https://ospreypublishing.com/store/military-history/period-books/17th-century/armies-of-the-war-of-the-grand-alliance-1688-97 (https://ospreypublishing.com/store/military-history/period-books/17th-century/armies-of-the-war-of-the-grand-alliance-1688-97)
To be published 28 Oct 21.
Although I may well buy this, I suspect it may try to cram far too much in such a short book. Still, keep an open mind and hope for the best !
Phil
Might be useful for the illustrations though.
Sadly with the death of Angus McBride I have been generally disappointed with a lot of the newer Osprey Illustrators.
Some of the more recent offering have been very cartoonish in style, outlandish in poses and glaring from a colour perspective.
Unless you have somebody who really understands the era (a specialist illustrator) like Graham Turner or Jerry Embleton for the medieval era, the illustrations which are such an important part of what I buy an Osprey publication for, can be very disappointing.
But that is just a personal opinion
Yes indeed. I really miss the artwork of Rick Scollins. His illustrations were superb and he died far too young.
I suspect that the book will be much like the recent one on the Great Northern War. Which is to say some nice pictures and a necessarily cursory look at the armies. The problem is each army could easily fill two Osprey-sized books.
Though more expensive, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Helion books which are more specific and detailed.
I like the work of Rava, though his sense of perspective and space can be a bit confusing at times. Nevertheless, he's probably one of my favourites.
Angus McBride is probably the greatest for me, while his work couldn't be described as the most realistic, it was the most visually appealing. Scollins would be the other way round for me- not visually appealing so much, but more convincingly realistic. Osprey can be a real mixed bag, some superb, most decent ,a few I could do better myself (and I'm not good).
For fans of McBride there is a Russian illustrator called Nikolai Zubkov who has a very similar style, but whose work can be hard to find. He did the Helion book on Peter the Great's army (though the reproduction of his plates in the book is not good).
Here's a few examples of his work (not the Helion book). You can see even his sketches are similar to Angus.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/37434f2e72aac113d4a7640153845b19/tumblr_o6rg0dGgVY1uqhpjco8_1280.jpg)
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/3519f8b3bb0605e13eda0c9441033095/tumblr_o6rg0dGgVY1uqhpjco3_1280.jpg)
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/cddd959ddd38586e07294534a402771c/tumblr_o6rg0dGgVY1uqhpjco6_1280.jpg)
Very nice - you can see the McBride influence (even if there was none directly) :D
At first glance I thought they were McBride's work! You can see the influence and they are beautifully painted and drawn.
How did they make the cannon levitate? :-\
The chap in yellow is surprisingly strong....
I'd have to agree about Angus McBride's work....Loved it !!
Been doing a lot of figures for a project for one of Leon's 'bestest' customers.
I was sent a couple of reference books by Mr 'X'..which Mr 'X' doesn't need/want returned. :o
The illo's in the Osprey book are superb...But not done by Angus....Though not dissimilar to his style.,
Cheers - Phil. :)