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Chris “Toadman” Hughes continues his series of walkarounds with this sixteenth volume dedicated to the M2A1 Halftrack. This is excellent timing as two Chinese companies have released newly tooled kits of the American vehicles.
If you are using a Windows platform, the CD should start by itself to take you on a journey of the armored vehicles. If using a MAC, there is an insert which explains how to use the CD. Not having a Mac handy, I was unable to test how this Photo CD worked on Apple’s platform.
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 230 photos with one GIF file used as a background. The photo quality is excellent with a superb resolution at 300dpi and a nice size of 3008 by 2000 pixels. Chris is using a Nikon D70 camera to take the large images. 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 start page which then leads to a table of contents. There is an introduction, a table of contents (toc) for the exterior, a toc for the suspension, and a toc for the interior. At the introduction, one can find a quick history on the vehicle, reference sources, and mission statement. This CD was created with the modeler in mind…and it shows.
The vehicle is divided into exterior (112 photos), suspension (42 photos), interior (72 photos), and two of the M1A1 antitank mine. Upon choosing the one of the three areas of the halftrack one wishes to ‘walk around’, a new table of contents appears for each section of the M2A1. These sections then list all the pages dedicated to the chosen section as well as the previous or following sections table of contents. 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.
Having the most recent halftrack kits, it was informative to see how much work awaits me to correct details which can be clearly seen on this CD. Such as tires on the HK kit which needs replacing due to the bulge.
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.
Due to a recent post on Track-Link about degenerating CD-Rs, I would recommend to the modeler to copy the CD into a folder on their PC’s hard drive and be careful to label it clearly to avoid inadvertently sharing the images. These Photo CDs are very affordable and those wishing the images should buy their own to encourage Chris Hughes to continue. I personally have many photos of an un-restored M2A1 halftrack I took and even offered them to Chris for this CD. However, his photos are better in my opinion as they show the vehicle in a nearly as new condition.
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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