[Griffon]

I have also been following this discussion with some interest, mainly because I consider myself a "fanboy" of the Osprey stuff, but also because I find it mildly amusing what arguments are coming up to aim some flak at Osprey...

first of all, noone I have ever talked to or discussed about Ospreys has put the words "definitive" or "ultimate" in their mouths when describing a new Osprey tome.
for the money they cost, I consider most of them great value though! of course the authors play a big role in how good the average Aces, Combat Aircraft, Duel or whatever turn out, but guys like Chris Goss, Mark Lardas, Mark Stille, Andrew Thomas or Robert Forsyth (just to name a few and I have surely forgotten some others) know their stuff, and their volumes can be seen as great introduction, if not much more, to the topics they cover;
as someone here came up with a culinary comparison, let me bring another one...this whole complaining thing here is like going to McDonals, ordering some fries and a BigMac and then complain about the Burger not having 5 different salads, 4 different sauces, only one kind of cheese and not that great tasting bread, and all this for 4 Euros quid...
if you want a bigger better Burger with more taste, more stuff inside, more beef, more sauces etc. GO AND MAKE IT YOURSELF...
for our discussion here...if you want a book for ten Euros quid that contain hundreds of drawings, hundreds of pictures, thousand and thousands of words, new eye witness accounts never published before etc. GO TO ARCHIVES, FIND THE STUFF AND F$%%ing WRITE THAT BOOK YOURSELF...and do not forget to publish it for maybe a max of 20 Euros, because thats the max price I have ever seen asked for the typical Osprey book...

just to put some beef into my argument...I have just finished reading the IJN BB vs USN BB Duel... if you want some serious books about this topic (or if you want further reading), go and get Morrisons USN history for starters, add "Neptunes Inferno", some Friedman and Polmar books about Naval gunnery and BB development, add some books about the Philippines sea battles and also find some illustrator willing to draw you some technical stuff about guns, aiming devices etc....and now be prepared to put some hard earned dinero down -I hope you get the idea!

the downline is simple - if you dont like Ospreys, do not buy them, avoid them, make a cross whenever you see them or put some silver bullets in your gun and shoot each and every bookseller offering them (pun intended);
I will continue to buy them (albeit only in pdf form - my library is quickly outgrowing my space available) and for about 10 Euros I pay for them (adding up to about 30 Euros maybe a month altogether for all the tomes I buy) they do provide great value.

And I am looking forward to the new books from Chris, Robert, Andrew or whoever will write them...

btw Chris, may I ask will the HE-177 Combat Aircraft be yours? I have seen the cover art already, looks very nice I have to say....