This volume by Osprey/New Vanguard gives an overview of British 8 inch gunned cruisers (heavy cruisers by definition) in WW II. Four major sections deal with the design and development of the ships, the specifications of each class, the service history of each ship and a finally a description of the ships' armament and operation, the last part of which actually should have been a separate section as it is a general evaluation of the ships and their effectiveness.

The text is concise and efficiently written, containing a good deal of information in a small space. There are summary charts on the details of each class with one over arching table with comparative information such as dimensions, performance, armament, etc. There are b/w photos illustrating many of the ships but they are almost all of the entire ship from a distance or an angle, so they are not useful for detail.

Hull Assembly

We left off last time with a big box of parts just waiting for the magic of modeling to happen to them. I’m happy to report that things are moving along. In this installment, we get to step 36 of 61 in the instructions. It seemed like a good place to report, since the masts and rigging begin in earnest after that, so you won’t have as open a view of the deck. Before any parts are cut lose and glue uncapped, you have to make some decisions about colors. The instructions list seven colors in the Testors range. The photos on the box show a pristine ship with an off white hull representing a lead-based antifouling coating used on war ships. Since this is (according to my story) a cargo ship turned pirate ship, I elected to show the lower hull in off-black or a pitch-based coating.

Squadron has done it again. Here is another outstanding pictorial and brief narrative of one of our historical WWII ships. The USS Kidd, named after Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd, CO of the USS Arizona, is a Fletcher Class destroyer. Launched 28 February 1943 at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Kearny, New Jersey, she was commissioned just short of two months later, on 23 April, 1943. There were 175 Fletcher Class Destroyers produced, therefore making it the largest class of destroyers built. She first served in the Atlantic and then the Pacific. On 11 April 1945, she was stuck by a Kamikaze that killed 38 and wounded 55 of her crew. She returned to the fleet on 1 August 1945 to finish the war. USS Kidd was decommissioned and placed in the inactive reserve fleet on 10 December 1946.

This publication is a Japanese-language magazine devoted to what the modeler might find interesting about the IJN Yamato. It was published by ModelArt, apparently to coincide with the release of the new 1/350 scale Yamato from Tamiya.

While there is a short English translation of the operational history of the Yamato class, the bulk of the magazine is in Japanese. Unfortunately, I don’t read Japanese, but there are some great photos and drawings in the book that are informative in their own right.

The first section of the book is devoted to the new Tamiya 1/350 Yamato, with some great photos of the built kit and an informative set of photos on how to complete the new “post and wire” railings included with this kit. It then goes on to cover previous model releases in 1/700 scale.

• Railings -- Stock # 53054, $32.95
• Details -- Stock # 53055, $49.95

Having made a variety of generic PE sets for 1/700 and 1/350 scale ship kits, Eduard is now providing us with dedicated complete sets for specific ships. These two sets will provide complete (or nearly complete) coverage of the Aoshima Chokai, and probably for the Fujimi Chokai as well. The set is labeled for the “1944” version of the ship, so check your references carefully if you hope to use it for an earlier version of the vessel. She underwent several refits during her lifetime that altered her structure or equipment significantly. The same goes for attempts to use it on other ships of the class (especially Takao or Atago). Both of these ships received refits that changed them markedly from Chokai. However, chances are that the majority of the parts in these sets will be useful on any version of these vessels.