Landships II

I received this book recently and it seemed somewhat of a disappointment. There is nothing wrong with the text or photos but the colour plates have quite a few errors.

Plate A:

1. Rivets: The rivet pattern for Mephisto is incorrect. This is more representative of a later build A7V.
   
2. Exhaust pipes: Mephisto never had exhaust pipes.
   
3. Door hinges: Mephisto had 3 hinges each side. The overhead view correctly shows 3 on the starboard but only 2 are depicted on the port in both the overhead view and the side view.
   
4. Drivers hatch: Mephisto had the same type of hatch as Elfriede. This Plate's depiction of the drivers hatch is common to all drawings I have seen but is incorrect. I posted a drawing showing the correct arrangement in the thread Plans+Schematics of A7V needed!.

Plate B:

1. Applique armour: The armour fitted to A7V cupolas was made up of 2 pieces, not a single piece. Also, the line of rivets immediately forward of the viewport should be a line of holes as this armour was salvaged from the cut away side skirts. This plate is obviously based on the view of Wotan that appears on p. 47 which does show them to be holes.
   
2. Side vision slit cover: This should be the same as on Mephisto. The one depicted in the plate appears to be a fixed piece instead of being able to rotate.

Plate C:

1. Sprocket and idler covers: These are the ones fitted to earlier build A7V's. They should also have 2 hinges instead of 3. Plate C so resembles Plate A that it is tempting to think that all that was changed was the forward plate and the colour scheme to save time and effort.

Plate D:

1. Roof louvers: These are the type fitted to earlier build A7V's. Also, there should be a third sheet between the exterior roof plate and the interior plate. See the cutaway in "Mephisto A7V Sturmpanzerwagen" by Mark Whitmore, p.14.
   
2. Sprocket cover: This is the early type of sprocket cover as fitted to Mephisto but the idler cover is shown correctly cut away for Wotan.*
   
3. Exhaust pipes: There is no exhaust pipe or even a hole for it. This A7V definitely did have pipes.
   
4. MG mounts: The exterior view looks the same as the interior view. In reality they were different.
   
5. Drivers hatch: Wotan had the same type of drivers hatch as Hagen. See comments in Plate A.
   
6. Side vision slit cover: This should be the same as on Mephisto. The one depicted in the plate appears to be a fixed piece instead of being able to rotate.
   
7. Forward cupola hinges: The top half is shown but where is the bottom?

Plate E:

1. Rear view of Ännchen: Where are the exhaust pipe, silencer, roof stores box, and roof hatch? Instead of being able to see all of these there is a camouflaged blank plate with a riveted upper edge. Unfortunately, this looks to be sloppy workmanship and sloppier editing.

Plate F:

1. 57 mm gun and shield: This does not appear like either the original 6 pounder gun and mount or the German 57mm replacement.
   
2. Spuds: The spuds fitted to this example resemble none that were actually fitted to Mk IV's.
   
3. Sponson MG mount: This is completely missing. There is a circle that is in the right position; perhaps the illustrator marked it with this circle but forgot to finish it.

Plate G:

1. Rivets: This rivet pattern has too many at the front and rear joins. There are no rivets underneath the 57mm for the 2 piece front plate. Also, there was no viewport on the front left of this A7V.
   
2. Side vision slit cover: This should be the same as on Mephisto. It is missing from this Plate.

Perhaps this is being pedantic but for a modern book where the correct features are visible in photos in the same book or easily found elsewhere, it seems just a bit lax on the parts of the illustrator and the editing staff.

*Edited to mention the correct idler cover.