Roman Volchenkov reads the ''First Mechanized War'' book from AK-interactive.

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hm... I wanted to order this book as I have only one regarding WW1 tanks. Not so sure anymore.

Overall I thought it was a good book, especially compared to AK's previous publications which were complete disasters. I am not an expert so I can't speak to those couple inaccuracies but for the most part I felt it was money well spent (I paid 45$ for my copy). I sure learned a lot. The best part of the book is the black and white pictures.

I think that Roman's comments and observations about the risks when using artist renderings for anything other than colors and markings applies to all such works and not just this single AK title.

I'm always very skeptical of ALL color plates and artwork published in these "profile" type books. Using those color plates for modeling details is always dicey. You almost never have any idea as to the original source for the drawings - how old they are, who originally drew them, etc. Most of these "profile" artists simply use someone else's plans for their paintings, and those who draw their own plans are generally unknowns in regard to their research credibility.

As to actual colors, a healthy dose of the same skepticism will also stand you good. Remember that the artist doing the color profiles is making his own interpretations and judgments about shadows, fading, camouflage patterns, etc. His stylistic approach is for making an attractive 2D picture which may or may not coincide with what you do with your own 3D work. A guide and suggestion for painting - yes. An historically accurate portrayal of what the actual vehicle looked like - maybe not quite.

For modeling, it's always best to stick with period photos and plans and contemporary plans drawn by credible and known researchers and historians. Even then, accuracy should be checked and verified against other sources.

Enjoy the pretty pictures for the ideas that they might give you for colors and markings, but don't rely on them for anything else.

It's a good rule to apply this approach to using ALL such works.

In regards to this particular book, the new and previously unpublished photos sound like they might be worth the price of admission.

A good review. One of the things that I noticed is that there is an awful lot of blue in the French tanks where it should probably be artillery grey instead. Going by the great French camouflage book and the various profiles in GBM magazine the colors are fairly bright. I had a lovely talk with one of the researchers at Saumur the past spring and the bright colors that we know and love on French AFV's was a post-war evolution. It's a good general reference for WW1 camouflage but I'd go with Warpaint for the British ones, the Tankograd book for the A7V and so on.

For good color profiles on French tanks I really can recommend the Editions de Barbotins books. a great read too.