Mercedes-Benz LG 315

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Mercedes-Benz LG 315
Author: Heinz Peters
Softcover - 64 pages
Publisher: Tankograd
Price: £11.99
Number: 5019

Introduction

This book from Tankograd looks in detail at one of the first trucks to be specifically designed for the post war German Army, the Bundeswehr.

The book

The Mercedes-Benz LG 315 is a 5 tonne truck, based loosely on its predecessor the Daimler-Benz L4500, which was used during the war by the Wehrmacht. Within the book there are two pages detailing the history and development of the LG315. However many other designations of trucks are referred to in this introduction. This I found rather confusing as I have no previous knowledge about this series of truck.

The book I feel is very, very specific in the audience that it is aimed at. It is defiantly one for people who are already interested in this type of truck. As much of the information contained within requires the reader to already know a fair bit about the truck, however this could have happened during the course of translating it from German to English.

As with most Tankograd books, this one is packed with fantastic reference photographs. These photographs are ideal for anyone wishing to model the LG315 and its variants. The author looks closely at the development of the LG315's. Including photographs of the truck under going its trails for military service. He then goes on to include photographs of the truck in different configurations, showing fire fighting variants, recovery vehicle variants and standard configuration.

Some of these configurations would make for interesting models. There is a nice refuelling variant which uses the cab of the LG315, and an unidentified tanker unit. However as with all of the photographs, these are in black and white, therefore further research would have to be done to ascertain the colours of any of the vehicles.

Also within the book are some lovely scale drawings, in 1/87 scale. Which gives modellers the possibility of scaling up or down the drawings in order to scratch build the truck and its different variants. Further on in the book there are technical drawings and photographs of various sections of the truck. These detail the changes seen between different variants, such as how the chassis changed from variant to variant, and also the different types of cab seen on the trucks.

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Conclusion

Overall this is a well published book and looks into great detail at the Mercedes-Benz LG315. The photographs are superb, although all apart from three on the inside cover are in black and white. This book would be fantastic for anyone wishing to model the LG315 or any of the different types of it, due to the sheer amount of information contained within it. However this is not one really for use as a general modelling reference book, due to the lack of colour photographs.

Thanks to Justin at Bookworld for the review sample. To see other titles from Tankograd, as well as those from other publishers, please see their website: BOOKWORLD