Military Model Scene

Title: ShipCraft 15 Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships
Author: Les Brown
Publisher: Seaforth Publications
ISBN: 978-1-0361-5030-3

This is a new, revised edition of ShipCraft 15, which was first published back in 2010, by Seaforth Publications. A 64-page soft-cover book in the now well established format for this series.
It opens with a section on the Design of this 5-ship class of fast battleships, followed by the individual careers of each of the 5 ships, Queen Elizabeth, Barham, Malaya, Valiant and Warspite. Each one has its' own fascinating story, and this 140page section is also well illustrated with archive photos. This leads into coverage of the various model products that cover these particular ships that are on the market, an element that has changed over the years as plenty of new kits have appeared over the years since the book was first published. Then we get an updated Modelmakers' Showcase, with 13 first class builds of a variety of new models, spread over 19-pages, with a mix of 1/700, 1/350 scale kits, plus a couple of even large scale scratchbuilt examples. The detail shown in these really is first class, and plenty to inspire the reader to trying them out for themselves. The next 5-pages have a series of colour profiles of each ship, showing different camouflage schemes they wore over the years. These in turn are followed by another well illustrated section on the modifications they underwent during their careers, and including the final section of the book which has 6-pages of line drawings of each ship.
The history of these ships make for some interesting reading, while the numerous archive images help add even more detail for the modeller, who is the prime target audience for this series. The more recent models which are identified in this new edition include some of the superb resin, etched brass and 3D printed details as well as some more excellent plastic kits that are now on the market. For the ship modeller I have no hesitation in recommending this one.
Thanks to Seaforth, part of Pen & Sword, for the review copy.

Robin