Mick Toal takes a look at a new reference book on the Australian Light Armoured Vehicle by John Myszka of Mouse House Enterprises.

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Thanks!

Thanks very much for the review Mick.

I was a bit hesitant at first when I heard about this book due to the price listed on the MHE site at $78.00 AUD & shipping.....but after reading the review and the level of excellent detail and superb research put into the content I am very much leaning towards adding it to my Christmas wish list.

The price should be added to the review when there is an opportunity to do so.

To tell you the truth, I just had to go to the website to look up the price of the book (as a contributer and reviewer I was sent one) ... yes, the price is getting up there, but it is a limited edition print run and you get a lot of bang for your bucks ... to put it in perspective, a 48 page Osprey New Vanguard book retails for about $35 here in Australia.

While the Osprey books mainly use photographs we have mostly seen before (the illustrations in the centre make them worth the purchse price alone IMO), this book offers more than four times the amount of pages and each is crammed with pictures and illustrations that have never before been seen - it's essentially a "Super Osprey" - four times the info (most of it new and exclusive) at twice the price!

All that said, with the way the Aussie economy is going, the exchange rate will sweeten the deal for most overseas buyers.

Hi Mick,

I totally agree that the book will have a ton of great info. Any book that has input from folks....such as Jason Miller....that have actually experience on a particular type of AFV bring a whole fresh new flavour to any reference book compared to some books that are just regurtitations of Jane's Defence articles or the Wikipedia version of military technology.

I say that books like Military Briefs 4 ASLAV, The Leopard Trilogy books, and Tankograd Militarfahrzeug Specials are all great for modern armour modellers.....Bravo to John at Mouse House Enterprises for making an effort to expand the hobby even more. In these cases the prices of the books are well worth the wealth of information provided. They are investments in the hobby.

I think it is great that you provided your preamble to your review about your involvement with the book....nothing wrong with that at all. I think it is far better to hear about the actual content of the book from an informed perspective than from someone that has no personal knowledge of the vehicle.

I would not be surprised if a Military Briefs 5 Australian M1A1 AIM Abrams will be a future release from MHE....and very welcomed as well.

Mick ,

That was a good review.

I did get to have a quick perusal of this book a few weeks ago and I felt the reference material obtained on the aslav was the best I have ever seen .
There was so many colour photographs and reference this would be a must for any modeller wanting to superdetail the Trumpeter aslav or any of the current Mouse house vehicles .
After having used the Military briefs No3 for the Tamiya Centurion I found there was a dramatic improvement for the modeller.
$78.00 is a great price for one of the most comprehensive books in the market.

This would be a must for me .Aslav along with the new Figures from Mouse house .

Cheers,
Michael