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This is a book about weathering and designed with one audience in mind - the military modeler.

The German Tiger I was the most feared battle tank of the Second World War. Its invincibility lay in its main 8.8cm gun and heavy defensive armour. Tiger Tank gives a rare insight into acquiring, owning and operating one of these awesome fighting machines, using the UK’s Tank Museum’s Tiger 131 – the only Tiger I in the world that has been restored to full running order.In addition to offering unique insights into maintenance and driving the Tiger, the book includes vivid personal recollections from wartime German tank crewmen and reveals what it was like to operate this 57-ton giant in combat.It was written by a team of experts from the Tank Museum who were closely involved with the strip-down and rebuild of the Tiger I. David Fletcher is a historian, a prolific author and a world expert on tanks. David Willey is a curator, and Mike Hayton is workshop manager. Other members of the writing team include volunteers Darren Hayton and Steven Vase, Mike Gibb of the SdKfz Military Vehicle Foundation and David Schofield, a specialist in forensic science.

The introduction into British army service of the Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank (MBT) was originally intended to take a mere eighteen months from design to production, but in the event, it took something closer to ten years. Why this was so is an important part of the Challenger 2 story, and although on the face of it this might seem to be a clear failure, it actually produced the most thoroughly tested and reliable tank ever to enter service with the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC).The tank has now been in service for twenty years and can be expected to form part of the British army’s inventory – albeit in low numbers – until around 2035, which would make it the longest-serving frontline battle tank ever used by the UK.

Challenger 2 (CR2) is the British Army's main battle tank. CR2 is based on the Challenger 1 tank, which served with distinction on operations in the Gulf War and the Balkans. Although a logical development of Challenger 1, CR2 is greatly superior. It is protected by second generation Chobham Armour and features a new digital fire control system that includes a panoramic commander’s sight, a laser range finder and a new version of the Thermal Observation and Gunnery Sight (TOGS II). The turret mounts the high pressure L30 120mm gun that fires conventional APDS-FS, HESH, smoke and depleted uranium projectiles with great accuracy.

When Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the 23-tonne Panzer III was in the vanguard of the German assault. The German Panzer III tank (official designation Panzerkampfwagen III, Sd Kfz 141, abbreviated to PzKpfw III) saw widespread use during the Second World War campaigns in Poland, France, the Soviet Union and the Balkans, and in North Africa with the famous Afrika Korps. A small number were still in use in Normandy (1944), at Anzio (1943), in Norway and Finland and in Operation Market Garden (1944). Some 5,774 were built between 1937 and 1943. Although the Panzer III was conceived to operate alongside the infantry-supporting Panzer IV to fight other tanks and armoured fighting vehicles, the roles were reversed when the German Army came up against the formidable Soviet T-34 tank. A tank with a more powerful anti-tank gun was needed so the Panzer IV with its larger turret ring and long-barrelled 7.5cm KwK 40 gun was used in tank-versus-tank battles, with the Panzer III being redeployed in the infantry support role.Production of the Panzer III ended in 1943, although its dependable chassis provided hulls for the Sturmgeschutz III (StuG III) assault gun, one of the most successful of the war, until the end of the war. Centrepiece of the Haynes Panzer III Tank Manual is the Bovington Tank Museum's PzKpfw III Ausf L, which has been restored to running condition. This tank belonged to the same battalion as the museum's famous Tiger I (the 501st (Heavy) Panzer Abteilung) and is an early production Ausf L, modified for tropical service. It was shipped via Naples to Benghazi in Libya in July 1942 and was issued to the 8th Panzer Regiment, part of the 15th Panzer Division and probably fought in the Battle of Alam Halfa. It was subsequently captured by the British Army and shipped to the UK.The Tank Museum has restored the tank to running order, has repainted it in its original camouflage and markings and is currently replacing many of the ancillary tools and equipment that it carried

The Chieftain was the British Army's Main Battle Tank from 1966 to 1986, providing the backbone of its heavy armour during the Cold War

When it entered service with the British Army in 1983, the 62-tonne Challenger 1 was the first of a new generation of main battle tanks. Originally intended for use by the Imperial Iranian Army, orders for the tank were cancelled when the Shah was deposed after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and the design was accepted by the British Ministry of Defence as a replacement for the Chieftain.

The German Tiger I was the most feared battle tank of the Second World War.

This book, the first volume in a series of two, begins the story of the uniforms and equipment of British and Commonwealth tank and AFV crews, 1939-1945.