Customer Reviews:
 Scale Drawings of German 'Heavy Metal!' May 11, 2008
In the final years of WWII German industry produced a number of tanks and AFVs. Some were awesome killing machines that could have prolonged the war; others were dead-end projects. Noted tank author and illustrator George Bradford offers up a collection of scale drawings of 65 of these metal monsters in this 2007 volume, #4 in Stackpole Book's 'World War II AFV Plans' series.
Some of the vehicles illustrated in Bradford's book are well known: the Sturmgeschutz 40, Tiger Ausf. E, the ponderous 'Ferdinand' and compact 'Hetzer' tank destroyers, the 'Ostwind' flakpanzer, the Schwimmwagen, the StuG.IV and others all saw combat. AFVs such as the Panzerbeobachtungswagen Panther, 5.5cm PlakPz. Panther and 'Katzchen' APC, however, saw limited production or were paper projects only. Many were effective fighting vehicles, others were so impractical you wonder why Germany wasted the time and money on them.
Usually each machine gets a four-view plan; some smaller machines allow for five or more. Bradford's excellent illustrations are good for picking out the many small details on AFVs that most photos could never capture. Some machines get sidebars with information on that tank/AFV; others have only the item's model designation. I would have liked a bit more info across-the-board.
While Bradford's book will appeal mostly to tank enthusiasts, wargamers and modellers, its does present a fascinating visual record of some awesome war machines.
A niche book February 2, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is not a book for the WWII armored vehicle newcomer and knowledge of overall German armor is a plus, or at least a few other books on the subject.
As advertised this book has "AFV Plans" and not much else -- but this is its strength. It is a straight forward book of line drawings of German armored vechicles from the mid-war period to the end of the war. It has the well known and the obscure; tanks, armored cars, self-propelled guns, etc. Also of note is that all are drawn to scale (either 1:35 or 1:48) and the book includes a chart for how much to reduce or enlarge the drawings for other scales. At the same time there are at least four drawings per vechicle; straight-on front and rear, a top view, and a side view.
This is a niche book for the specialist. There is very little in the way of explanation for the vechicles in the book. In fact, most of the drawn vechicles don't have any kind of written explanation or history; and the book doesn't list the technical specs. You'll need other books on German armored vehicles to flesh out the information presented here.
Why do I recommend the book? It is probably the most complete book available on the many and varied armored vehicles used by the Germans from mid- to late-war. Many times when I'm reading WWII histories, or playing WWII wargames, I find references to various armored vehicles and I was looking for a simple to use, yet complete reference, so I could visualize what I was reading about. The vast majority of books out there address the famous and common vehicles (Panther, Tiger) but this book has drawings of the more obscure to include Germany's remote controlled tanks.
 A welcome collection of scale drawings for WW2 vehicles September 7, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
When I received notice from Amazon for pre-publication orders on several George Bradford books, I jumped on it. I'd seen many of his drawings previously and the individual drawings are available online. This collection fits the salient illustrations together under one cover.
There are several prototype or paper vehicles included as well as familiar production types. Collected here are tanks, self-propelled guns, prime movers, APCs and reconnaissance vehicles from the latter half of the German war effort. Some of the larger vehicles are reproduced in 1/48 or 1/76 scale but most are in 1/35 so copy making is kept at a minimum.
A must-have for any modeler or military vehicle enthusiast. There are also titles available on U.S., Soviet and early war German vehicles. I hope that Mr. Bradford will be able to publish his drawings of more modern vehicles.
One to have July 1, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I knew about the drawings of George Bradford (he has is own website) and I had a free image to study. I think he does a great job. As I am interested in Russian armor I bought this book, it's great, nice line art, fine details, together with some good pictures of these items every modeller will have great results building models from scratch. Well worth it's price.
|
