Stefan Draminski

This book bears the title of another volume in the long-standing "Anatomy of the Ship" series which has been a staple of the Seaforth and U.S. Naval Institute publishing houses since the 1980's. This time, however, the publisher is Osprey, whose list of military and naval titles grows longer every year. The author is Stefan Draminski, a Polish author whose previous credit include a similar volume on the German battleship Bismarck and assistance to other works.

This is a big volume, bigger than the Seaforth/USNI versions, weighing in at a hefty 352 pages. This book, published in 2020, is arranged like its predecessors, and is divided into three sections. Section 1 is the textual introduction with contemporary photographs as illustrations. Section 2 contains what the author calls "primary views", and Section 3 has the pages of detail drawings.

Section 1 is there because it has to be. It is well-written but suffers from a problem I've noted with other Osprey products--translation. Whomever Osprey hires to perform the translations for its non-English writing authors isn't familiar with military/naval terms, so I think the text is somewhat awkward at times--for example, the use of the word "artillery" rather than the term "gunnery" or "fire control". But let's face it--the potential owner of this book is not likely to be very interested in the introductory material.

The core of this work is Sections 2 and 3, and it is here that Osprey is breaking into a marking previously dominated by Polish model publication houses such as Kagero and Model Hobby. Evidently Osprey is looking at economies of scale that are afforded to larger businesses--this large volume provides far more material than Kagero and is cheaper than Model Hobby, although Model Hobby books contain much supporting material. The CAD drawings in two and three dimensions are a great boon to the model builder. The depictions seem to be accurate, although it would take a serious effort using all existing photographs and drawings to validate Draminski's work.

For one who is used to seeing model reference pubs in the form of Squadron's "On Deck" series, or the various Floating Drydock and Warship publications, Osprey's step into the "Anatomy of the Ship" series seems to be a significant addition to the ship modeler's library. I look forward to seeing what other titles will appear.… (más)