Introduction
A while back Tankograd offered a book about the Dingo ATF, a sort of armoured SUV on steroids that was developed for the Bundeswehr a decade ago. It was reviewed
here, and ended with the promise that a book on its successor the Dingo 2 would be along shortly. Well, here it is!
For those not familiar with the Dingo, it is a large four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle with all-round armour against small-arms, and is designed to mitigate mine blasts. It has a number of roles within the Bundeswehr, depending on internal fittings. Developed on Unimog running gear, the Dingo 1 suffered from a limited payload as well as the fact that Unimog discontinued the necessary drive train. The Dingo 2 was designed to use a beefier Unimog set-up, thus increasing the payload (used in part to increase the armoured “cell” for the occupants) while ensuring continued commercial availability of parts. In general appearance the two Dingos are obviously siblings.
Contents
Like most Tankograd books, this is a soft-cover A4 format (210mmx297mm) book, totalling 72 pages. It is part of the Tankograd “Militärfahrzeug Special” series (#5037), again by Ralph Zwilling, and does not seem to have an ISBN number. There are 167 large colour photos of sharp quality, mainly two or three to a page, and like the earlier book there are no line drawings.
Text is in German and English, with German on the left for blocks of text or at the top of captions. It explains the development and functions of the variants, but the stars of this book are of course the photos and their captions.
The subjects are set out as follows:
• Patrol and Security Vehicle
• GE A2 Patrol and Security Vehicle
• GE A2.2 Gunshot Detection System
• GE A2.3 Patrol and Security Vehicle
• GE A3 Maintenance Sergeant Major (Senior systems NCO)
• GE A3.1 Loudspeaker Section OpInfo
• GE A3.2 Personnel and Material Transport
• GE A3.3 Patrol and Security Vehicle
• GE C1 Maintenance Vehicle
• GE D1 & D2 Ground Surveillance Radar
There is also a short section on prototypes. Each section has about a page of explanatory text followed by several pages of very nice photos – many of them showing interior fittings! However, in most cases there are empty racks where some of the more sensitive gear clearly isn’t for public consumption while it is still in service. Still, this would be an invaluable detail reference for anyone wanting to model a Dingo 2, or for those with a general research interest.
There are no plastic kits available in 1/35 that I know of, but Y-Modelle offers an expensive resin one. In 1/72 there is a Dingo 1, but I haven’t seen a Dingo 2 advertised. Please do post to the discussion thread if there are any!
Conclusion
This is a fine book on the subject. Scale plans would have helped the scratch-builders out there, but I can fully understand why there aren’t any.
