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IJN Aircraft Carrier Battleship Ise Kagero Super Drawings in 3D Ise (whose name comes from an ancient Japanese province on Honshu, now part of Mie Prefecture) was the lead ship of the two-vessel Ise-class battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which saw combat service during the Pacific War. Ise was laid down as battleship 5 at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries shipyard in Kobe on 10 May 1915, launched on 12 November 1916, completed on 15 December 1917, and assigned to the Kure Naval District. Completed too late for service in World War I, in the early 1920s, Ise patrolled off the Siberia coast and in northern waters in support of Japan's Siberian Intervention against the Bolshevik Red Army. From the mid-1920s through the late 1930s, Ise patrolled mostly off of the China coast. On 12 April 1922, she hosted a delegation which included Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, and the future Lord Mountbatten. Ise-class battleships were fascinating ships and their story began in 1906 with the completion of HMS Dreadnought. The appearance of the all-big-gun turbine-powered Dreadnought rendered all existing battleships obsolete overnight, and in response the rest of the world's navies initiated massive construction programs. The world's major navies had gained an insurmountable lead in the number of dreadnoughts in service or under construction. Recognising the futility of trying to compete in sheer numbers, the Japanese Navy adopted a quality before quantity approach, building fewer ships each of much greater capability than foreign designs. In 1911 the Japanese government passed the Emergency Naval Expansion bill which authorised the building of four battlecruisers and one battleship. The battleship was to be designed and built in Japan; this ship became the Fuso. There were a number of foreign designs to take into consideration when it came time to decide the main armament for the new ships. Britain Royal Navy's Orion class was armed with the 13.5in gun; US Wyoming class with 12-12in guns and the succeeding New York class with 10-14in weapons. Japan decided to leap over the competition and fit the new ships with the 14in gun, so the Fuso-class would carry 12-14in. Armament was not the only area where the Japanese battleship was intended to be superior to foreign designs: it was also to be at least 2 knots faster. Fuso was laid down on 11 March 1912 and she was the first battleship built in Japan using Japanese manufactured materials and weapons. Three sister ships were authorised, one of them laid down in November 1913, but financial difficulties prevented the laying down of the next two ships until 1915, which allowed time for some design improvements. The forecastle deck was shortened, the amidships turrets were grouped together and placed aft of the second funnel and the hull length was increased by 10ft to give more machinery space. The changes resulted in the two ships becoming known as the "Improved Fuso” or Ise class. This is the latest book from Kagero in their Super Drawings in 3D, and like the previous books it has a brief history and the ships specifications in the first seven pages. This includes the following:- Overview Design, Propulsion, and Armour Armaments Service Conclusion The rest of the eighty one pages are filled with beautifully drawn 3D renderings of every part of the ship. It is obvious that a lot of time has been taken to get the drawings this good and accurate, and there is a wealthy of information for the modeller to use during their build. Every area of the upper hull and superstructure is dealt with. It’s good to see the lower hull being rendered too in this release, with good drawings of the propellers and rudder. I particularly like the renderings of the ships boats, which will be of particular interest to modellers, as these are rarely clearly represented in instructions etc. For even more detail, especially for the rigging, Kagero have included a double sided A2 fold out sheet with a three view on one side, in 1:350 and head on and stern drawings in 1:250, along with additional drawings of the ships boats, 5” AA mountings, Type 96 single and triple 23mm mountings, searchlights and main turrets on the reverse. Conclusion With the Fujimi 1:350 still available as is the 1:700 kit from Hasegawa this is an essential book to have in the library should you wish to build a super detailed model for this very interesting ship. The book is so well produced, that it would also be of great value for those interested in Japanese warships or naval warfare in general. Review sample courtesy of