IPMS/USA Reviews

Developed following the concept of a titanium-hulled design first seen in K-162, Project 705, or the Lira class, was a small, streamlined double hull design which was built to operate at depths in excess of 2200 feet, and allegedly deeper than 3600 feet. The submarines of this class (seven in all) were 265 feet-9inches in length, 31 feet at the beam, and had a draught of 26 feet-3inches. The liquid metal reactor and two steam turbines could propel the boat at a speed of 20 knots surfaced, or 42 knots submerged. The weapon options included a loading of up to 18 torpedoes or 21 missiles or 36 mines, and the crew compliment was a mere 31 sailors. In addition to the main screw for propulsion, two small propellers were also present for emergency operations as well as slow, quiet maneuvering.

If there was an obscure or one-off submersible designed and built in the 20^th century, you can be sure that the folks at OKB Grigorov, a Bulgarian company, will release a kit. (Check out their website, they manufacture and sell a variety of ships, armor and figure accessories as well).

In the final months of the Pacific War, the U.S. Navy unleashed its full fury on the Home Islands of Japan. Beginning with airstrikes to cover the amphibious landings on Iwo Jima in February, 1945 until the day of the Japanese surrender on August 15, aircraft and naval vessels of the American navy (soon joined by the British Pacific Fleet) ranged up and down the length of the Japanese Islands attacking industrial targets, sweeping aside Japanese air power and, with particular relish, devastating the last remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy!

Waldemar Tubus Goralski is a prolific author of illustrated warship books for Kagero Publishing, and has previously authored Super Drawings in 3D book on Kirishima's sister ships Kongo (in 2015) and Haruna (in 2013, previously reviewed in IPMSUSA). He is still working on the Hiei, the final sister ship in the foursome of battlecruisers-turned-fast battleships. Each book shows improvements and advancements in the quality and clarity of the CG-generated drawings. He also makes exhibitions of his illustrations in Poland where visitors can virtually walk on ships. Waldemar has cooperated with the late Piotr Forkasiewicz for ocean and battle settings, and dedicates this book to Piotr. Wojciech Lizakowski collaborates by running the website warship3d.pl. Waldemar is lucky to turn his passion into a career, igniting passions of many modelers around the world.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing & IPMSUSA for the review copy!

Kagero Publishing continues to illustrate obscure ships in exacting CG 3D detail with their characteristic dark blue background. This time the first German Imperial Navy battleships - the Brandenberg class - is the subject. This book is a softbound European A4 size (8 1/4 by 1111/16 inches) with only English language (instead of English and Polish) -probably because the author was Greek. Tassos Katsikas is a 3D Content Designer, Image Editor for Radnet and graduated from the Anotati Scholi Kalon Technon, a higher education institution in Athens, Greece.

Super Drawings in 3D series are designed for modelers to have a color reference for detailed appearances of individual ships, but in this case there were four almost identical ships. These pre-dreadnoughts were the first ocean-going capital ships of the budding German Navy. The information is detailed enough for scratch-builders, accurizers and modifiers for building any of the four Brandenbergs in any scale.