Model Armour

A look at the very latest title in the series from Panzerwrecks!

Panzerwrecks X

Publisher: Panzerwrecks

Authors: Lee Archer & William Auerbach

Price: £16.99 (£14.99 if pre-ordered)

Softcover; A4, 96 pages

ISBN: 9780955594076

 

 

Introduction

Lee Archer & William Auerbach began the Panzerwrecks series of titles in 2004 with the aim of illustrating wrecked German armour from WWII through the use of period photographs.  They're now up to the tenth edition, for some reason represented by the Roman numeral 'X', which played a major part in deciding a large proportion of the books contents.

 

 

The Book

The book follows the characteristic Panzerwrecks format, i.e. A4 sized pages, but in landscape, with around 96 pages of period black & white photographs, mostly taken by amateur photographers, and by that I mean the soldier in the field with his personal camera, although there are exceptions to that.

 

 

As I mentioned in the introduction, the decision to use the Roman numeral 'X' for 10 on this issue, when Arabic numerals have been used for each of the earlier issues, seems to have played a major part in deciding one of the themes of the contents of this one, and this is acknowledged by the authors in their introduction.  It gave them the idea to relate it to the well-known television programme, 'The X-Files' and include if they could, a series of photographs of the more unusual type of vehicle.  Hats off to the authors, because it can't have been easy finding such rare photographs, which is borne out by the fact that a large part of the book doesn't in fact follow this theme and reverts to the more usual format of photographs of more familiar wrecks.

 

 

The book is broken down into roughly five sections, although only four of them seem to be themed;

 

Panzerwrecks 2 revisited

Panzers at Pilsen Airfield

A trip to the MNH Factory

Freaks & Antiques

 

 

By far the larger section is devoted to 'Panzerwrecks Revisited', and although this may seem a slight let-down...especially if you already have Panzerwrecks 2, then it needn't be.  It does not mean a simple reprinting of material that can be found in Panzerwrecks 2, but more of an extension to what can be found in that volume.  There are some photographs of the same vehicles, but these are different photographs, taken from different angles etc., and showing more or different details.

 

 

Before the 'Panzerwrecks Revisited' section, there's a section of around twelve pages showing more general shots that don't really fit into any of the following four sections.  The very first section photograph shows something I personally would be very interested in building...it's an Sd.Kfz.11 armed with a MG 151/15 or Drilling.  In fact, I think that's where the specific value of this particular volume lies.  The author at one point argues that although some consider these titles to be more entertainment than reference work, I think the truth actually lies somewhere in the middle.  They're reference works only in the loosest sense of the word, actually acting as marvellous inspiration not only in terms of diorama building for the armour modeller, as is the usual case with any Panzerwrecks title, but much more so with this latest one, in terms of presenting ideas for modelling vehicles you might not have known to exist, but also in terms of demonstrating to a certain portion of the hobby that often, there is no 'right' way.  Take for example a Tiger I shown from above towards the rear of the book.  The authors readily admit that there are structures on the turret roof that weren't known to exist and this despite the very knowledgeable people that have contributed to the book, and were no doubt asked about them!

 

 

Another favourite of mine depicted is the 88mm Flak 37 mounted onto a Panzer IV chassis.  Apparently two of these were found, both depicted in the book and found at Pilsen (Bory) Airfield, amongst a large number of other wrecked German armour pieces.

 

The Maschinenfabrik Niedersachsen Hannover or MNH works gets its own section this time around, with an extensive series of pictures showing the wrecked works and numerous Panther and Jagdpanther hulls and Panther turrets.

 

 

Of course, as with all the other Panzerwrecks titles, one of this titles outstanding attributes is the amount of thought and research that has gone into the captions with each of the photographs.  Although purely in terms of photographic quality, many of the photographs themselves leave a lot to be desired, it has to remembered that these are 65 years old, taken under less than perfect circumstances and taken by mostly amateur photographers.  As the author states, the majority are included not because of their outstanding quality...but because of their outstanding subject matter...something I'd have to agree with.

 

 

 

Conclusion

If you're an Axis modeller you'll want to get this.   I defy you to read it cover to cover and come away from it without inspiration!   It's a given!  Highly recommended!

 

 

Get it now on Pre-order at the special price of £14.99 from the link below!

My thanks to Lee Archer of Panzerwrecks for the review sample.