Editors note: Some of you may have noticed the similarity between the name of this website and the long running publication AFV News.  While the similarity in names was not intended, we have been fortunate to have gotten the attention of AFV News publisher and book author George Bradford of Ontario, Canada.  Mr. Bradford has been kind enough to share his extensive knowledge of all matters pertaining to tanks and armored vehicles with us (and also catching some of our typos!)  He has graciously provided us with a history of the AFV News Bulletin for us to share with our readers. While AFV News is no longer published, its legacy lives on at the AFV News Discussion Board at Com-Central.  Mr. Bradford’s vehicle plans and blueprints are available at AFVplans.blogspot.

AFV News magazine 1966 to 2010

By George Bradford

I was about 32 when I first took a serious interest in armoured vehicles. At that time (about 1963) I published “ARMORED VEHICLES from their conception to the present times” a small illustrated booklet attempting to show little line drawings of every tank built to that date. This was sold to all the armour contacts I had at the time, and later to AFV News subscribers as well. At this time I had also been subscribing to a little wargaming magazine called “TABLE TOP TALK” by Jack Scruby out of California. I wrote a few articles and did some artwork to improve the cover design for Jack, and all this must have planted the seed for AFV News. There wasn’t much out there on AFVs, but Merberlen in the UK did have a nice series of Bellona plan view drawings coming along, for which I was assigned to do cover illustrations. Also out of the UK was the renowned series of AFV Profiles, which appeared on a regular basis.

[Read more…]