Bottom Line

Tom’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 History

The 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.

By 1765 Britain had achieved hegemony in Europe, North America, India, Africa and the West Indies over archrival France with its decisive victory in the Seven Years War (1756-1763) fought on 5 continents and the sea (Quiberon Bay). However, the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in 1791, and the emergence of revolutionary France was an entirely new phenomenon, and by 1793 virtually all of the major European nations, all headed by monarchs, had declared war on the new French Republic. As a result, France in 1794 was threatened by famine and risked all by organizing a massive North America to France food convoy against the Royal Navy and harsh North Atlantic seas.

Launched on the last day in April, 1919, and commissioned just over three years later, on June 3, 1920, this sixth vessel to carry the name Tennessee was the name ship of her class (which included her sister, USS California) and the last US battleship to carry 14” guns. In this Naval edition of his extensive “Legends of Warfare” series, author David Doyle provides another extensively illustrated history of this famous warship. While each chapter - covering Construction; Launching, Fitting Out and Commissioning; To War (with subsequent descriptions of her collision with USS California and participation in the action in Surigao Straight); and The End of the Line - includes a brief introductory written description, the bulk of the written information comes as captions to the hundreds of photos (the vast majority in sharp black & white, with four color photos of her following decommissioning).

Casemate Publishers, distributors for Kagero Publications, has added another title to their ongoing series of Super Drawings in 3D. This time they turn their attention to the classic British Battleship, HMS Rodney. If you are familiar with these titles, a ship is rendered in full color, 3D illustrations. Each of these super drawing books provide a short overview of the ship in question specifications and a summary of its operational history before plunging into the illustrations. Kagero also provides a black and white fold out plan of the HMS Rodney.

In the 1860s the US Navy led the world with the innovative, turreted ironclad USS Monitor - a vessel that gave rise to a series of warships whose name defined the class. However, within ten years of the end of the Civil War, the US Navy had become a mere ghost of its former size and power. Ships were decommissioned, sailors released from service, and the Secretary of the Navy was returning funds to the Treasury. By the 1880s, British built ironclad battleships of the Brazilian and Chilean navies caused panic within the halls of Congress and along the east and west coasts of the United States. Frustrated officers from the US Navy, along with insightful members of Congress and the Garfield administration determined that major changes were needed to prevent the US Navy from declining into irrelevance.