Kagero The Light Cruiser Emden. Super Drawings in 3D

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The Light Cruiser Emden
Kagero Super Drawings in 3D

SMS Emden was the second and final member of the Dresden class of light cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine). Named for the town of Emden, she was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Danzig in 1906. Her hull was launched in May 1908, and completed in July 1909. She had one sister ship, Dresden. Like the preceding Königsberg-class cruisers, Emden was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two torpedo tubes.
Emden spent the majority of her career overseas in the German East Asia Squadron, based in Tsingtao, in the Kiautschou Bay concession in China. In 1913, she came under the command of Karl von Müller, who would captain the ship during World War I. At the outbreak of hostilities, Emden captured a Russian steamer and converted her into the commerce raider Cormoran. Emden rejoined the East Asia Squadron, after which she was detached for independent raiding in the Indian Ocean. The cruiser spent nearly two months operating in the region, and captured nearly two dozen ships. In late October 1914, Emden launched a surprise attack on Penang; in the resulting Battle of Penang, she sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet.
Müller then took Emden to raid the Cocos Islands, where he landed a contingent of sailors to destroy British facilities. There, Emden was attacked by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney. The more powerful Australian ship quickly inflicted serious damage and forced Müller to run his ship aground to prevent her from sinking. Out of a crew of 376, 133 were killed in the battle. Most of the survivors were taken prisoner; the landing party, led by Hellmuth von Mücke, commandeered an old schooner and eventually returned to Germany. Emden 's wreck was quickly destroyed by wave action, and was broken up for scrap in the 1950s

For number 37 in their series of Super Drawings in 3D, Kagero have chosen another great subject, the German light cruiser SMS Emden. Normally with these books, the first fifteen or so pages provide much of the design, specifications and history of the ship. Well, not in this case. Whilst there is a potted history of sorts, it only takes up the first four pages and is very brief indeed.

The next fifty three pages are filled with beautifully rendered 3D drawings covering every part of the ships structure, weapons, boats and sundry equipment. The drawings are really clear and perfect for the maritime modeller to see all the useful details that could help make that masterpiece that we all strive for. Being in full colour also helps with the painting. Unlike the rest of the series, this book does not come with the large full colour pullouts that complimented the previous releases. Instead you can order them, now rolled rather than folded, from the Kagero website. Apparently the folded ones weren’t easy to frame? This book also doesn’t include any plans, which is a great shame as they are really useful to the maritime modeller. The final sixteen pages contain the weird looking 3D pictures, for which you will need the red and blue glasses that Kagero provide.

Conclusion
Following the now tried and tested formula that Kagero have made their own this book is superbly produced. If you have a kit of the Emden in your possession then you really need this book to make the very best of it. Just a shame they haven’t included at least the plans as they are most helpful to the modeller. Highly recommended

Review sample courtesy of