Introduction

When it comes to reference titles aimed specifically at the modeller Kagero must rank among the top tiers of the genre. The titles in this series from Kagero specifically look at enabling the modeller to super detail a purchased model or for that matter to build a model from scratch. This title looks at the Battleship HMS Prince of Wales.

Review

This offering from Kagero is authored by Waldemar Góralski. The offering is a soft backed book with 28 pages between the covers. The card for the cover has a very glossy finish and is of a reasonable thickness to protect the pages within. The paper inside is very smooth and a nice semi matte finish. This text in this book is in English and Polish, English on the left and Polish on the right of each page. The text in this offering only has a single page dedicated to the text. The limited text in the book is little more than a brief history of the vessel, but as this book is aimed at the modeller rather than the historian I am happy with the text.

Moving onto the heart of this book and the glorious visual reference. The drawings in this book cover the vessel in great detail from stem to stern and in portions. The drawings in the book are in no particular scale as none is provided. The detail provided is excellent as it covers the ship from so many aspects that it provides excellent close up details of a subject that is difficult to cover due to its sheer size. After a comment in a previous thread I took a close look at the rigging detail in the book and I must say I found it lacking in this aspect.

One thing that this title does well is to look at specific parts of the ship allowing the modeller to improve the accuracy of a model if they have the required skill set. This aspect of the book looks unsurprisingly at the weapons systems, something that I would expect; however in additions the book also supplies detailed looks at areas such as the lifeboat mounts.

Supplied with the book there is two fold out sheets with images of the full vessel printed in 1/144th scale on both sheets. These fold out sheets provide three lots of line drawings from the sides, top, bow and stern. The last side offers a five way view of the vessel in full colour and so offers an interesting painting guide. The line drawings do a better job of covering the rigging on the vessel and an even better job on the weapons systems and lifeboats. The one thing missing here is a series of guides showing the cross sections of vessels hull and so helping the modeller working from scratch.

Conclusion

Ships are not my area of modelling, but I can still appreciate the form and those members who tackle these subjects. This offering looking at the British Hunter Class Escort Destroyer HMS Badworth provides an excellent reference for someone adding detail to a model, but lacks when it comes to the scratch builder due to the lack of hull cross sections. In all other respects this is an excellent offering for the modeller wanting to improve detail on a model of the HMS Badworth.