The last big change in the history of battleships was the HMS Dreadnought. For the first time, there was a 'big guns' battleship that did not have the bewildering array of long, medium and short range guns carried by the earlier ships. Instead, the Dreadnought concentrated on a set of large, long range guns that would be the most powerful naval rifles ever put on a ship.

Not only were the guns the biggest around, but thanks to her steam turbine power, the Dreadnought was also the fastest ship of her size. The British quickly built several very similar ships and the naval arms race was on. Countries with fleets of what were now obsolescent 'pre-dreadnought' ships had to start building similar ships just to catch up with the British. It was mostly dreadnought type ships that the warring powers used in the few naval engagements of WWI, and were the basis of all other battleships built until the type was eclipsed by the aircraft carrier.

This new title from Kagero continues on with their 3D series. It starts with a short historical section on the development and use of the HMS Dreadnought and then goes into the body of the book.

What makes this book truly remarkable is that there is not a single photograph anywhere within its pages. Instead, modern 3D graphic arts provides the reader with well over 100 renders of the ship's exterior in superb detail. It is as if you walked aboard her with a camera and started photographing everything. Even better, there are images from angles that a man with a camera would not be able to easily reproduce. Every aspect of the ship is covered from stem to stern. This includes many images with the ship's torpedo nets deployed, something we rarely see.  In addition, there is a double-sided fold out sheet included that provides plans of the ship in both 1/350 and 1/700 scale. Not only that, but there are detail drawings of various features of the ship, mostly weapons, in various scales.

It is a great read from a historical standpoint and an outstanding visual treat. A book that every battleship fan and modeler of the type should have in their collection.

July 2013

Review book courtesy of the fine folks at Kagero. Visit them for more books.

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