Hey all,

First off, I'm not a "Shermaholic," nor is this my auction, but:

Is this by chance the RP Hunnicutt Sherman book you "Shermies" dream of, desire so much, et cetera; or is it just a "book???"

Anyhow, it's on eBay and I thought I'd drop a line. Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6016934901&fromMakeTrack=true

And a quote from the seller: "This is a 1994 edition of the R P Hunnicutt History of the American Medium Tank--Sherman. The book is missing its dust cover and has a few small scratches on the front cover. There is some wear on the corners of the hard cover, but is in otherwise excellent condition. It is the defnitive work on the Sherman family covering all aspects of the vehicle--its development, production, service and derivatives. It is hard to find and would be a welcome addition to any armor historian's collection! "

Or is this about General Sherman?? Don't know, but........

Mike

That is the Sherman bible everyone talks about. Most likely the eBay savvy are watching the auction and will not bid until the final seconds (yes, like under 10 seconds). Of course, a couple of eBay newbies will get into a bidding war and drive the price up into the $200+ range soon enough.

Here's a link to a similar auction on the Stuart book, notice the price: http://cgi.ebay.com/Hard-to-Find-Book-Stuart-by-R-P-Hunnicutt-1992_W0QQitemZ6014893632QQcategoryZ2588QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I managed to get Pershing, Sherman and Stuart before I got extremely lucky and bought a whole set from a retiring modeller.

Originally, I got Sherman at a LHS at MSRP. I got Pershing and Stuart by using www.bookfinder.com. I put the parameters in their search function and bookmarked the page. I went back daily for about a year. Got Pershing for $65 and Stuart for $35. No kidding.

Dang Sabot, that's insane....think of the AM or kits you can get for that kinda output!! Oh well, for the "die hard" I guess it's a "gotta have." I will admit tho, I'd love to look at one of Hunnicutt's books. To be ranked as a "bible" in the modelling world, it's gotta be GOOD! There were posts some months ago about, I believe, about this book, and the raves were quite the impressive. Hope I didn't start a "feeding frenzy!" It'll be interesting to watch; I say that 'cause NO WAY I can afford it if it goes as high as the others.....

Roy, sounds like you got a flippin' DEAL!!!

Mike

Mike, the first time I ran across Hunnicutt's books was at the Armor School book store at Ft. Knox after the Gulf war. I remember turning my nose up at those $90 books. Today, those same books run a couple hundred.

Since then, I have bought the latest books as they are released. Very good series that will cost only about $60 brand new (with pre-ordering).

I've got the Sherman, Sheridan, Pershing, Bradley, Half-track and Armored Car volumes. Good stuff if you are into the developmental history and all variants of a particular line.

It is a cliché, but good reference is rarely cheap. Personally I believe that spending money on reference material is a vital part of modelling. I personally feel that tose who spend a fortune on kits, paint, AM and various tools and then ignore reference material are missing a large part of what the hobby is all about...

In the final analysis, a book like Hunnicutt is, IMHO, worth a couple of hundred dollars, although everyone has to decide just what constitutes 'value'..Jim

Hi Mike:
There's a VERY simple way for you to get your hands on ANY of the Hunnicutt books. Go to your local municipal library and request the titles under their "inter-library exchange" program. They will put in a request and, if the book sits in any library in the country, they'll have it shipped to there for you to check out. The check out period is 3 wks and you can renew for a 2nd 3 wks. Of course, it's free. It may take a few weeks, that's all.

In this way, was able to "see what all the noise was about". I think my copy of "Stuart" was marked US Naval War College Library. Pretty cool.


BTW, this works for ANY book. Not a bad deal, eh?

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your responses!

I just went to Amazon.com and did a search for his books; the Sheman and a couple are way out of my "financial reach," but, Sabot, you mentioned the Half-Track volume...that one's less than $60 along with the Armored Car volume (as low as $38). I could afford that for a good reference.

With that said, does the HT volume cover the M3 or M16 in great detail? I have all the Tamiya HTs and want to do a dio with at least the '3 and '16. I understand there are issues with Tamiya's M3A2 and would certainly like to correct this. I have the Armorama links for this, but an "in front of me" ref would be nice, not to mention the ability to learn about the vehicle.

Same thing for the Armored Car; does it cover the M8 and M20? I'd like to add one or more of those to the same dio.

Jim, again, the folks on Armorama have shown me another way to look at modelling. I now realize the correctness about having a good reference. To think, were it not for Armorama, I would have happily built the M3A2 as it is thinking that a big corporation like Tamiya would have depicted this version correctly. Armorama and references....what a combo!!

I'm looking at the K59 update set sold on R&J Enterprises for the M3....this a recommendation from another Armorama member...to enhance the HTs.

Roy, I would have never known you could do this! I will certainly look into this with great vigor!

Gentlemen, again, to you for your greatly appreciated input.

Humbly (and still learning),

Mike

Yes, the HT version is the bible for halftracks, although admittedly, the entire span of US halftracks is not that lengthy. The armored car book is very wide ranging, covering all early, WW2, Vietnam armored cars and even Strykers.

... and I'm still waiting to get a copy of PATTON and FIREPOWER to complete my collection ...

I just can't get past +$300 dollars for PATTON...

Gunnie

Do that bookfinder.com thing I mentioned Jim. I don't know about Firepower but I think Patton may show up. Persistence and luck -- may get it.