The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between sisterships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring colour profiles and highly-detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modelling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the ships, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic survey of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references - books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites.??A follow-up to ShipCraft 11 on inter-war destroyers, this new volume deals with the later classes which were the most modern British destroyers of the Second World War. Marked by a common single-funnelled silhoutte, they were actually very varied, ranging from the large and powerful J to N flotillas, via the austere 'War Emergency' classes that were built in large numbers, to the radically different 'Battle' class, designed with a powerful AA armament for service in the Pacific.

“A terrific author . . . invaluable to the modeler wishing to reproduce these classes of destroyers, and also to those interested in naval history.”—IPMS Magazine The ShipCraft series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, highlighting differences between sisterships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring color profiles and highly detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modeling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the ships, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit. This is followed by an extensive photographic survey of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references—books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites. A follow-up to ShipCraft 11 on inter-war destroyers, this new volume deals with the later classes which were the most modern British destroyers of the Second World War. Marked by a common single-funneled silhouette, they were actually very varied, ranging from the large and powerful J to N flotillas, via the austere “War Emergency” classes that were built in large numbers, to the radically different “Battle” class, designed with a powerful AA armament for service in the Pacific. “This book will be of interest to those who want an easy reference book that covers the British and Australian destroyers of this period, especially with regard to camouflage and overall appearance in service.”—Australian Naval Institute

• Everything the ship modeller needs to know about building a famous warship ?• Numerous detailed plans and colour illustrations ?• Focuses on very popular modelling subjects which are represented by a wide selection of kits ??The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject class, using scale plans to highlight differences between sisterships and changes in their appearance over their careers, then moves to an extensive photographic survey of either a high-quality model or a surviving example of the ship. Hints on building the model, and on modifying and improving the basic kit, are followed by a section on paint schemes and camouflage, featuring numerous colour profiles and highly-detailed line drawings. The strengths and weaknesses of available kits of the ships are reviewed, and the book concludes with a section on research references - books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites. For the first volume in this series, the author has chosen the German 'pocket battleships' of WW2, the best-known of which was the Graf Spee of Battle of the River Plate fame. This innovative and infamous class of surface raiders has long been a popular subject for ship modellers, many manufacturers producing kits of the Graf Spee and the rather different Admiral Scheer and Lützow. This book will show ship modellers how to turn their kits into something really special, but its unparalleled level of visual information will also appeal to the more general warship enthusiast. Roger Chesneau is a lifelong ship modeller and author of numerous naval books, including Ship Models in Plastic.

As the possibility of war loomed in the 1930s, the British Admiralty looked to update their fleet of destroyers to compete with the new ships being built by Germany and Japan, resulting in the commissioning of the powerful Tribal-class. These were followed by the designing of the first of several slightly smaller ships, which carried fewer guns than the Tribals, but were armed with a greatly enlarged suite of torpedoes. The first of these, the 'J/K/M class' was followed by a number of wartime variants, with slight changes to their weaponry to suit different wartime roles. Designed to combat enemy surface warships, aircraft and U-boats, the British built these destroyers to face off against anything the enemy could throw at them. Using a collection of contemporary photographs and beautiful colour artwork, this is a fascinating new study of the ships that formed the backbone of the Royal Navy during World War II.

The Royal Navy entered World War II with a large but eclectic fleet of destroyers. Some of these were veterans of World War I, fit only for escort duties. Most though, had been built during the inter-war period, and were regarded as both reliable and versatile. Danger though lurked across the seas as new destroyers being built in Germany, Italy and Japan were larger and better armoured. So, until the new, larger Tribal-class destroyers could enter service, these vessels would have to hold the line. Used mainly to hunt submarines, protect convoys from aerial attack, and take out other destroyers, these ships served across the globe during the war. This fully illustrated study is the first in a two-part series on the real workhorses of the wartime Royal Navy, focusing on how these ageing ships took on the formidable navies of the Axis powers.

“A very interesting book tracing the development and service of . . . one of the iconic destroyers of the Second World War.” —Australian Naval Institute In this book John Henshaw takes the reader through all the developmental stages of the V & W Class with a detailed history of the step-by-step lessons that were learned, not all of which were fortuitous. In one package the Royal Navy finally acquired a hull that possessed not just good sea-keeping capability but one that was able to carry heavier armament without any adverse effects. Range and speed were commensurate with their size while the superfiring guns, fore and aft, could be deployed in all weathers for a four-gun broadside. The V & W design set the trend for all destroyer design for the next two decades and, indeed, the basic layout of destroyers stayed the same long beyond that. The formula of a raised foredeck and superfiring guns fore and aft continued in the Royal Navy until the Battle Class of 1944 and in the United States Navy until the Fletcher Class of 1943. That the V & Ws served on through World War II in various forms is a testament to the soundness of the basic concept, their adaptability and strength. The V stood for Venerable, because they certainly proved that, and W for Watershed, because they were truly a turning point in destroyer design. This book, which will appeal both to naval historians and modelmakers, brings together under one cover a narrative that is comprehensive in its scope, well researched and elegantly supported with detailed line drawings and selected photographs for the period 1890–1945.