The British Battleship HMS Vanguard

Published on
August 20, 2022
Review Author(s)
Book Author(s)
Witold Koszela
ISBN
978-83-66673-77-9
Other Publication Information
Pages: 24, including Front and Rear covers in color, with B&W line drawings and two foldouts in color and B&W, Softbound, stapled
MSRP
$24.95
Company: Kagero Publishing - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: Casemate Publishers - Website: Visit Site
Cover

Kagero Publishing, from Poland, in TopDrawings No. 123, exhibits the largest, fastest and last British battleship, HMS Vanguard, in all its glory as the world’s largest yacht for royalty. Also, the last battleship ever launched. The TopDrawings series is designed for modelers to have a reference for detailed appearances of individual ships and aircraft. TopDrawings consist of color covers with black & white (B&W) line drawings of the ship, particular features, and equipment, especially armament (including aircraft). But the main attraction is the separate, large foldout of B&W scale drawings – 1/400 in this book, to match existing model kits.

Just before World War 2, Britain’s battleships were aging, slow and the latest design, the King George V class, was not operational yet, and new builds (the proposed 16-inch Lion class) would not be ready until 1943 at soonest. Desperate to replace wartime losses, Britain embarked on modifying the Lion class design to incorporate existing stored 15-inch main gun turrets after instigation by Winston Churchill in 1940. The ninth ship in the Royal Navy named Vanguard was the largest British battleship built, fast and incorporated wartime lessons learned. But her projected main armament was slowing her build, so the 15 inch guns removed from World War 1 battlecruisers converted to aircraft carriers (Courageous and Glorious, both lost in WW2) and swapped from other existing 15-inch battleships enabled the Vanguard to be completed quicker. But wartime commitments and more armor and compartmentalization design changes greatly delayed completion of HMS Vanguard until 1946 after WW2 ended. HMS Vanguard was an anachronism in many ways – modern design & performance, less than desired main armament, unable to fit preferred docks in Britain, and nothing to do – except ferry the Royal family around the globe. She even replaced the AA guns on top of B turret with a saluting platform for the Royal family to view the sights. Only a few minor changes to radars and living quarters were made. Even so, this book showed the few changes from 1946 to 1953. Vanguard saw no action (not even the Suez Canal action), and became a training ship, but by 1960 was too expensive and obsolescent to justify. She was DC’d and by 1962 was gone.

The author, Witold Koszela, has published more than 26 books on warships, with 14 in the Kagero TopDrawing series. Witold also supplied the line and color drawings.

What You Get

The book is a softbound European A4 size (11.7 X 8.3 in & 210 X 297 mm) with both English and Polish languages throughout. The outside covers are in color, but the rest of the book is B&W. The front cover has truncated overhead and starboard side drawings in realistic color, while the rear cover has full overhead and starboard side views in color. There is a one-page short history and characteristics, followed by a brief Table of technical data, and then 18 pages of B&W line drawings of hull lines, ship sections, superstructure levels, armament, and fittings in 1/100, 1/200 scale, detailed enough for scratch-builders, accurizers and modifiers for building Vanguard in any scale.

This TopDrawings has something new in the Series – color foldouts. Sheet B has eye-popping 1/400 scale overhead and both side views in full color – very helpful for getting the right paint colors. Sheet A has the same views as Sheet B, but in B&W line drawings. Sheets A & B show Vanguard in her 1946 fit, and Sheet C shows the same overhead and starboard side views in B&W from her 1953 fit, with less AA armament, and hull and top deck views from 1946. Sheet D shows the port side full hull view with port and starboard views from 1946 identifying the armament and radar/communications gear.

For modelers, there are at several kits available:

  1. Hasegawa 4115 1/450 scale
  2. Frog F136 (old, ? scale)
  3. B-Resina BR719 1/700 (old)
  4. H-P Models (Germany) WL-700-0011/700
  5. Samek 700034 1/700
  6. diStefan (Shapeways) 3D 15inch turrets 1/700
  7. Micromaster Vanguard 5.25inch and 15inch turrets 1/700

Note that these kits are not to be confused with kits of the previous HMS Vanguard from 1910. This TopDrawings is a go-to reference for building or scratchbuilding the Vanguard as a waterline or full hull model.

Summary

This book is intensely focused on modeler’s needs for building this ship in any scale. As usual, the B&W drawings and new color drawings in 1/400 scale are clean, simple, detailed and accurate – one would need authentic blueprints to be (maybe) more accurate. Please note that the previous HMS Vanguard, a St. Vincent class battleship, a Jutland survivor that sank in 1917 from a magazine explosion. This book is a must-have for building the available kits for HMS Vanguard as well as scratch-building endeavors. Very highly recommended if you want to build the Last Battleship.

Figures

  • Figure 1: Front cover of Kagero TopDrawings 123 The British Battleship HMS Vanguard.
  • Figure 2: Rear cover of Kagero TopDrawings 123 The British Battleship HMS Vanguard.
  • Figure 3: SheetB partial close-up of the foldout showing color profiles.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy!

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