Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review copy and IPMSUSA for the opportunity to review!

This book is a revisit to the naval battles at Narvik, Norway, relatively early in WW2, after the “Phony War” during the winter of 1939-1940. Unlike other Osprey books, this issue is 80 pages (not counting the front/back covers) and packed with expert interpretation and technical facts. The two Battles of Narvik had greater strategic importance than first glance would suggest, but also was the largest scale of destroyer vs. destroyer action in the European theatre.

This book has eleven sections:

Veteran Models in Taiwan has been producing finely detailed multi-media aftermarket replacement parts for ship modelers for quite some time. Nicely crafted, their parts are a significant upgrade to model warships. They started in 1/350 Modern USN systems and have since branched into other Navies. Now they are offering modern Soviet/Russian systems.

If you have noticed Soviet and later Russian ships are busy, some would say crowded, with sensors and weapon systems. While functional, none of these are elegant in design, and the number of each provides redundancy to ensure survivability and reliability. Each one is hodge-podge of small detail not easily duplicated in the ejection molding process, no matter how sophisticated the molds. So Veteran Models move into this area is welcome by at least this modeler.

Veteran Models in Taiwan has been producing finely detailed multi-media aftermarket replacement parts for ship modelers for quite some time. Nicely crafted, their parts are a significant upgrade to model warships. They started in 1/350 Modern USN systems and have since branched into other Navies. Now they are offering modern Soviet/Russian systems.

If you have noticed Soviet and later Russian ships are busy, some would say crowded, with sensors and weapon systems. While functional, none of these are elegant in design, and the number of each provides redundancy to ensure survivability and reliability. Each one is hodge-podge of small detail not easily duplicated in the ejection molding process, no matter how sophisticated the molds. So Veteran Models move into this area is welcome by at least this modeler.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy!

Kagero Publishing’s latest installment of its Naval Archives – Volume 9 – is a softbound European A4 size with only one page of ads – for Kagero Publishing books. You get five feature articles with detailed text and photographs plus drawings, and sprinkled in between, two-page color layouts of specific ships. The last 10 pages live up to Kagero3D’s name with 3D CG drawings of the WW2 Kriegsmarine destroyer Z37 in its early fit (before its 1945 “Barbara” antiaircraft gun enhancement), and a red/green plastic eyeglass is included to visualize the 3D effect.

Osprey’s newest addition to the New Vanguard series tackles one of the revolutions in naval construction and warfare – the ironclad. In one of the slimmer editions of this series, this volume follows the tried and true formula of the series. Using a mix of original artwork and contemporary illustrations, the author examines the origins, armor, ordnance, propulsion and crew accommodations on early British Ironclads. Unfortunately, if you are looking for service histories of the ships of the Black Battlefleet, they are not included in the narrative. That is the only disappointment in this volume.