Shipcraft 7 - British Battlecruisers of the Second World War

ShipCraft #7

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 sisterships 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 survey 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.

The latest in this series covers the three ships of this First World War type, Hood, Repulse and Renown, which survived to fight in the Second. Still the fastest capital ships in the world in 1939, their protection was not up to contemporary standards and two were famously lost in action. Hood in an old-fashioned gunnery duel, but Repulse succumbed to the more modern threat of aerial attack. The one modernized ship, Renown, survived an adventurous wartime career.

64 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2007

Reviews

[Donald Bullard · Rating 4 out of 5]

World War II British Battle cruisers is an informative quick guide to a misunderstood ship. Trading armor for speed is a hard compromise. History passed that judgment, but this book opens a way to get into the ships beyond citing history. Build it! The variety of models in different scales is magnificent. The ships and models are given their due.