GRAND FLEET BATTLECRUISERS Shipcraft Special

This excellent book is one of the ‘Ship Craft’ series aimed principally at model makers. It contains a wealth of information about the origins, operational employment and appearance of the Royal Navy’s battle – cruisers between 1914 and 1919, however, which makes it into a more general reference work on the subject. About half the book is devoted to a survey of the model products available and there are colour photographs pf component parts and finished models. Models of all the Grand Fleet battlecruisers are available, many of them in a variety of different scales. Whilst this section gives modellers examples and encouragement to achieve excellent results, it also gives more general readers an insight into the construction and detailed appearance of these ships that is simply not available in any other published work the reviewer is aware of. Aircraft operating arrangements in all the ships that had them and especially those in HMS Furious up to 1919 are included in this section. Lastly, the constant scale plans and side elevations by George Richardson give an excellent idea of the growing size and complexity of these remarkable warships. In summary this is an excellent source book for anyone interested in making a model of a Grand Fleet battlecrusier to any scale and is highly recommened for that purpose. – (Warship – Naval Books of the Year)