introduction

This volume in the Militärfahrzeug Spezial series deals with the camouflage schemes of the vehicles of the German contingent in Afghanistan. Coming in the usual 64-page booklet, it covers 27 vehicles. The text and captions are both in German and English. In total, there are 112 color pictures.

A 9-page long introduction gives you all the details about the German contribution to ISAF. It starts with the history of the deployment itself continues with the vehicles and their evolution and ends with a description of the German camouflage types.

the book

The vehicles covered by this volume are as follows (number of pictures between brackets):
Mercedes-Benz All-Terrain Vehicle (6);
Enok Protected Command and Liaison Vehicle (2)
Mungo Vehicle for Specialised Forces (4)
Unimog U 1300 L Truck (2)
MAN Follow-On Generation Trucks (12)
MAN Truck 15t mil glA3 Multi 2 FSA (2)
Typ 340E42W Road-Bound Fuel Truck (2)
8x8 SKB FSA Road-Bound Fuel Tanker (2)
Mercedes-Benz 15t mil (6x6) Type 2635 Tractor Truck (2)
SLT50-3 Elefant Heavy Equipment Transporter (2)
Eagle IV Protected Command and Utility Vehicle (6)
ATF Dingo 1 MRAP (6)
ATF Dingo 2 MRAP (6)
Yak Protected Wheeled Utility Vehicle (3)
Fennek Wheeled Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle (4)
TPz 1 Fuchs A7 Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier (7)
TPz 1 Fuchs A8 Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier (8)
SPz Marder 1A5 Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle (12)
PzH 2000A1 SelfPropelled Howitzer (4)
Liebherr 20t crane (2)
Pionierpanzer 2A1 Dachs Armored Engineer Vehicle (4)
BPz Büffel Armored Repair and Recovery Vehicle (4)
Biber Bridge-Layer (2)
BPz 2A2 Armored Repair and Recovery Vehicle (3)
and 3 engineer vehicles with one picture each.

For each vehicle, the captions of the pictures give technical details about the vehicle itself such as its dimensions, role, weight, payload, protection kit fitted to it etc… When needed, the appropriate RAL paint references are also mentioned which should prove helpful for the modeler.
Inside the cover, there is an interesting color chart with the official RAL paint references for the 3 permanent camouflage colors (Fleckentarnanstrich) of the Bundeswehr vehicles and the 5 temporary camouflage colors (Umtarnfarbe).

Conclusion

Carl Schulze took a snapshot, according to his own words, of the German army vehicles currently deployed within ISAF. The numerous pictures will help any modeler wanting to build a German vehicle in a desert camouflage scheme. Some may regret that the author does not give the corresponding color references in the FS color system as very few painting manufacturer use the RAL system.