Chris “Toadman” Hughes’ photo website and CDs have quickly become a familiar resource for many vehicle modellers. Collecting over 376 photos of all three Priest production variants, this CD is no exception. The CD has a hierarchical HTML-based menuing system, sorted by variant, which will allow you to find specific shots of each of the three main variants with a minimum of mouse clicks. The photos have the basic information listed in the menu, but not a thumbnail. I feel such thumbnails would be even more helpful in finding some of those obscure shots where, perhaps, the simplified description really doesn’t allow you to find the obscure detail as fast as you might otherwise. Still, the menu is a distinct benefit over the more limited table of contents in a paper book.
Once you have clicked on a photo title, you are taken to a web page built for just that photo. It links to the previous & next photos in the series as well as up to the variant menu. Each photo takes up approximately 95% of the screen and all that I looked at were well taken photos of preserved vehicles. Almost all the web pages have a caption relating to the photos and, occasionally, a web link that will allow you to see a discussed feature in another photo on the CD, which is great use of the hyperlink concept.
On the disc itself, you get the set-up files, the 370+ web pages for the photos plus the 376 photos. Each photo is 1501 x 1000 pixels, which is adequate resolution, but not terribly high. Printed at 300 DPI, these make good 5 x 3.5” photos at full resolution, but doubling the size to 10 x 7 results in a lot of “jaggies”. This isn’t a huge issue, but you have to know what you want the images for. They will do well on the screen, but less well if you try to blow them up to get at some detail you want to see better.
Toadman's Tank Pictures are available at a 20% discount to AMPS Members!
All in all, another successful effort by Chris and highly recommended.
My sincere thanks to Toadman’s Tank Pictures for the sample.
Some sample pages from the CD: