I was asked by Kagero Publishing from Poland to post a few questions about their "FOTOSNAJPER" series of books on Armorama forum. If you are not sure which of Kagero books are in this series, take a look at this website: http://www.kagero.pl/serie.php?sr=4.

Questions are:

1. Are you familiar with "Fotosnajper" series?

2. What is your opinion on these books? What are the strongest and what are the weakest points of these publications?

3. What is the availablility of these books in your country? Where do you buy them?

Pawel

http://www.kagero.pl/serie.php?sr=4&t=fotosnajper

Here's the link in English...Jim

In the US they are called "Photo Sniper". I've bought most of mine straight from George Parada on eBay. I turned most of the Nordland AMPS club (Alpenflage, Tuna and others) on to them a couple of years ago.

One of the great things about these books is they contain decal sheets for the tanks they do profiles on. They do both 1/35 and 1/72 in the same sheet.

I really like them.

1. Yes - "Photo Sniper" Series.

2. Like Rob said already - I like them too and appreciate the inclusion of decal sheets with the books. They are as nice as the information included in the books themselves.

3. One of the many local hobby shops in my area has carried them for some time now. I've purchased the titles I have from them.

Gunnie

1. Yes, I am familiar with the series.

2. I also like the decal sheets included. Also, the color photos and profile drawings are very useful to modelers.

3. M LHS does not carry them. Like Sabot, mine came from ebay.

Chuck

#1 yes
#2 I love the pics-some never before seen by me I also love the decals
#3 I have got some off of E-bay and also Squadron mail order

For those that have never gotten these books before I reccomened them A great series They are in Polish and English

To answer your questions:

1.
I am familar with them (I have the Pz IV H/J and Sd.Kfz. 7 Flak). Known as Foto Sniper over here.

2.
Strong points: The walk-arounds in both of them. They have English text as well. The added decals are a nice touch. The color-plates, compared to the Militaria book I have, seem a bit too glossy and some of the colors in the Pz IV J/H book seem a bit off (too bright, almost fluorescent). They do their job though (getting the schemes across). Price quality is good (especially Jadar-prices), even for 17-20 euro's (highest prices I have seen) they are worth it.

Weakest points: I have the Wydawnictwo Militaria booklet on the Jagdpanther, Militaria I feel being their main competition. This one (Militaria) seems to have a little more information on the units/unit organizaton that used the vehicle (they come a bit closer to the Nuts&Bolts series). Also, this booklet includes 1/35 scale drawings. The foto Sniper book on the Sd. Kfz. 7 does not include scale drawings unfortunately.
Also though I could be wrong on this The Foto Sniper technical drawings on the Pz IV H/J are not exactly 1/35 (more like 1/38), judging by putting the Tamyia J hull over it, but it is deceptively close. Just either scaling it up to 1/35 or simply mentioning the exact scale would help a lot if one wants to use it as a base/help for a conversion. With the scale-bar used, you have to measure twice and convert (calculate) twice, which increases the dimensional error.

Unfortunately I do not (yet) have a subject covered by both of them, so I can not do a direct comparison. Overall though I would consider them even, and it is a toss-up between them and I am very satisfied with both of them. Odds are I'll order their Sd.Kfz 234 booklet soon.

3. Availability: Quite good (I know of three shops in the area (within 30km) that stock a few of them (though none the complete series), and a Dutch online store sells them as well. I have bought them in the shop over here, though it is very very tempting to buy them together with Aber PE directly from Poland (Jadar-shop).

I hope this helps and is what you are looking for,

Harm