The latest title from the Nuts & Bolts team is on 18-ton half-track which was produced by several manufacturers but some refer to it as a Famo. There are several excellent books on this vehicle already including a much thinner tome by Nuts & Bolts. This one brings that subject to the high standards set by the Nuts & Bolts team and is an excellent addition to the library.
As printed, the book has 232 pages not including the heavier covers which also are used and are bound in a glossy heavy paper. The author is Dr. Nicholaus Hettler but the editor is still Heiner F. Duske, color artwork by Laurent LeCocq, scale plans by Lieven E. De Coninck, and Tamiya 1/35th scale models built by Vinnie Brannigan, Darren Thompson, Vitaly Mozharowski and Tony Greenland. Peter Zakanyi offers an excellent 1/72nd scale model based on both Trumpeter and Revell kits.
The images are a mix of color and gray tones. A total of a whopping 405 are provided of which there are 258 archival photographs of the subjects in service with (not including the many insets showing details close up), 123 color images of museum restorations and items, and the last is 24 images of superbly done models.
Text is included which provides a table of contents, bibliography, some background in the form of chapters. They cover the introduction, general development of half-tracked vehicles, main tasks, and general description, development, technical description, variants, production plants and manufacturing, series production, coloring, and tactical signs, operation and experience reports, modeling, acknowledgments, contemporary photos, drawings, color profiles, preserved vehicles & components, and modeling (not a repeat as this is the photo section).
It is worth mentioning that the captions are most informative and all text is in dual English/German languages.
The bottom line is simple, the 18-ton tractor is a popular subject and this has become the best reference book for it..
