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Thursday, October 8, 2020

Pz III Library Addition - Panzer III from Tank Craft

I have acquired another book to add to the Pz III library. This particular volume is a new one from Tank Craft. I discovered the Tank Craft books about six months ago (or there abouts) and I thoroughly enjoy this series. This one is titled Panzer III, German Army Light Tank Operation Barbarossa, 1941 by Dennis Oliver. I must admit to being a bit confused about the title as I have never heard the Pz III referred to as a light tank before. Mr Oliver does a very nice job on the subject in 64 pages.

As stated the book covers, primarily, the Barbarossa period with a little background to go with it. For the most part it shows ausf Fs through ausf Js (with the short 50). Detail on the campaign and the units involved are included. There is a section of color plates which are nicely done, although mostly in grey! Following that are some model builds followed by manufacturers of both kits and aftermarket parts. He concentrates on 1/48th and 1/35th scale kits with a brief mention of a company out of Scotland called Milicast that I need to check out. Unfortunately Rubicon Models is not mentioned although it is mentioned in one of the other books from Tank Craft (either the Sherman or STuG III book, not sure which one).

There is a very short section on the different models from A to the early J as well as the different uparmoring programs. Its very short and is much better covered some of my other books (especially the ones from Panzer Tracts). However, it is loaded with pictures and color plates and is really written for the modeler rather than the researcher. This is probably the first book I would pull out for reference for eastern front Pz IIIs for this campaign for paintwork and decaling and I would supplement it with the Panzer Tracts books for building models.

Its a high quality paperback that does a very good job introducing the 1940-1941 Pz IIIs. I would certainly recommend it for those with casual interest as a good starting place.

2 comments:

  1. Light tank? In 1941? However the rest of it sounds good, and every book these days should have plenty of color plates and references.

    I printed a PzIII M the other day, and it is surprising how hard it is to find a picture of something so simple as "where was the antenna?"

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    1. These are really pretty good books but they lack that technical drawing detail that would point that kind of thing out. I think these combined with the Panzer Tracts book are your best one-two punch for modeling and painting.

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