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bookRenault UE

Focus No.1

By Pascal Danjou

Published by: Editions DU Barbotin
25 rue des Jardins 91160 Ballainvilliers,
Paris, France

ISBN 978-2-9520988-8-5

50 pages soft cover

Review by Terry Ashley


Editions DU Barbotin the publishers of Centurytracks, Minitracks and Trackstory have published the first in a new Focus series of small walkaround photo books with each covering one subject. Focus No.1 is on the Renault UE Tractor of the French Army at the beginning of WWII and used extensively by the German Army after the fall of France and is just in time for those building the new Tamiya Renault UE (kit #35284).

The 175mm x 245mm soft cover book has 50 pages with a few B&W wartime photos of UE with the vast majority of the photos being colour close-up shots of a preserved UE from the Saumur Tank Museum.

The text is in both French and English and the first 18 pages covers the History of the UE from initial development through to service with the French Army only and does not cover any of the vehicles used with the German Army.

Pages 19 to 48 are devoted to the close-up detailed photos all in colour and start with three pages of overall vehicle shots taken from all sides that give a good overall perspective for the close-ups to come and this is followed with 5 pages on the armoured dome covers and crew hatches with the domes open and closed as well as interior shots.

This is followed by shots of the front hull with the differential cover open as well as the engine compartment details including a few shots with the engine hatch open showing the engine inside and this supplemented by a couple of manual shots of the full engine as well as one page of driver compartment views including a couple of tech manual shots.

The next 6 pages are devoted to the suspension with detailed shots of the driver sprockets, idlers, road wheels and track with numerous shots of the suspension beams and channels from different angles for excellent overall detail views and shows some of the finer detail you can add to the Tamiya kit to dress it up a bit.

The exhaust is covered in the next 2 pages with shots taken from above, top, bottom and both ends to really show the detail of the exhaust muffler, pipe and the contours of the cover with the most notable omission from the Tamiya cover being the four large bolt heads on the top.

The fuel tanks at the back are shown with one shot of the filler cap open with 2 pages showing the rear cargo bucket and the rear of the hull showing the towing pintle, rear louvers and trailer electrical junction, the only thing to watch here is the non standard tail light.

Next are 2 pages on the UK Trailer with overall walkaround shots as well as detailed views of the suspension and tow hook which again will allow the finer details to be added to the kit trailer.

Finally there are two pages of five view 1:35 scale profiles of the model 1931 and model 1937 UE as well as colour renditions of vehicle registrations carried by the UE in French service.

Conclusion:
This small book is packed with useful close-up photos of the UE that will be extremely useful for building the Tamiya kit as well as some informative history to add a bit of background knowledge .

Highly recommended.

Sample pages
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See the Editions DU Barbotin website for details of other titles.

Thanks to my Credit Card and Blast Models for the review book.




Page created July 16, 2007