Thanks to Sara of Osprey Publishing and to IPMS USA for giving me the opportunity to review this wonderful book!
This photo etch ship railing set is similar to their 3-Bar Chain railing set, with the obvious difference of having two chain levels instead of three. The accompanying photo compares the two Eduard sets, side by side.This similarity will enable me to liberally borrow from my earlier review:
This unpainted stainless steel set represents drooping chain railings founds on the main decks on most all types of vessels (metal bar railings tend to be found more often on the upper superstructure deck levels). This is generic railing, not geared to any specific navy or class of ship.
I don't know why we need fictional action movies -- there are more than enough tales of derring-do in the real world and in my book Operation CHARIOT, the raid on St Nazaire, is right up there near the top.
The British were ever concerned about the various German battleships, battle-cruisers, etc., and numerous air raids were flown to sink or cripple them in port, damage the ports facilities, etc. One such target was to render the graving, or Normandie, dock at St Nazaire incapable of handling Tirpitz and thus forcing her off the western coast of France -- from this was born OPERATION CHARIOT. The basic plan was to disguise a ship to look like a German patrol boat, load it with explosives, and ram it into the Normandie Dock, rendering it useless. The secondary objective was to destroy port facilities and smaller docks such that the port was rendered tidal and thus severely restrict use by U-boats and other vessels.
USS Yorktown, a 19,800 ton aircraft carrier built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned on 30 September 1937. Operating in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas until April 1939.
The U.S.S. Yorktown was among the first "true" aircraft carriers ever built. During the Battle of Midway, the Yorktown scored a decisive victory against the Japanese, with the help of the U.S.S. Enterprise and the U.S.S. Hornet. For the heroic sacrifices made by her soldiers in this battle, the Yorktown earned three battle stars. Kit features highly detailed hangar and flight decks with optional-position deck elevators and cranes, twenty Douglas SBD dive bombers, a display stand and official U.S. Navy marking decals.
The story of Titanic is well known. Most are familiar with how the world’s most luxurious passenger liner struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank taking over 1500 of her passengers and crew with her to the bottom of the Atlantic. Less has been detailed about how she was built, fitted out and operated!
Haynes is a company well known the world over for their quality and in-depth automotive repair manuals. Lately; they have branched out to include manuals on the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster. Now they turn their attention to Titanic!
The book begins with a brief history of the ship, her maiden voyage and the tragedy that befell her. Included herein are many well known pictures of the ship and her passengers.
This is Revell's original Fletcher-class destroyer in “box scale” of 1/306. The first Fletcher to enter service, USS Nicholas, was commissioned on June 4, 1942, and was the first of 175 of the class to be built by war’s end.
Revell's kit features the square bridge version, but gives the modeler the parts to update it with rocket launchers for a later version. The kit instructions are simple and easy to understand, and best of all---each part has a number and an identifying name as well. As a kid, this was how I learned a great deal about the ships and airplanes which I built. In fact, I built many of these kits in my youth, which was the inspiration to do this review.
Adding to its expanding line of ship detail sets, Eduard has released photoetch ship railings in the popular ship modeling scales. This unpainted stainless steel set represents drooping chain railings founds on the main decks on most all types of vessels (metal bar railings tend to be found more often on the upper superstructure deck levels). This is generic railing, not geared to any specific navy or class of ship.
HMS Campbeltown was originally the Wickes-class destroyer USS Buchanan, DD-131. She was commissioned in 1919 and transferred to the UK as part of the “Destroyers for Bases” deal between the US and Britain in 1940. In exchange for 50 aging “four-piper” destroyers like the Buchanan/Campbeltown (obsolete for fleet duties, but still useful as convoy escorts) for the Royal and Royal Canadian navies, the US got basing rights in the Caribbean and Newfoundland.
HMS Campbeltown is one of the most well-known of the traded ships, as she was famously expended as a floating bomb in the “Operation Chariot” raid by British commandos on the St. Nazaire docks in March of 1942. The purpose of the raid – and it succeeded – was to deny the use of the St. Nazaire dry dock to heavy German units such as the battleship Tirpitz.
My thanks to Roger Wallsgrove, Editor-in-Chief of Mushroom Model Publications, who provided this review sample. I have had the pleasure of meeting him and his team at Nationals.
ModelArt Spring 2011 No. 39 is entirely devoted to US Light and Escort Carriers in WW2. Armor, aircraft and car buffs will only have a few small ads to peruse, with one exception. Aircraft modelers will love the section on aircraft markings for individual carriers. No. 39 turns out to be an excellent reference work on US Navy WW2 smaller carriers, but as usual the text is entirely in Japanese. However, the historical data section is still useful, and the usual scrutiny of recently available kit builds are very helpful for modelers. This format is larger than regular monthly ModelArt magazines, and the printing quality is of high standards. The book measures 210 X 296 mm (that’s 8-1/4 by 11-3/4 inches). The majority of the article photos are in color. My chief complaint with their layout is that many larger photographs of ship models cross pages, resulting in a dead zone where the spine is – it really breaks up otherwise spectacular photos.
