Is this a good book as a refernces quide for the early abrams, or is it crap with just a bunch of pics in it?

It is a good reference for all Abrams MBT's up to the time of printing. No, it is not a "crap book with a bunch of pics..."

But, one Man's crap could be another Man's gold...

Thanks for the info on this Book, i'm thinking about geting it, so I'm wondering if its worth it.

It can usually be found in a Border's or Barnes & Noble Bookstore - if you have one near you. You can check it out before committing to buying a copy.

I personally prefer the book and format because it is not written, nor targeted, for scale model builders. Written for a larger audience, it goes into the development and use of the vehicle - for people who don't serve in them or have gone to war upon them. It isn't a photo essay like modelers are accustomed to, but a work that includes a balance of technical information and crew experience information intended to give a general audience a good taste of what the Abrams Main Battle Tank is without deep-dipping into mind-numming acromyms and esoteric details that would go over the heads of many and kill the readability. It is really hard to strike that balance and give everyone what they want in a text like that.

When I give tours at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation, I use this approach in talking about the ordnance there. I feel it is very successful - they keep coming back...

Sorry for the short book review...

HI

Another good ref is the old Verlinden Lock On.

Tom

Good book for it's time when it was published. Obviously since then theres been a lot more, but if you want to model the early Abrams during the Cold War, then this book is good. Good God! Did I just say "early Abrams?" Are we really getting that old?

Yeah...

Must learn to build models faster!

Do not take the captions as gospel as there are several mistakes. Several M1s are mislabeled as IPs. The pics are not too bad considering that the M1 was still realitively new and there was much more concern about pictures being taken then there is now.

John