Luke R. Bucci, PhD
Reviews By Author
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The Brandenberg-class Battleships 1890-1918. Super Drawings in 3DPublished:
Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy! Kagero Publishing continues to illustrate obscure ships in exacting CG 3D detail with their characteristic dark blue background. This time the first German Imperial Navy battleships – the Brandenberg class – is the subject. This book is a softbound European A4 size (8 ¼ by 1111/16 inches) with only English language (instead of English and Polish) –probably because the author was Greek. Tassos Katsikas is a 3D Content Designer, Image Editor for Radnet and graduated from the Anotati Scholi Kalon Technon, a higher education institution in Athens, Greece. Super Drawings in 3D series are designed for modelers to have a color reference for detailed appearances of individual ships, but in this case there were… more |
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The The Russian ASW Guided Missile Cruiser Petropavlovsk. Top Drawings 74 7074Published:
Kagero Publishing, from Poland, is one of the major military history publishing houses. Since 1998, when Kagero started publishing in English, over 550 titles have been produced. Topics focus on specific planes, armor and ships, along with a bevy of focused topics, such as a class of warships or an armor type. Kagero caters to ship modelers by turning out books filled with line and 3D computer-generated illustrations, with incomparable accuracy to details. For warships, Kagero has two series: 1) Super 3D Drawings and 2) Top Drawings, focusing on a single ship per book. The topic of this book review is one of the Top Drawings series, which are designed for modelers to have a reference for detailed appearances of individual ships. Top Drawings consist of color covers with black &… more |
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British Battleship vs Italian Battleship: The Mediterranean 1940-41Published:
Mark E. Stille, a retired Commander of the U.S. Navy, and is a prolific writer and enthusiast for WW2 naval history – over 40 Osprey titles. Paul Wright painted the ships on the cover and in the text. Alan Gilliland illustrated the maps, ship profiles and armaments. Maurizio Brescia provided many of the photographs. This book is in the Duel (Engage the Enemy) series from Osprey Publishing (#101). Here is Osprey’s description of the Duel Series: “Duel is an innovative series of books from Osprey that conveys a complete picture of machine-on-machine action from design and development through to combat, with a thorough analysis of all the human, tactical and technical elements which ultimately decided who triumphed in clashes of men and their war machines. First-hand accounts of… more |
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World War II US Fast Carrier Task Force Tactics 1943-45Published:
Brian Lane Herder is a WW2 naval enthusiast and legislative librarian for Kansas state government. Adam Hook did the illustrations and Martin Windrow is the Series Editor. You get a 9.75 X 7.25 inches size paperback book with ten sections. You get 8 full-page, full color Plates (illustration by Adam Hook), 18 full color photos (most not seen before), 25 B&W photos (most not seen before), 7 tables/diagrams. The full color Plates visualize tactics of fleet deployment and attacks, and are the highlight and main reason for reading this book. Almost every page has a photograph or is an illustration, making this book an easy read with eye-catching visuals. Some of the photographs are in color and most have sharp detail. Most photos appear to be presented for the first time.… more |
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Kawasaki Type Tanker PE Scale Set #794Published:
Bottom LineTom’s Modelworks supplies a hefty, highly-detailed PE set for the Fujimi family of 12 large, Kawasaki-type Imperial Japanese Navy fleet tankers. This PE set is for advanced modelers with some scratch-building experience. Brief HistoryThe Kawasaki type tankers were twelve large (~10000 tons) tankers that were designed in the mid-1930s with the intention of joining the fleet in wartime, to be refitted with underway refueling of warships. Although there were some variations in dimensions from different yards, they were very similar in appearance and performance. Seven were used during the Pearl Harbor attack, and all were extensively used by the fleet, but none survived the war. What You GetThis PE set includes parts for twelve… more |
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Treaty Cruisers. The First International Warship Building CompetitionPublished:
Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy! This book is also available in a hardback version (302 pages) priced at $55.00. Casemate Publishers has reprinted a definitive review of the so-called “Treaty Cruisers” by Leo Marriot. The author has a long list of military books to his credit, focusing on WW2 ground actions and WW2 to modern naval subjects, including this title. He is known for an excellent book on the Titanic and The Universe, with illustrated views from the Hubble Space Telescope. You get a 9.25 X 6 inches size paperback book with three Parts, 14 Chapters and four Appendices. Although the covers have a red tint, the book is completely B&W (no color) inside. The small print text is interspersed with B&W photos of ships,… more |
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The Cruiser Moskva - Top DrawingsPublished:
Thanks to Casemate Publishing and IPMSUSA for the review copy! The Moskvawas specifically designed to be a US Polaris submarine hunter/killer in the Arctic Ocean, along with her* sister ship Leningradin 1962, and operational in 1967. Their primary weapon was helicopter-launched torpedoes and depth charges assisted with sonobuoys, although the ships themselves carried missiles and torpedoes. Their reason for being evaporated when the US switched to longer range Poseidon ICBMs, meaning the boomers did not need to be in the Arctic Sea anymore. Since survival of the Moskvain open waters was problematic, as was finding boomers in time before launches, these two ships were transferred to the Black Sea fleet. Moskvaspent her remaining time shuttling to and from the Atlantic,… more |
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Tsushima 1905 - Death of a Russian FleetPublished:
Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review copy and IPMSUSA staff for delivering the book and publishing the review. Mark Lardas is a real “rocket scientist” who has worked on Space Shuttle analytics and navigation. He is also an accomplished author with at least twelve books on naval topics, and a model maker as well. See his website for more details (www.marklardas.com). He has the gift of dissecting complex subjects (military campaigns) and finding the key fulcrums of change that led to the historical outcomes. He takes a fresh approach to re-analyze with additional information, with an objective, less-jaundiced eye for what really happened. The result is refreshing, especially for something like Tsushima 1905, something naval buffs… more |
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IJN 14cm Barrels With Or Without Blast Bags SetsPublished:
Bottom Line: Brass barrels in 1/700 scale for all WW2 Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) warships mounting 14cm (5.5in)/50cal guns, for mountings without (-058) or with (-059) blast bags.
What You Get A 2 ¾ by 5 1/8 inch 2-piece cardboard card wrapped in clear plastic containing a small Ziploc bag with Instructions and another card with a small plastic bag holding 20 barrels taped to the card (Figure 1). For no blast bag mounts (-058), each barrel is 7mm long with a 1mm tab at the end. For mounts with blast bags, each barrel is 4.5mm long with a 1mm tab at the end (… more |
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The Japanese Destroyer Fubuki 16061. Super Drawings in 3DPublished:
Thanks to Casemate Books and IPMS USA for the review copy! Kagero Publishing has produced a large number of WW2 single-warship books from their Super Drawings in 3D series. These are reference works of the highest quality, detail, and interest for modelers. Each book has roughly 82-92 pages (92 for Fubuki), beginning with a short biography of the ship followed by a wealth of CG (computer-generated), three-dimensional, full-color drawings of appearance and fittings from a myriad of perspectives. For the Fubuki, a large, separate foldout of 1:200 scale B&W line drawings of side/top views in her 1941 fit, and details of fittings and close-ups in various scales on the obverse side are also included. All sorts of views, and close-ups of ship sections, and fittings (… more |