Osprey Publishing have just published the 37th in their excellent ''Osprey Modelling'' series with what is bound to be a popular title - Modelling the Tiger I. My take on this interesting new book can be seen:

Modelling the Tiger I from Osprey

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Another 'must have' title from Osprey. Good point about the lack of 'beginner' level builds, inclusion of which would no doubt increase the appeal even further.

Another one for my bookshelf, thanks for the review Jim.

Just checked Amazon and they have it already.

Yep, I forgot to mention it was published on july 4....

I got mine on July 24th and I'm very happy with it. There's nothing to complain about, at least not for me.

Thanks Jim for the review. I agree with your comments on the lack of an entry level project and inclusion of a 1/48th project as well. I have many of these books and I am sure this one will end up on my shelf too it does look like it has some interesting builds in it.

Is it just me? I don't really find these books useful. These books are not really detailed -they just scratch the surface, but leave you digg for more. I have the one about the 1/72 PnzIV, and Hetzer, and they weren't really helpful.
I've learned much-much more from the Building and Weathering Military Vehicles I-II modeling wise.

Interesting point of view. Personally, i'm getting sick of New Vanguard and I honestly believe that Ospey Modelling is a superb series - Discuss!

It's a good book overall, but the 1/16 article is simply outstanding, mandatory buying if you plan to superdetail Tamiya's 1/16 Tiger I !!!

Cheers,
Christophe

Jim,
there's not much to discuss. Simply put: the information content is low. The book I referred to, on the other hand, is outstanding in this respect. It actually details every single process (with photos, always with photos), step by step, so you can try it yourself. It's only useful if you are building that particular kit, and need some advice -but you can read reviews, and online forums as well, and get more, much more info than it's in the book.
I'm in a learning phase -and need every bit of an information I can get my hands on. The Osprey series are simply a bunch of "building" articles, like the ones you can find here, in armorama, nothing more, nothing less. It tells you what AM the builder used, but doesn't really tell you useful tricks and tips how to use these, and which information, by the way, you can gather here. When the author scratchbuilds something, he just says, the "muffler was scratchbuilt", and honestly, this by itself doesn't really help you to actually scrathbuild a muffler. You just read about some nice builds without actually learning anything new. I, personally, call these "plastic porn". Nice read to drool over, but not very useful.

Having bought all the WW2 armor related titles (except the 1/72 scale books) and also the 3 on figures, its quite clear Im a fan of this series. I had stopped buying magazines a few years ago (except for AFV modeller), and I believe this filled that gap for me. They may not be the "end all" of reference books, but I dont think thats the aim either.
I like the layout and descriptions, and I find there to be adequate information for those builds included. I like the fact they take several builds from start to finish, more complete than done by most magazines, and worth the money for inspiration alone. See SvB´s panther book and the interior for the G model!!


Andras .. I cant agree with you here, basically because its aimed for intermediate level and up, and with the short explanation plus images shown, should be enough to scratchbuild that muffler. Selfishly ( ) I like the fact that it starts at intermediate, and Id also prefer they stay in the same scale .. but can live with one subject from another scale. Also its hard to compare this with a web blog, where theres no limit to images, posts and personal input. As Jim has already nailed this with his point on good editing. But Im well aware we all have our own preferences, and this is not a "you´re wrong, Im right" situation ... just a difference of opinions/preferences.

I´ll be buying this book, eventhough I have the "guide to the tiger tank", the older Osprey series tiger modelling book and another Euromodelismo equivelent. The price is fairly good as well (in Sweden). This is cheaper than 2 normal magazines .. MM, MIS, MMI, TM, etc. "or similar" to AFV-M, euromodelismo, panzer aces or MMIR.

So you're saying I'm a beginner?
The book I keep referring to is not written for beginners. It's not about the intermediate levels. You like them, it's fine; what I tried to say is that two or three modeling books I just came around recently turned my world around. And made me see how a modeling book should look like. Besides the already mentioned ones, another -not beginner- book would be Bill Horan's Military Modelling Masterclass. Somehow the wast majority of modeling books seem empty since then. (I stopped buying them the same reason I stopped subscribing FSM.)
It's just an opinion, but I wanted to clarify it. Over and out

Andras,

I consider myself a beginner too, but I bought this book, it is excellent but as you say, not for beginners (and not for modeler's on a budget, multiple kits used in a build plus AM accesories that cost more than the kits themselves - this is my only gripe with this book). I think for us beginners there are two books that are essential: John Prigent's Armour Modeling and Mig's FAQ book. I have learned a ton from those, even though I build mostly 1/72 (limited selection of titles for that scale).

No ... in no way ... with so many opinions and preferences in this hobby,it would be impossible to label anybody
I believe each book, each kit, each AM set will leave a different impression for every modeller, and only they can judge what each individual piece does for them.
I have 3 masterclass books, Horan, Greenland and Windrow (groundwork), and would not compare this Osprey series to those books .... afterall they are half the size and half the price (at least). I have used modelling magazines as my comparisson. And thats basically because of the similar costs for both. For that cost, I feel I get a lot of "bang for my buck"!

Excellent review Jim.

The key to using this new range by Osprey is to acknowledge the fact that it shouldn't simply be taken at face value. In other words the techniques that you see here are not only applicable to Tiger I's, but various AFV's.

An example is the Modelling Fallschirmjager Figures book. I'll bet most people think it's only about Fallschirmjager's. I wonder how many realise that Jaume and Dani list several 'recipes', gives an indepth face painting SBS and even discuss figure conversions and constructing vignettes.

Jim, thanks again for an objetive review.

Rudi