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 four almost identical ships. These pre-dreadnoughts were the first ocean-going capital ships of the budding German Navy. The information is detailed enough for scratch-builders, accurizers and modifiers for building any of the four Brandenbergs in any scale.

You get six pages of a history of the class followed by 71 pages of 134 color CG drawings of the ship ranging from full-ship views to sections to major components (guns, turrets, lifeboats, masts) and a one page ad for Naval Archives. The opening section of the book contains an overview, details of the ship and history of the class, including the two sister ships used by Turkey in combat before and during WWI. There is no text or explanations after the opening section, just figure legends. The color 3D images (drawings is a poor term) are simply beautiful – crisp, clear, in perspective, with shadows and proper lighting variations. Extremely life-like. They give every possible angle and show incredible detail. Loose in the book is a separate large foldout of B&W scale line drawings of Brandenberg in her original 1890s appearance in 1/200 scale. One side (Sheet A) has starboard profile and the top views. Sheet B has bow and stern profile views in 1/200 scale, along with larger scale line drawings of the individual armaments.

Kombrig sells the Brandenberg (1893) and Weissenberg (1894) in 1/700 scale. This book is not a blueprint but would be useful to scratchbuild the Brandenbergs in any scale and definitely to be able to super-detail the 1/700 kits – there are also newly available photoetch sets for pre-dreadnought-era ships.

Summary

The subject is rather obscure, limiting the range of casual readers, but is a must-have for anyone wanting to build Brandenbergs of any scale. The fittings are helpful for other ships of the era. If you are a battleship fanatic and do not mind the relatively high price of $38, then this is a pleasurable book.

The impeccable 3D graphics are simply stunning and the color makes the ships real. Recommended for accurizing the 1/700 kits of this class and hard-core pre-dreadnought battleship aficionados. These are beautiful illustrations.