Casemate DKM Pocket Battleship Graf Spee. Kagero TopDrawings

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DKM Pocket Battleship Graf Spee

Kagero TopDrawings

Graf Spee, in full Admiral Graf von Spee, German pocket battleship of 10,000 tons launched in 1936. The Graf Spee was more heavily gunned than any cruiser and had a top speed of 25 knots and an endurance of 12,500 miles (20,000 km).
After sinking several merchant ships in the Atlantic, the Graf Spee was sighted on Dec. 13, 1939, off the Río de la Plata estuary by a British search group consisting of the cruisers Exeter, Ajax, and Achilles, commanded by Commodore H. Harwood. At 6:14 am Harwood’s three ships attacked, but in a little more than an hour the Graf Spee had damaged the Exeter and driven off the other two cruisers. The Graf Spee then made off in the direction of Montevideo, Uruguay, where its commander, Captain Hans Langsdorff, obtained permission to stay for four days to repair damage. The British devoted the period to intense diplomatic and intelligence activity in order to keep the Graf Spee in harbour while they brought up heavy reinforcements. On December 17, however, when the Graf Spee put to sea again, only the Cumberland had arrived to reinforce the Ajax and the Achilles. The fight that the British had anticipated never took place: Captain Langsdorff, believing that a superior force awaited him, had his crew scuttle their ship; three days later Langsdorff shot himself.

This softback book, in their Topdrawing series is a mine of information for the maritime modeller. Consisting of twenty three pages this is very similar to the 3D Drawing series but without the range of colourful renderings, this book is filled with line drawings. This actually makes it easier to see what’s what as you’re not distracted by the colour schemes, although in the centre of the book there are four colour plates of the ship viewed from bow, stern, port side, starboard side and top down. Each line drawing is very nicely done, concentrating on each section of the ships hull from Bow to stern via the bridge tower and funnel. Interspersed between eh larger drawings there are numerous smaller diagrams of individual pieces of equipment, such as the turrets, winches, ships boats, radar/rangefinders and ships cranes. The drawings on the secondary and tertiary armament are particularly detailed, for those modellers who wish to take their detailing to the nth degree. Included with the book is an A1 sheet with line drawings of the ship of the ship in 1:200 scale, (hopefully Trumpeter or Merit International will oblige us with a kit in this scale soon), and a drawing of the Arado 196A floatplane, drawn in 1:72.

Conclusion
If you use this book in combination with the 3D drawings title you will have a most comprehensive reference for modelling the Graff Spee, whatever the scale you choose. The drawings in this title are so clear, easy to view and interpret I can recommend this title very highly.

Review sample courtesy of