review

In the sophomore edition of this new magazine, we find the spirit of the first issue has still carried over, with emphasis on in-depth looks at armor related material. It has a feel of improving quality however there is now a cost and it has been reduced down to 74 pages.

Issue #2 has 8 articles, 2 book reviews, and a letter from the editor. The letter explains some of the changes, the reasoning behind them, the pricing system, and opens up a discussion of subscribing.

The articles come in 2 types, to my eye: short and sweet and in-depth. The articles on the M983A4, XM1, and the Chinese Amphibious AFV's are short and concise. They do a good job covering their respective topic, but do so with an eye more towards development and less towards nuts-and-bolts details.

The other 5 articles, especially the ones on the Chieftain and Panzerfahre, are very detailed with both development of subject and nuts-and-bolts perspective. These articles have good appeal to not only the model builder looking for detail, but also to the military historian wanting to place the subject matter in context with the "real world".

The opportunity of looking at the "King Tiger" from the Soviet perspective rather than just a general or overall one, and to read Soviet combat reports about the action, is a nice change from some of the pre-digested and analysed articles from other sources.

And for the more practical minded mechanical people, there is another part of the story from the Panzerfabrik crew on their continuing improvements on their 1:1 scale Panzer III J replica. Definitely not your usual article when discussing AFV's.

And while there is no specific model related material, the Panzerfahre article does include a portion on how to model the two pilot vehicles correctly in regards to the rudder system, albeit briefly.

The photos included are crisp and unique to my eyes, with attention paid to details either mentioned in the supporting article or photo description. Technical drawings are also well rendered.

Finally, from an artistic point of view, the second issue seems to flow better from article to article, with both black-and-white and color photos to keep the mind occupied beyond the words.

Available as a PDF download or it can be ordered printed with PDF access included.