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Books Related to German Pocket Battleships Roger Chesneau - ISBN: 1861762097
A satisfactory introduction - Rated
The 'Shipcraft' series are intended to meet the needs of both modellers and enthusiasts, and aim to do this by combining 'real ship' and model content. From a 'real ship' perspective, this book looks at the design history, service careers, appearance and colour schemes of the ships, whilst the modelling content comprises a review of available kits, a showcase of models and a selection of drawings.
This volume benefits from a comparatively narrow focus - there were only three ships of this class, one of which (GRAF SPEE) was lost early in the war. The colour scheme illustrations are useful, and the plans are drawn to a constant scale. Examples of models range widely in quality, from the superlative to the pretty poor, though most are of high quality.
The main handicap with this book (as with others in the series) is that trying to fit both 'real ship' and model content into just 64 pages is a tall order. It might have been preferable to review the available models more concisely, and to devote less space to showcasing models, thereby freeing up more space for 'real ship' information. The product reviews are heavily biased towards plastic kits, thereby omitting larger 'semi-kit' models of the Fleetscale type, from which the more experienced modeller can build superbly-accurate reproductions with the option of radio control. For me, an over-emphasis on plastic kits is the biggest shortcoming here.
This said, this book provides a useful introduction to this interesting class of ship, and the bibiography provides useful pointers to further reading.
