Introduction

Trackpad Publishing has an affinity with the Leopard tank in all of its guises and this offering is a great example of that affection. This book looks at the Leopard in service with the Belgian Army from 1969 to 2014. The contents are presented in a way that I feel the modeller will find appealing and informative in equal measure.

Review

This offering from Trackpad Publishing is authored by Patrick Winnepenninckx who is someone I know nothing about, but he would seem to know his subject well. The book is presented in a landscape style using good quality paper and I feel that this is the best presentation style for a book of this type. The book provides 80 pages that cover a broad spectrum of the Leopards in service with the Belgian Army between 1969 -2014. This book provides most of its information in a pictorial style with reasonable captions on the subjects depicted.

This offering covers the subject in the following chapters:
Leopard 1 (BE) - The Early Years
Leopard 1 (BE) - First Updates
Leopard 1 AVLS - Field Training
Leopard 1 AVLS – Gunnery
Leopard 1 AVLS – End of the Line
Leopard 1A5 (BE) – Field Training
Leopard 1A5 (BE) – KFOR
Leopard 1A5 (BE) – Gunnery
Leopard 1A5 (BE) – Transportation
Leopard 1A5 (BE) – End of the Line
Leopard 1A5 (BE) – Range Targets

The dedicated text in this title is limited to the very start of the book and provides a short insight into the story the book takes you on visually. The photographs in the book are of a very good quality and do not suffer the fuzzy look of most colour photographs taken in the 1970’s period where appropriate. I particularly like how the author has dug through available photographs to provide the viewer with the best images possible of the aspect he is covering. The result of this is an informative visual presentation on the subject.

In this title the author takes you on a logical progression of the subject and presents it all in a visual style that the modeller will find helpful as reference, but it should also be considered as being of visual interest for those who are not interested in the Leopard 1 as it provides some great insights. With the book covering the Leopard 1 from inception, through service and into its demise the details the viewer can get would be hard to find with this title bringing all of the information together in one place. The sections that really caught my eye are the ones covering the demise due to it providing views rarely seen in other situations, and those covering the Leopard one in the field as I really like pictures that are not staged.

Conclusion

The Leopard in all of its guises is a very popular subject with military modellers and this title covers part of that story to a very good standard and presented in a visual manner. I am aware that many modellers want to read about their chosen subject with this title not really covering that aspect, but from a visual reference aspect this title will be hard to beat and of course if taken in conjunction with other titles from this publisher tells a comprehensive story on the Leopard family and with whom it served.