Introduction

As most of you will know I am a big fan of the ‘In Detail Fast Track’ series of books from Tankograd Publishing. These titles are aimed at the modeller who wants to get the details on their models just so, but does not need to know all of the ins and outs of the vehicle beyond the detail. Another big plus is the affordability aspect with each title coming in at €11.95 and so cheap enough for most to afford. This time around Tankograd Publishing has released five new titles in the ‘In Detail Fast Track’ series, these cover the Warrior FV510 TES (H), Dingo 2 GE A3.3 PatSi, Camouflage – Markings – Soldiers Grantiger Lowe, Panzerhaubitze 2000 A1/A2 and Keiler.

Review

This release in the ‘In Detail Fast Track’ series of books from Tankograd Publishing is the second of the titles that has been published as a duel language offering, the text on the left of the page is in German and the right side in English. This title consists of 40 pages printed on a good quality glossy paper with a card cover. The text is complete over four pages and offers a short introduction on the subject matter. This particular title is an odd addition to the ‘In Detail Fast Track’ series of books as it attempts to cover a series of subjects under one title. It is hard for me to explain exactly where this title is aiming at as regards content, is it a winter exercise covering German forces and touching on the US military, camouflage of man and machine or a general overview of the current German army.

The subjects that get photographic coverage in this title are the Leopard 2, Marder, Keiler, Dachs, Biber, MTW, Fuchs, Fennek, Lastkraftwagen and the humble combat soldier. The picture quality is excellent with a nice selection on the subjects. Each photograph is accompanied by a caption in both German and English. The section on the combat soldier is surprisingly the area of this title I found the most interesting from a reference point of view as I gained the most information from these images, if you think about it the weapons of war often get covered in great detail, but those who have to use them are seldom covered in their own right. The vehicles are a good selection of current German offerings and these do offer a good reference on winter camouflage in wooded areas; however while I found a number of the images of interest the scope of the title is overly wide and to a large extent complex to cover in a title with 40 pages.

Conclusion

This is a difficult conclusion to write as I do like the photographs provided and can see the benefit of them as reference from a camouflage viewpoint, but it is too large a subject to cover in the title with the limited number of pages. I get the distinct feeling that this title would have been better promoted in the ‘Mission & Manoeuvres’ series of books that Tankograd Publishing produce, but that is not to say that this title has no value as it is worth a look see. As an ‘In Detail Fast Track’ title I feel there is value in covering camouflage, but I do think the vehicle needs to be split from the soldier in order to cover the topic to a depth it deserves.