German Early War Armored Fighting Vehicles: World War II AFV Plans

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 1930s into the early years 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.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 in the early part of the war especially for the price. 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, PZIII, PZIV, etc) but this book has drawings of the more obscure to include French tanks pressed into German service and others.

And I was expecting a lot. George Bradford is one of the best technical artists that I know of, and he didn't disappoint me in the least. I have really been looking for some good reference drawings of WWII vehicles. Most books have only a handful, and don't always include 4 views. This series of books really delivers on excellent accurate drawings. There are very few comments or photographs in it, just high quality line drawing goodness.These are really indispensable for the serious WWII modeler. Whether you build plastic kits or create them digitally, these reference drawings are a Godsend. I use line drawings like these to create vehicles with a 3D modeling program for an online game.There were a few models I would have liked to see that weren't included, but overall there are plenty of useful drawings for me in this book. I guess that not everybody will be 100 percent happy with the selections the author made, but who could really complain for the price?I checked out a free example of a Pz IVE on the authors website, and I was getting ready to order some of these drawings online from him, but this series of books will save me a lot of money. Though I am planning on buying some of the other drawings that aren't in this series.If you're not sure about purchasing, just search the book and examine the quality of the drawings. I'm sure you will be more than satisfied. As for me, I'm ordering the rest of the books in this series now!

This book is a fantastic aid to Armored Fighting Vehicle experts and those with a technical interest such as modellers, etc. It is strictly what it claims to be and that is a book of plans. Therefore it is filled with a wide variety of AFV line drawings "to scale" in various scales but predominantly 1/35 - but there are conversion charts.Anyone who reads too much into the offering may expect a rich dialog accompanying each model and variant. If this is your expectations - look elsewhere for the historical narrative. There are a few commentaries but they are few and limited in value.Otherwise this is an excellent source material which is exactly what is claimed on the cover.

I have followed George Bradford’s work since 1964 and he has always come up with an excellent product. These plans originated in a series, by country in 1/35 and 1/48 scale, of popular armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) that he sold on his web site. They complement the standard reference texts in the field that provide the technical and operational details of AFVs. Since the Bellona series stopped production years ago these are the best available resource for military modelers other than articles specifically written on a particular vehicle. What I found particularly useful is that he covers subjects that are obscure or have been overlooked in the normal study of AFVs. This opinion applies to the entire series that has been published.

I enjoy building models in 1/76 scale to use in wargaming. This book, and the others in the series, give great line drawings of the AFV's used during the war. The vehicles pictured are not just the common, but also the uncommon and rare. Most drawings are in 1/35 scale with a few in 1/72. However, a table is included on what ratio to set a copier to get drawings in most popular scales. This series would be very helpful for anyone building WW II vehicles.

While the four views themselves are outstanding the organization of their presentation just didn't seem to make sense though it does seem to be vaguely chronological. It would have been much more helpful to group them into tanks, SP's, armored cars, etc. and then to have grouped all marks of a specific vehicle together. I found myself continually backtracking to compare, for example, late model Panzer II's with the earlier models. To do this I basically had to flip through the whole book over and over again.

Great book with detailed drawings but not much information on each tank.

Bought this along with the Late War for my 13 year old who is a WWII and military machine enthusiast and he loves the diagrams and information.

more for modellers than for millitary historians...still good

A detailled and comprehensive record of German tanks and other armoured vehicles in service during the early years of WWII. A useful reference book.

Well detailed.

good

Just the same as above