Introduction

The following introduction us as written by Tankograd Publishing;

The Unimog in service with the Bundeswehr is a longstanding success story. After the three volumes on the Unimog U1300L of the 435 series (Tankograd specials 5047, 5048 and 5049), here is the publication covering its successor, the 437.4 series (UHN), of which the U4000 and U5000 types are now in service with the Bundeswehr in a range of versions.

This publication tells the development history, technology and variants of the U4000/U5000 in modern German Army service. Among the variants covered are the U4000 box body types, U5000 Cargo, U5000 UAV Recovery Vehicle and the U5000 Forest Fire fighting Vehicle.

Review

This release from Tankograd Publishing follows their usual format of a duel language title, German on the left and English on the right of each page. There are 64 pages in this title, plus you can add the card cover to that as it has glossy images on the front and rear, inside and out. The paper used is a semi gloss good quality paper that shows the included photographs at their best and takes print well.

The Unimog series of vehicles are another German success story, just like the Leopard family of tanks are. Just about every version of the Unimog ever built has served with the German Army, and the Unimog has had some export success as well; even the US has bought some. This title provides a background history on the Unimog, and takes you up to the vehicle in service today.

The book then moves on to provide technical data on the Unimog U4000 and U5000, this information even includes dimensions for the two vehicles should you wish to test your scratch building abilities. Some lengths have been gone to by Tankograd Publishing to provide as large a mix of vehicles as possible, and Ralf Maile as the editor of this offering has done a good job.

The photographs in this title are of the usual high standard we have come to expect from Tankograd Publishing. The photographs cover the vehicle in many locations and set ups, it should also be noted that each and every photograph is accompanied by a very thorough caption in both German and English; these captions take away the guess work of what you are looking at.

The photographs offer not just individual images of a vehicle, but in many cases offer walkarounds of the vehicles of varying length, some no more than 3 or 4 photographs. The book does offer three very good walkarounds at the end, one covers a Unimog U5000 Cargo, Unimog U5000 KZO UAV recovery vehicle and the last is a Unimog 5000 forest fire fighting vehicle. These are three very different vehicles with the same heritage and shows what can be done with this vehicle.

Conclusion

The Unimog may not have appeal for everyone, but for those that do; you will not be disappointed in this title. The book if purchased to follow on from the previous Unimog titles released by Tankograd Publishing will make a nice addition to the series.