Toadman's Tank Picture CDs
M18 GMC and M39 AUV
Walkaround CD
Review by Terry Ashley

This CD deals with the M18 GMC and M39 AUV and is just the reference needed for building the Academy or AFV Club M18 kits.

The CD contains 274 large format .jpg images (1500 x 1000 pixels) on the M18 GMC and a further 130 images of the M39 AUV taken from vehicles at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation(MVTF), Portola Valley, California and the US Military Vehicle Museum in San Rafael, California and covers virtually every aspect of the vehicles with excellent close up shots of the M18 exterior of the hull, the suspension and turret with additional images of the hull and turret interiors for a comprehensive coverage and exterior and interior images of the M39.

The photos are broken down into sub categories on the CD menus for the hull exterior, turret, suspension and hull and turret interiors so you go directly to the section you want making finding the image you want easier.

The photos of the M18 included turret shots with and without the canvas mantlet cover as well as interesting shots of the suspension disassembled showing the axles, drive sprocket and idlers without the track for good details and quite extensive interior coverage in keeping with the open topped vehicles.

Also included on the CD is a brief description of the vehicle and a listing of additional printed reference books for added reference.

The sample images here are reduced in size considerably from those on the CD to give and indication of the details included in the images.

M18 GMC



M39 AUV

Technical Stuff:
The CDs have an auto run feature when used on a Windows based PC but MAC users will need to manually run the Title.htm file to get things going and the images are presented on a web based interface in your browser so the feel is just like looking at a regular web page with menus to navigate through the pages and images, all quite easy really. You can also use any other image thumbnail program to view the images if this is preferable and of course they can be printed for easier reference as desired.

Conclusion:
An excellent photo coverage of the M18 GMC and M39 AUV with large clear images to show the details well with an easy interface to browse the images and will be very useful reference sources.

Highly recommended

See Toadman’s web page for details of additional Photo CDs available as well as the on site walkarounds.
Thanks to Chris “Toadman” Hughes for the review CD.

Page created May 21, 2006