Shipcraft 10 - Bismarck & Tirpitz

ShipCraft #10

by Steve Backer

The ‘ShipCraft’ series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between sister-ships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring color profiles and highly-detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modeling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the ships, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic gallery of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references – books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites.

This volume covers the famous German sister-ships whose fates were so very different - Bismarck had a short but glorious career, first sinking HMS Hood and then in turn being sunk by the Home Fleet, whereas the Tirpitz spent most of the war skulking in Norwegian fjords, fending off attacks by midget submarines and carrier aircraft before being finally sunk by enormous specially designed bombs dropped by RAF Lancasters.

64 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Rob Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for modellers

This is a good guide for modellers. It gives a brief overview of the histories and specs of the ships, then goes into the model kits available and briefly outlines their pluses and minuses. It's a pity it doesn't cover the kits' faults and how to correct them. I guess in saying that, the Tamiya 1/350 kits would require an entire volume on their own.
It also has a few plans that could be handy to model builders who wish to add a little more realism to their kit.
All in all, its not a bad book.

[Brian Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good detailed pics and info.