The
French Renault FT-17 was not only the best tank to come out of the Great War,
but also a design that influenced the whole future development of AFV's. In it
we can for the first time see principles still in use today, like a fully
revolving turret, with the engine in the back and the driver in the front. The
literature on this important vehicle has been a bit lacking, especially since
the old Osprey book on the FT by Steve Zaloga went out of many print years ago.
Now this book has arrived, and filled the gap.
(And it is a book, with just over 100 pages.) Well, filled-ish. Because it is
written in Polish, and as I don't control that language I can't really tell
about the text - which of course is a big caveat with this review -
except for the picture captions, which are bi-lingual, and seems to me
knowledgable and correct. I can only focus on the picture material. Some of it
is pretty old and well-known, and has been seen in other publications, like the
above mentioned old Osprey booklet. But a large portion is completly new, and
fresh, at least to me known for, among others things,
and many are of excellent quality.
Now
it must be said that the scope of the book is broader than expected. The main
thrust is of course the FT-17, and here we get to see photos of practically all
variants, including such rarities as the Polish Smokescreen FT-17's, but also
important variants like the M-1917, the KS-1, the BS Petoire Howitzer tank and
the TSF Radio Vehicle. But it doesn't stop here. The book also covers two other
variants that belonged to the FT family, namely the Renault M26/27 (which used
the FT-17 body and turret unchanged, but added completely new track assemblies)
and the even more rare Renault NC-27, used in action by the Japanese, but now
only surviving in one single copy in a Swedish
museum. In this way, the book also covers a lot of exciting new ground! The rest
of the pictorial material comes in three categories. First, a number of pages
with colour detail photos of a surviving vehicle (BTW, the one found in Saumur),
indeed helpful but not to revolutionizing if you have access to the internet and
the sites with posted pics there, say Landships ;-) Secondly, 12 colour artwork
side-views: really super, very, very nicely done, although one can always
discuss some of the shade interpretations.
Thirdly,
nine truly excellent 1/35 four-way plans of different FT's, including some I've
NEVER seen plans on before, including the TSF, the BS Petoire, the M26/27 and
the NC27! Extremely valuable! And I guess that it won't be long until some
gifted Resin Company will find these and do them as kits! (THis is the evidently
THE big stumbling block for many resin producers: finding fine plans. Once the
good plans are there, then it's only a question of time! We've seen it again and
again.) In my eyes, the book is worth it's price on account of these 1/35 scale
plans alone! (And of course, for us working in smaller scales, the 1/35 sclae
is no problem: it's easy to get it down to 1/72 using a modern copying machine.)
Add to this the super art work, all the material on the M26/27 and the NC-27
plus all the new black-and-white photos (the old darlings, well they often
defend their place, although we have seen them before.)
I wouldn't hesitate. If you are into WW1 Armour,
especially WW1 French Armour, then you must not miss this one!
You can order it from
Jadar Models in Poland,
but I think that most well-stocked Hobby Stores will carry it.
