avid Reader book-stand at upcoming model shows!)

SUMMARY
Highs: Lots of info. Well-researched colour plates.
Lows: Issue of "black" uniforms showing green in illustrations.
Verdict: A must-have reference for Panther modellers!
Percentage Rating
95%
  Scale: 1:1
  Mfg. ID: 978-1-912649-00-6
  Suggested Retail: Ł14.99
  PUBLISHED: Apr 29, 2018
  NATIONALITY: Germany
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 84.20%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 95.00%

Our Thanks to Bookworld Publishing!
This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. If you would like your kit, book, or product reviewed, please contact us.

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About Tom Cromwell (barkingdigger)
FROM: ENGLAND - EAST ANGLIA, UNITED KINGDOM

A Yank living overseas on a long-term basis, I've been building tanks since the early '70s. I relish the challenges of older kits (remember when Tamiya was "new"?...) because I love to scratch-build.

Copyright ©2021 text by Tom Cromwell [ BARKINGDIGGER ]. All rights reserved.



Comments

These are great, albeit short, reference books with great colour plates. Always a good acquisition.
APR 29, 2018 - 02:42 AM
Dear Tom, thank you for your review on the Panther Part 3 book. However since I am the artist of these uniform illustration plates and needed to clarify some issues, I always take a pride on making the colours absolutely accurate in my artwork blacks being black etc. As you have correctly stated there has been a technical issue with the reproduction (on the design/production side and not in the printing), with the uniform artwork figures appearing much lighter than it should be. I will try and post up photos of the original artwork here, but if I can’t I will post them on my facebook page for you to view. LINK Best regards, Stephen Andrew
APR 29, 2018 - 11:31 PM
Hi Stephen, I thought it was a hiccup - the other books had black uniforms that looked black. If you can't get the images posted here, email them to me at [email protected] and I'll add them to the review. I'll only need low-res (usually I go for 1600x1200 pixels as a handy size, less than 500kb typically) as jpgs, since putting much bigger images on a web page grinds page-loads to a halt. I struggle when multi-MB "straight-from-camera" images try to open over the internet...
APR 30, 2018 - 01:17 AM
Hi Tom, thank you for your reply and for giving me the opportunity to show what the artwork truly looks like. I will get them sent to you asap. Best regards, Stephen
APR 30, 2018 - 12:17 PM
Thanks Stephen, I've added them at the bottom of the review and added a note in the text. For the benefit of others, Stephen's original artwork looked like this: My guess is something went wrong while page-setting that bleached out the colours in the computer. I'll let Justin at Bookworld know.
MAY 01, 2018 - 02:04 AM
Sort of wondered why the cover figure was so light, thinking that it was some weird special effect that they were striving for (and failing at). Good to know that it was a simple computer printing glitch that washed them out that way.
MAY 08, 2018 - 05:10 AM
   
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