New OSPREY titles January-June 2010

Hi Guys,
Just got my latest OSPREY catalogue, detailing what is to come January - June 2010.

Got to be the least number of uniform related books ever offered as follows.
MAA:
458 - Army Of the Republic of Vietnam 1954-75.
459 - The Varangian Guard 989-1453
WARRIOR:
143 - Galloglass 1250-1600 ,Gaelic mercenary Warrior
144 - Italian Blackshirt 1939-45
145 - Ottoman Infnatryman 1914-18
146 - German Pioneer 1939-45
ELITE:
172 - Roman Battle Tactics 390-110Bc
178 - Hatamoto Samurai Horse and Foot Guards 1540-1724
179 - Pike and Shotte tactics 1590-1660
180 - US Coast Guard in World War II
181 - World War II Battlefield Communications

Then we have 5 NEW 'RAIDS' -
7 - Blocking of Zeebrugge 1918
8 - The Cockshell Raid 1942
9 - Rescuing Mussolini 1943
10 - Certain Death in Sierra Leone 2000
11 - Pegasus Bridge 1944
CAMPAIGN titles:
217 - The Mongol Invasion of Japan 1274 and 1281
218 - Maginot Line 1940 '70th Anniversary'
219 - Dunkirk 1940 '70th Anniversary'
220 - Operation Crusader 1941
221 - The First Battle of the Marne 1914
222 - SAlamis 480 BC
223 - Operataion Nordwind 1945
BRAND NEW SERIES 'COMMAND' covering famous commanders and their battle tactics strategise and battles.
1 - Napoleon Bonaparte
2 - Erich von Manstien
3 - George S. Patton
4 - Julius Caesar

That's about it, only one ESSENTIAL HISTORY of 'Chinese Civil WAr 1945-49''

There are other additions to the various ranges but not of interest as far as uniforms are concerned.

So the least number of uniform titles , looks like they are going to be concentrating more on the histories than what was worm. which is a pity as it's getting away from their starting point.

Best Regards,
Les

Hi les
Don’t you think the quantity of the uniform and insignia illustrations has diminished over the last couple of years, maybe because artwork is so costly compared to a few b/w photographs?
Don’t mind me I’m a natural cynic.
Regards
WF

Hi WF,
Yes, totally agree, with you. OSPREY is just another company dumbing down history for the US market and the Internet generation.
Some of the so called artwork in the Campaign titles is very dodgy indeed, almost like a small illustration blown up to fit the space. Lack of detail is very noticeable in some of the WW2 titiles.
I don't think it has anything to do with the cost of Artwork as such, as most of the artists wouldn't have work if it wasn't for Osprey, I've only seen a few of the Foriegn based artists work in other publications. In fact the cost of printing has come down over the years which probably explains how Osprey can sell their products so cheaply now.
I don't think it is anything to do with being cynical ,it's just the way things are now.
I and other regular readers of the US magazine 'Military History' noticed a couple of years ago that the content was becoming 'fluff' with no real historical content, big spaces between paragraphs, bigger print so less words able to put on page, just basically an 18 -24 years olds fanzine. They lost loads of subscribers and haven't gained many back as the magazine still hasn't changed back to the 'good' content of actual facts.
I think that looking back at some of my previous posts that I'm not a big Osprey fan anymore.
Also, of course a lot of the problems with the content is down to the knowledge of the author, some of these guys are just re-hashing info from other books without actually copying the works word for word. So this doesn't help.
Well that's my rant over.
Best Regards,
Les

Lack of detail is very noticeable in some of the WW2 titiles.

Most of the WWII Campaign series books only have one or two pieces of full page artwork almost always involving ships or airplanes (even if the battle was predominately a ground based affair) that was probably copied from one of the New Vanguard or Aircraft of the Aces series books.

Hi
An author that’s done some great work [in my opinion] is Rosignoli but even his work has fallen foul to cost cutting.
What should have being a great book, Military Insignia of the 20th Century and printed in China, is spoiled by a number of printing errors. I say printing errors because I don’t believe he would have made such basic mistakes taking his past work into account.
Some resent illustrators don’t seem to put the effort into cross checking like the old guard of Chappell, McGrgor and Mollo to name but a few, that may just be me being silly.
I have always preferred Almark over Osprey simply because I believe they give more content..
As for magazines, the 1980’s mags such as War Machine should have come with a magnifier as the text was so small.
One thing though, I don’t have the wear glasses for most of the modern publications, maybe the large print is intended for the short sighted and not to save space, ye of little faith!
Having problems with Vista and the “Explorer has found a fault and is closing down” pain.
Tried to start some things but I’m only getting as far as opening a folder then Explorer ###### it...

Regards
WF

Hi Guys,
What you say is right, I think it comes down to laziness on behalf of the person that is supposed to be the proof reader. Previously that would have been someone with an interest in the subject matter but now it comes down to just a bit of spell checking via the computer, which does not understand grammer or military terms.
Laziness from the illustrator is definatelty not something I like to see, I have come across several books, can't think of what they are at the moment, having a bit of a 'sernior moment', where the NEW illustrator has simply taken info already out there by someone like Gerry Embleton and re-drawn it in his style, so any mistakes made by the original artist are simply duplicated by the new kid, because he is too lazy to do a bit of reserach.
The illustrations I was looking at in the Campaign Series were those used in the titles for the Russian Front battles, they show tanks and infantry ,but the detail is pretty bad and certainly looks like a small illustration blown up to fit the double page spread, I didn't even look at who the artist was as I wouldn't consider them to be one.
I too liked the Almark Books ,but couldn't cope with the paperback format and them falling apart fairly quickly when trying to use them as painting guides for model soldiers, which is really what they were made for after all. The harback versions were quite difficult to track down.
I have to wear glasses to read everything nowadays so the size of the print doesn't make a difference so maybe that's why I notice the content more.
You're right about problem with Internet Explorer and additionally google, on this site I was able to access this part without having to log in to read the posts. It won't let me view any other threads without a Logging In and noticed a 'Google Bot' appearing sometimes, don't know what this is but it can't be a good thing.

Best Regards,
Les

Another thing, is it just me or do the newer Elite series books have fewer color plates then in the past? The US Cavalry in WWII book only has about 8 plates when the Elite series books normally have 12 color plates. Ive noticed the same thing in the ACW Guerrilla Tactics and Office of Strategic Services books.

I also don't like the new layout with the (fewer) color plates scattered about.