Suomalaiset Panssarivaunut 1918 –97
By Esa Muikku and Jukka Purhonen
Published
by Apali
| Details: | 952-5026-09-4 |
| Media: | Hard Cover Book |
| Price: | Cost in the UK approx. £32-00 |
| Review Type: | Book Review |
| Rating: | Recommended |
F i r s t R e a d |
About 5 years ago I was lucky enough to obtain a small pamphlet on the Armed Forces of the Finish Army 1918- 90. This was enough to awaken a dream that one day a definitive book would be published on the Finish Armoured Vehicles.
The wait has been well worthwhile.
This is a hardback book in A4 size with 208 pages full of black and white photographs of all the armoured vehicles used since 1918 to present day. It also has a small section of coloured photos of modern equipment.
The text is bilingual so there are no problems in identifying the vehicle variants.
All the photographs have been carefully selected for information and clarity of detail. They are so good that you could use them as the sole source for scratchbuilding and conversion projects.
The first 9 pages gives a brief history of the Finish Armed forces and how they have overcome their difficulties. Finland equipped itself exclusively with foreign equipment and consequently customised nearly all the tanks they obtained or captured up to 1945. It continues by exploring replacements from Britain and the Soviet Union up to today.
Photographs are in chronological order and deal with all the types used during this period.
They are mainly two or three to a page and the detail is breathtaking and I cannot think of bad photograph in the whole book.
This book has opened up a whole new dimension to modelling Finnish armour, and has given me enough ideas for at least twenty years!
If early ex-Soviet models or post war armour is your thing then this is the book for you.
It is well worth obtaining this book and I can see it becoming a standard reference book not only for model makers and historians but museums as well. It deserves a place on all model makers reference shelves and will give many hours of pleasure now and in the future.
On a personal note I hope the authors do well enough to fund the cost of producing an other book showing even more, good luck to them. Obtainable from all good book shops and UK book dealers, P X P extra.
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