Hey all, just wanted to pick your brains again. I was wondering if anyone could reccomend some decent reference books for ww2 era japanese ships, preferably battleships.
Thanks in advance.

hello Eric,
if you are looking for all the ships in the IJN(Imperial Japanese Navy)try this one:
Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy,1869-1945 by Hansgeorg Jentschura,Dieter Jung,Peter Mickel.is has all the ships,length,width displacement,armament,engines,etc.there are alot of photo's, line drawlings but they are not very detailed(you cannot count rivets).a good start for for referance.
if you are looking for books a a certain IJN Battleship on the Dragon Models web site they have a book company that has some books on IJN ships.i know that there are books on the Yamato class of Battleships.
i also use the Jane's set of books,for Battleships i would suggest you get Jane's Battleships of the 20th century by Bernard Ireland.this books has all the BB's used by all countries in the 20th century withgood photo's and line drawlings.i think it is a great book and i think anyone who wants to improve thier research library should get it.
hope this helps.
cheers,
Bruce

Hobby Link Japan has a great photo essay book on IJN battleships available now for about $20. Fantastic photographs, text is strictly in Japanese.

photo of the cover,



sample images, for discussion purposes only please.

For the rivet counter, the 3D CG book selection from Japan is invaluable. I have the Nagato, there's a set out for the Yamato and more to come soon. Here's the cover for the Nagato 3D CG book.

Guys, thanks alot! , thats a great start for me. I'll see what I can get from those as I wait for the lionroar set to get here.

hello Eric,
when you order the 2 books i suggested check with bookdepository.com.they have alot of ggod books and FREE shipping world wide.i have been doing business with them and i have never had a problem,in fact i am getting to do an order in the next few days.
cheers,
Bruce

Check out this news story.

Kenny

Thanks Gator, that looks perfect, as does the price

I don't know if you are looking for a specific class of ship, but if you are looking for the do all to end all, then you want to go with Anatomy of a ship series. I know they have the Yamato class and the Nagato class out. Might get pricey trying to get a complete set if there is such a thing (I don't know if they have done a Kongo, Ise, or Fuzo class)

From the AOTS series I have these three IJN volumes:
Yamato
Takao
Fuso

Apart from those japanese written volumes that Frank advised (good value for the money) you also could get:
Squadron/Signal




Although not a real bible, they are a good value to the money


Rui

Hi Eric,

Another good source for detailing efforts is the good old Morskie Monograf selection. I have used these quite often and the line drawings as well as photographs are quite good. Several of them are available in Polish/English text versions. They are available from White Ensign Models. They have a few different IJN subjects as well as many other countries available in all sorts of ships.

Thanks everyone, turns out a good friend of mine has the Jane's book and told me to use it as long as I need. Glad to see there is so much out there, just gotta start hunting!