Okay, guys and girls;
It actually did arrive yesterday. I haven't had time to go through all of it yet, so I'm writing kind of a first look approach. And, please keep in mind, I'm at work and the book isn't so I may have the order of some of the sections wrong. Hopefully, I haven't forgotten anything vital, though!
It's about the same size as one of the AJ books, but a little thicker. The quality of the paper and printing is comparable to the AJ series, also. (For those who might have never seen an AJ book, they are high quality printing on heavy paper stock.)
The first page tells why the editor decided to do this book, a little about all the people involved with it, and an overview of what to expect.
The first 21 pages are devoted to Tiger history, from first conception through the Tiger II. No mention of any derivitive Tigers is included, with the exception of the Tiger P. There are lots of really high quality pictures in this section. All are captioned and explained, and a lot of text. Seems to be very well researched.
The next section has page after page of top view line drawings of the hull pointing out the differences from one modification to another, including the dates. These show things like grating pattern changes, changes in tool positions, etc. The last drawing in this set also includes the turret.
The next section details the models he made and detailed for the book (13 of them...move over Dwight and Chris!!) (Hmmm, on second thought, maybe that's why the book is over a year late!) He talks about how he did all of unique aspects of each model. Some very nice models and great pictures.)
The next section is about what he calls "general building techniques" and covers what is common to all the models. Somewhere about this point he also has 4 or 5 pages on tools and techniques. He loves Aber pe stuff, and it shows. I read about how he does Abers "nightmare" 3 piece tool clamps and their hinges. Oh, how I wish I would have had those pages 4 months ago! Very nice pictures of how he did them. And very interesting techniques. Included here is an overview of his favorite tools.
Next comes a listing of kits and detail sets currently available with a brief review of the manufacturer. He also includes snail-mail and i-net addresses. Dragon's newest releases, of course, are not included.
Last is an extensive bibliography. He lists far more books than I realized were available and gives a quick review/synopis of most of them. They are broken down by country where published.
Throughout, he refers a lot to Tom Jentz and Hillary Doyels works, and gives credit where due.
All in all, I think this is a very nice book that brings a lot of previously done research and pictures together with some terrific modeling techniques. I didn't see anything on internal layout of any of the tanks, but the externals are well covered. It seems well worth the money to me.
I hope this helps some of you decide whether or not to get a copy of the book. If you have any questions, please ask and I'll look through the book and do my best to answer them.
I also called Ampersand Publishing to ask if they might have some of the Sherman books sequestered away somewhere. The gentleman I talked to said they didn't and they've been out of them for a long time. When I suggested they might want to consider republishing it, he told me they are in the process of doing a whole new, better Sherman guide. I hope it isn't another 2 to 3 years before we see that one.
Bill