Introduction

In the last couple of weeks Tankograd Publishing have released two new titles in the Technical Manual Series, these two books cover the US WW2 Dodge 1.5ton 6x6 WC-62 & WC-63 Personnel & Cargo Trucks and US WW2 & Korean War M4A3 Sherman Medium Tank (76mm). The Technical Manual Series are in my opinion aimed at modellers who are interested in the mostly hidden areas of their models and want to know how these things look and so can replicate this detail.

Review

The US WW2 & Korean War M4A3 Sherman Medium Tank 76mm has been edited by Michael Franz. This book is written in English only and has 48 pages covering the M4A3 Sherman Medium Tank 76mm. There are five pages of text distributed through the book and I found the information of interest. There are two pages of text devoted to mounting dozer blades to the Sherman and if you have any intention of adding a blade to your tank model you absolutely have to pick up a copy of this book. These sections should I believe answer any and all questions you may have or can think of, and the images in this section will clearly show what you need to do for accuracy.

The photographs are mostly black and white, but as this also covers the M4A3 Sherman in Korea there are some colour photographs as well. Picture quality varies but Tankograd Publishing has used good quality images for the most part. Each of the photographs is accompanied with a good caption explaining what you are looking at and in many cases where. The photographs offers some nice visual reference of the tank as a whole and also offers some great settings for those modellers who like to make dioramas to display their work. The sections on the Tank-Mounting Bulldozer M1/M1A1 and Tank-Mounting Bulldozer M2 make this title worth picking up on their own; I can see a lot of modellers seeking this title out for these two sections. In addition to the two bulldozers the M4A3E2 Assault Tank also gets a special segment to itself.

The technical manual areas covered in this title look at the:
The Hull
76mm Gun and Turret
Radio Equipment
Dozer Blades

Conclusion

Initially I was unsure about titles in this range from Tankograd Publishing, but that opinion changed when I was seeking an obscure piece of information that was right there in the book and provided more information than I needed. The average modeller may not be interested in all of the included data when building a model straight from the box, but as soon as you move on to adding details that are not supplied with the model these books really come into their own. I very strongly advise that if you see a title covering a vehicle that you intend or want to model in the future, pick that book up. The cost of the book is reasonable considering what it provides between the covers and if you don’t you may well end up kicking yourself later. Of special interest to me are the two sections on the Bulldozer tanks as it is additions such as dozer blades that grab people’s attention.