I bought this book because I cast and paint metal toy soldiers. This book was very useful for showing various equipment configurations and also various colours used. Often when painting figures, one can get caught up in striving to get the colour "historically accurate." Sometimes it can become an obsession. This book shows, without intending to, that fabrics can, and do, fade and that colours can often be at artist discretion. Also, since so much US gear is produced from multiple factories and with different dye lots, it helps to see other colour possibilities.
The photographs are wonderful and most are in colour. There are several b/w photos which are used to show equipment in historical context. The text can be a bit dry at times but I bought it for the photos and identification of what can sometimes be frustratingly difficult to identify pieces of equipment.