I should probably do several posts over the next couple of days, got one of Steven's to put on, plus things acquired at Christmas, etc. However, this is a nice quick one to start.
Ordered a book before Christmas - 'Warships at a glance', a reprint of a 1914 book showing silhouettes of warships of the world in 1914.
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| Nice looking little book. Not much text, mainly a load of silhouettes of the world's warships in 1914. Exactly what it says on the box and looks to be very comprehensive. |
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| So, what did I think of it. As an A4 or bigger book this would be a must buy 10/10. Sadly, it isn't even A5! Some o9me of those silhouettes are just 12mm long! So my verdict is... Sorry, doesn't rate by me as a good buy. Should have been brilliant, so I'm disappointed. Suppose can always scan and blow up the pictures on my PC but that seems pointless. |
My first thought was that it would be great resource for scratchbuilding war ships, at least from the elevation view, but from your description one feels it might not be all that useful for its ostensible purpose! But looking at some of those larger images, I think one might be able to come up with credible likenessess - especially using my 'cartooning' (chibi) methods! Of course, the arrangement of secondary armaments and similar details might pose a problem...
ReplyDeleteInteresting!
Cheers,
Ion
Originally designed as visual aids to identify ships so silhouettes work. They also give an idea of relative size. Could have been a very useful book if A4. Sad.
DeleteA shame you were disappointed but if this is an accurate reprint of an original pre WWI book, then it is probably the size it was originally produced. Most books back then were smaller than we would expect today...I have my grandfathers WWI officers field handbook and it's only about 6" X 4" .
ReplyDeleteI think it's a matter of function here - and I missed the fact that this was a special edition of Jane's issued as a pocket sized version...
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