While tanks and armoured cars have the edge for excitement, there's no doubting the fact that soft-skinned military vehicles are essential for most dioramas. The trouble is that they tend to be more difficult to model than a tank; they tend to have lots of bits of kit — personal weapons and clothing, complicated awnings and windshields — and, often, a number of figures, too. It is important, therefore to be able to model them well — and that is whal the eleventh of Osprey's Modelling Manuals comes in. It provides expert advice, professional tips and pointers, and detailed technical knowledge to help with model-making, scratch-building, superdetailing and, in particular, painting these tricky vehicles.
What an intriguing mixture of vehicles can be found inside. First up is the classic German Schwimmwagen, the amphibious vehicle used for command and reconaissance duties all over the battlefields of WWII; then there's the German half-track artillery tractor, the SdKf. 11 and the armoured half-track SdKfz 7/1 with its anti-aircraft installation; it is followed by the GAZ-67B - the Russian jeep; then we move to the desert war and a desert-camouflaged Bedford MW; next is an end of the war cavalcade protecting a Dodge WC-56 3/4-ton jeep with a VIP passenger — General George Patton; after this northern German interlude we move tc desert encampment and an SAS jeep, its bearded crew armed to the teeth with a variety of weapons; then there is the remarkable BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocke launcher — the famous 'Stalin's Organ'; an RAF Albion AM463 fuel bowser; a Dodge WC-54 ambulance; the VW-86 Kubelwagen; and finally a Willys Jeep.
Who can say that soft-skinned vehicles are not interesting?