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In his continuing series of walkarounds, Chris “Toadman” Hughes has concentrated this volume to the M5 Stuart. The Tamiya kit needs help and Tiger Model Designs has some new full kits, so this is an opportune time to get this CD.
If you are using a Windows platform, the CD should start by itself to take you on a journey of the Stuart. I prefer to look at the images in a graphics program so as to be able to manipulate them. For this, I right click on the CD drive and click on Explore. This opens a folder where I can then right click on a file, ‘open with’, and choose the graphics program. Using a graphics program will let me zoom in, change the gamma or increase the brightness of an image.
Now, let’s get back to this CD. Inside there are 191 photos with one GIF file used as a background and another JPEG image for the TMD logo.
The photo quality is excellent with a good resolution at 300dpi and a nice size of 1504 by 1000 pixels. This translates into clear images when printed. The pictures on this CD were taken at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation (MVTF) also known as Jacques Littlefield’s collection.
The autoplay feature has the user come to a table of contents which allows one to view the acknowledgement page. Here, one can find a bibliography, reference sources, and mission statement. This CD was created with the modeler in mind…and it shows.
Upon clicking on the Main Table of Contents, a new table of contents appears for different sections of the Stuart such as the turret exterior, hull exterior, suspension, turret interior, and hull interior. Each HTML page has simple but interesting captions which point out details as well as a navigation which allows one to go to the next page, the previous page, the sections table of contents, or the main table of contents. Certainly a well thought out plan.
Not having the Tamiya M5 kit, I do not know how much work awaits me to correct details which can be clearly seen on this CD. Actually, TMD’s kits are a good match to the photos but this is not a review for those items ;-)
All exterior details and most interior details are covered. One should never forget that these are restorations and, as accurate as MVTF usually is, compare the photos to period photos to ensure authenticity.
This CD-Rom is one of many references which I am really happy to have acquired. At the asking price, it is certainly a bargain when one considers that the average ten dollar book only gives about a 125 photos at most. I highly recommend the Toadman Walkarounds for any modeler whether on a budget or not! Get your copy by visiting: http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com/
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