Book Review: “White Thunder: Centauro Inside Out”

Review Summary

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Detailed Review

Book Content

The topic of this book is the Italian Centauro Wheeled Tank Destroyer.  It covers both the B-1 and B-1T extended hulled vehicles (called “station wagons” by the Italian Troops).  As you’re probably aware by now, I am an armored car/ wheeled fighting vehicle enthusiast and needless to say I was very anxious to get this book for review.  Not only are there but few printed references available covering the Centauro, Trumpeter Models will be releasing at least one 1/35 injection molded plastic model kit of this vehicle very shortly (info as of this review). I was not disappointed. 

The author provides over 120 high-quality color photos showing a number of Centauros in Italian service during their time with the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).  Although the scope is a bit limited as only about 60 Centauros serve in Lebanon, he does a great job of showing the different variants, as well as a huge amount of detail shots of the vehicles.

Accuracy of Information

Compared to my references at hand (Jane’s Recognition Guide- 4^th Edition; Concord Publications’ “UNITAF In Somalia” and Europa’s “IFOR: Allied Forces In Bosnia”) as well as the information I’ve found online, the accuracy level of the information provided by the author is excellent.  I did not identify any wrong or misleading information contained in this book. 

Editing of Information/ Text Flow

The text flow (e.g. the writing ability of the author) and editing of the information provided is very good even though there is not a ton of text information.  Now, I am not saying there is not enough information in the book to be useful.  What I am saying is that the amount of text information was more than adequate, yet not exceptional.  I also found the book easy to read, informative and yet it more than sufficiently described and explained the photos in the book.  After all, the photos are the main point of this book.  It also provides enough summary information about the Centauro so we have a good basic understanding of the vehicle. 

Also, the text flow is better than in past Blue Steel releases as it appears that additional effort has been made to improve the English phraseology. At times in some of the previously released Blue Steel books, there was some awkwardness in the text flow.  This issue was probably due to the fact that the author’s primary language is not English.  Although this issue didn’t take much away from the quality of the books, it is nice to see that Blue Steel has made an effort to improve the grammar of the books.

Photograph and/or Illustration Quality and Selection

Mr. Assad provides 127 photos on just 64 pages.  However, most photos are of sizes that are actually usable.  Most photographs provided are 5”x7” or larger and the smallest photos are 3 ½” x 5” in size; only a handful of which of that size are provided.  Sometimes when publishers include too many photos in a book, many are unusable as a modeling reference as they are too small to identify many of the specific details.  In addition, the quality of the photographs is excellent as well.  The images are of high quality, clear and in vibrant color.  Small details can be readily identified when viewing most of the pictures. 

Also, the selection of photographs provided by the author is exceptional in quantity and variation.  The photographs are from his personal collection, so they are not available anywhere else but in this book.  Although there are only a handful of the actual vehicles photographed, the author has captured each of the different varieties of Centauro (long vs. short hull and two uparmored variations).  Also he provides both overall vehicle photographs, as well as fine detail shots of specific areas of each Centauro type as well.  Interior and exterior shots abound.  He provides the best of both worlds for both modelers and vehicle enthusiasts.

The (1) illustration provided in the book is a “cartoon” or “caricature” of the Centauro, rather than a technical drawing.  Although this drawing could be useful to us modelers, I believe its true value is for the aesthetics as it is unique and “fun” in nature.  To me it lightens the mood of a sometimes serious subject and was a nice change of pace.

Use as Reference

This book is an exceptional reference for modelers and vehicle enthusiasts interested in the Centauro, especially since there is not much printed material available about this vehicle.  There are a huge number of high quality photos you can’t get anywhere else.  Plus, the scope of the book covers the Centauro in general as well as in detail (both externally and internally).  It provides photographs of the whole vehicle and of all the major sub-parts/areas of them as well.  Most importantly, the author provides information and photos that assist us in identifying the differences between the B-1 and B-1T (extended hull) vehicles as well as shots of the two different types of appliqué armor fielded.

Quality of Print Medium

This soft cover book is very similar to other companies’ history/modeling books in size, content and quality.  I hate to compare one review sample to other companies’ products, but sometimes that works best.  Concord Publication’s format comes to mind almost immediately when looking at this and other Blue Steel titles.  However, the cover on this book is better than other books of the same genre.

The books come in an 8 ½”x 11” format and the soft cover media is of decent quality.  The construction of the book facilitates fairly frequent use/reading of the book, but probably won’t hold up extraordinarily well with constant use...  Obviously, all soft cover books suffer from the fact that they don’t hold up as well as hard cover books, so this should not be held against Blue Steel Books.

Conclusion

This book is an exceptional reference for modelers and vehicle enthusiasts as well.  There are a huge number of high quality photos you can’t get anywhere else.  If you’re even just a wee bit interested in the Centauro or plan on modeling this mean looking vehicle, then this book is a must and will be a great addition to your reference library. 

”A Must Have”.

Thanks to Moustafa Assad and Blue Steel Books for the review sample.

And Remember, Moustafa is offering a 20% discount for AMPS members ordering this and the other Blue Steel Book titles.  E-mail him at masss11@hotmail.com for more details.