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Book Review
White Thunder Centauro
White Thunder Centauro Inside Out
  • WT1

by: Jason Bobrowich [ LEOCMDR ]

Introduction
Moustafa El-Assad continues his pictorial coverage of the conflict in his homeland through his Blue Steel Books publications. In this new book titled White Thunder Centauro Inside Out, he presents a detailed look at the Centauro variants deployed by Italy to war-torn Lebanon with the United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon (UNIFIL). The B1 Centauro wheeled tank destroyer has been in service with Italian forces since the early 1990s. It has been involved in deployments to Somalia with UNOSOM, Bosnia with IFOR and SFOR, Kosovo with KFOR, Iraq with NATO, and now to Lebanon with UNIFIL. Spain also uses the Centauro under the designation VRC-105. Surprisingly there has not been a lot of photographic coverage on the Centauro deployments, until now. Italy has a force in excess of 2000 troops in Lebanon and the Centauro's proven success in previous operations provides the UN forces with a significant addition in firepower and mobility in patrolling the unstable “blue line” between Israel and Lebanon.

The book
The book is produced in a high quality soft cover format comprising of 64 pages with over 120 images included in the main body, the front and back covers, and inside the front and rear covers. A full page stylized cartoon illustration of a Centauro patrolling the “blue line” between Lebanon and Israel is also included. Readers of Blue Steel Books will begin to find these cartoons common place as included content.

White Thunder focuses on the two variants of the Italian Centauro deployed with UNIFIL, the short hull and extended hull versions. The images appear to have been taken shortly after their arrival in Lebanon and the full effect of the red earth weathering that occurs while patrolling is not evident. This is by no means a fault of the book as it provides the reader the ability to see lightly weathered Centauros showing some effects of light weathering, wear and tear, and excellent details. A brief synopsis of the Centauro is included at the beginning of the book but I found it odd that no mention of the Centauros in Iraq was included until later in the photo captions.

The English text that accompanies the images provides both an explanation of the image details and additional historical or data facts about the vehicle. This keeps the content interesting and fresh as the reader progresses through the book. Images vary from full vehicle shots to detail shots of the varying unique pieces of equipment festooning the hull and turret of the Centauro. The book does a good job of differentiating the short and long hull versions despite no distinct sections in the book. Pages 1-28 essentially show details of the short hull version while later pages show the long hull version and comparison images between the two versions.

Some of the Centauros arrived in Lebanon still in their standard single colour dark green paint. I believe that these vehicles were repainted white while in Lebanon but it offers readers and modellers a unique opportunity to see the differences in paint shades on chassis and add-on armour panels, the interim UN markings, and areas of the vehicles where markings had been removed from previous deployments. Remnants of white lettering from IFOR and KFOR deployments are clearly visible in some images. One must remember that IFOR took place in 1995 so those markings have been lingering for well over a decade. It appears that some unit level markings, such as square Company coloured markings, were still present on a few of the vehicles upon deployment while others have areas that look like they were painted over in green.

Modelling a white vehicle, in particular a UN mission deployed AFV, is not an easy task. However, with the images provided modellers will be able to make note of the weathering that quickly accumulates from everyday use on a white painted vehicle. The photos are very good and show the small paint scratches, and dirt build ups on the heavy traffic areas. An interesting feature of the white painted Centauros is the details that were left unpainted and in the original green. From my experiences on AFVs during UN missions this makes complete sense to me. Areas such as the hatch rings, the inside of the hatches, the commander’s main gun sight, armoured doors for the gunner’s sight, the machine gun shields, on board fire extinguisher handles, and the recoil sleeves on the barrel would be exposed to extra wear and/or maintenance and therefore they are not painted white.

Coverage of the markings applied to both the white and green Centauros is very well done. The markings look distinct on both types of vehicles and provide a modeller with different options as to how to finish a potential UNIFIL Centauro project.

White Thunder also includes a look into the interior of the Centauro. Images include views of the driver’s station, the turret details, and the rear hull area. This will be very useful for the modeller who decides to take on building an interior. What readers should also note in the book are the images of the Centauro crewman. There are good images of the blue berets, crew helmets, and the digital camouflage uniforms worn by Italian troops in Lebanon.

Also included in the book are a couple of good detail side images of the two Italian Bergepanzer 2 ARVs deployed with UNIFIL. The ARVS are in solid green and showing a great deal of surface rust on a variety of fittings and the hull. The markings are limited to temporary white background black UN lettering stickers. I am not sure if the ARVs were painted white after arrival in Lebanon.

Conclusion
In my opinion this is a great walk around book of the Centauro and for modellers interested in trying a UN white vehicle. The details provided in the images of both the short and long hull versions will assist modellers interested in the current Model Victoria Centauro kits or the upcoming Trumpeter Centauro kits. It is invaluable for modellers to have good reference material and Blue Steel Books does not disappoint with White Thunder.

For modellers who are wanting examples of what a UN white AFV looks like and how it weathers from the ground up and examples of paint chipping then this is the book for you. Even freshly painted vehicles weather and chip and it is excellent to see accurate coverage of this in real life. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to future releases by Blue Steel Books of other UNIFIL vehicles. The current UNIFIL mandate expires on August 31, 2009 so seeing these and other vehicles in UN white in Lebanon may be limited.

Click here for additional images for this review.

SUMMARY
Highs: Excellent detail images of both short and long hull variants along with well photographed examples of the markings and weathering.
Lows: It would be nice to have distinct book sections for the short and long hull versions for those readers not totally familiar with the Centauro.
Verdict: Highly recommended book. Great to see coverage of deployed Centauros.
Percentage Rating
95%
  Scale: Other
  Mfg. ID: ISBN 978-9953-0-1255-1
  Suggested Retail: $22.00 USD
  PUBLISHED: Sep 25, 2008
  NATIONALITY: Italy
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 88.37%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 93.25%

Our Thanks to Blue Steel!
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 Jason Bobrowich (LeoCmdr)
FROM: ALBERTA, CANADA

Copyright ©2021 text by Jason Bobrowich [ LEOCMDR ]. All rights reserved.



Comments

I'm really glad someone took the time to do a write up on this book, since Trumpeter's kit is now available. This vehicle is bright white, and not just white washed either. Should be an easy build now with this book knowing it's contents.
SEP 25, 2008 - 05:06 AM
Hi Jeff, The days of whitewashing AFVs for UN missions are long gone...if they were ever even there.....some are painted in theatre but most are painted before they deploy....and very well painted.....proper masking and reapplication of any required markings. I can't say I ever saw a badly painted white UN vehicle....lots of different variations of weathering and wear and tear but overall the paint was always pretty good......and alot of times it was a satin finished white....not totally flat......with weathering it became flat. I thank Armorama for sending the book to me for review.
SEP 25, 2008 - 08:37 AM
And a fine job you did Jason! When I get this kit it might just go white.
SEP 25, 2008 - 09:49 AM
Hopefully we will see a nice set of UNIFIL Centauro decals from Echelon Fine Details. I was leaning towards building my Model Victoria Centauro as an Iraq deployed version but I do have a fondness for UN white AFVs.
SEP 25, 2008 - 09:54 AM
Thanks for the review and considering painting UN white your Trumpeter (or Model Victoria like mine !) Centauro, you can have a look at the pics (110) I posted on my site. Without being overly proud, I do think they could help. Olivier
SEP 25, 2008 - 09:23 PM
Unfortunatly not....but soon! HLJ has it down as a December release. That give me just enough time to do the 1127 & AFV 1128
SEP 26, 2008 - 01:49 AM
Nice review Jason! I have the book and can only agree with everything you said. For anyone who wants to build one of these this book will be a big help. Mike
SEP 26, 2008 - 03:00 AM
Unfortunatly not....but soon! HLJ has it down as a December release. That give me just enough time to do the 1127 & AFV 1128 [/quote] DOH! I must have read that wrong, thanks for the correction. I would have looked stupid asking for it ... and looking for it too. Probably get the Stryker MGS at the same time.
SEP 26, 2008 - 03:16 AM
Thanks for the review Jason. This book looks like it's a definate buy. Paul
SEP 30, 2008 - 04:19 PM
   
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