are these books great ?? i mean for modelling ? does it help ?

i'm going to buy a few one on amazon, but i would like your opinions ?

thank you very much

Sarge, They are in a word, superb. For the price there is nothing better on the market. There are so many of them, each can concentrate on a particular subject, too many books are too general. The only proviso is that some of them are not updated, this is particularly true of the modern vehicles. Another of my personal manias is the lack of 1/35 scale plans, which are becoming more and more prevalent in other series. These minor niggles aside, an unqualified yes on your question. Later on you will perhaps need more information on a particular subject, however, one of the major selling points is the work of Steve Zaloga in many of them. Get that credit card out and happy shopping! Jim

thanks for the fast answer jim !

any other opinion ???

Well, in my personal view - they come in third behind Concord photo references and Squadron Signal "In Action" booklets. I like more in the way of photographic study of the vehicles in use than the text description...

Gunnie

i'd agree with guntruck,the osprey/new vanguard are excellent value for money for an introduction to your subject,especially with the cool cutaway artwork in the middle! concord in my humble opinion are the dogs b*ll*x and aren't published often enough!!(for the US members this is in fact a good thing!)

I'd basically have to agree with the above posts. I have books from both Osprey New Vanguard and Squadron In Action, and they both fill a good role. LIke Guntruck said, the New Vanguard books have more text, but there are also some good detail, color and cutaway shots in them. Plus, there may be subjects available that can't be found in different series. You probably don't need to worry too much though, they are good books for the money.

I gotta go with Gunnie. These books are big on text, small on detail photos. Plenty of distant side shots of the various tanks. It does give a better developmental breakdown of the vehicle though.

However, I prefer the Squadron in action books, then the Concord mini color books. They tend to have lots of color photos, but are of distant full vehicle shots.

Squadron's Walk arounds are the best. Too bad only two different ones exist for armor, the StuG III and the M4.

Hey - didn't I just see that Squadron Signal has a new book in the Squadron Mail Order flyer - US Tank Destroyers Walk Around?

Anyone else got the current flyer handy and saw this? Or am I dreamin?

Gunnie

Yes, I just looked. You are right, it is new. I just got my flyer today, but hadn't looked at it until now. This gives me reason to place an order. I have the Sherman and StuG books, highly recommended.

I agree, but, vanguard are a hell of of a good intro. I cut my teeth on the old Almark series,few series were ever done with so much enthusiasm than those, when I was a lad, we couldn' t dream of the sources we have now. (apart from brit softskins,eng. vehicles and MBTs, ) Vanguard are still good value, that's really all i've got to say, they're a good source, but with limitations..... Jim

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the Osprey books and have many of them. Here in the US, Osprey books go for $15 and Squadron books run at about $9. Better value for photo reference.

I think it depends on what you are looking for in a book ...I have quite a few of these new vanguard books and I do like them alot ...Squadron books I find are too general in most areas ....but if money is no object and you are doing a german subject I would go with the Actung Panzer series of books ...now these are something !! Expensive ? well yes..but If you take into concideration that they go through each variant of a vehicle and show the differences ...ie the stug book goes thru all the changes from the prototype to the late Gs ..so if you are like me and have a A,B,C/D,F,F8,early G late G and a stuH G 105 ...devide it uop between each kit and it is a real steal!! ..
Richard