Encyclopedia of Warships/AJ Press vol.18+19

[Kit-Builder]

Anyone know how relevant these two would be to Bismarck/Tirpitz modelling?
The write up on the AJ Press website is

Vol.18
The whole book is devoted to the ship's hull. We included six sheets of drawings in A1 size. First two show the superstructure as in March 1941, drawn to 1:200 scale. Third and four are copies of original yard blueprints of Tirpitz, which we were able to publish thanks to Mr Breyer, well-know German historian. On the other two sheets we show for the very first time colour three-dimensional drawings of Bismarck superstructure, based on original documents. On the inner sides of cover are Tirpitz camouflage schemes - reconstruction from photographs.

“A4 size, 64 pages + cover, 83 b&w photos including fragments of original yard documentation, 3 drawings, 6 sheets of scale plans (A1 size) - two of them show colour 3D views of Bismarck superstructure, 2 colour plates.”

Vol.19
Pt. 5 is devoted to armor and superstructures of the ships. The book is illustrated with many photographs and three-dimensional views of Bismarck superstructure and her guns.
Although it is the last volume, we did not manage to publish all interesting material in it. We plan to issue a separate book about camouflages of the two battleships.

“A4 size, 84 pages + cover, 77 b&w photos including fragments of original yard documentation, 8 drawings, 28 colour plates showing 3D views of Bismarck superstructure and guns, 2 colour plates illusrtating camouflages.”

When Pt.4 and Pt.5 are used I can assume that there is/was parts 1-3 somewhere. Anyone know of these?
Thanks in advance, Steve

[Jack B.]

I have volume 18, and it is a great book. Pictures and drawings are very good. I also have gone out and purchased volumes 33,34 & 35 on German heavy cruisers, along with volumes 22 & 23 on the light cruisers. These are very well done books, and used with other material are valuable. Now I just have to learn to read Polish. One good thing is the pictures have English captions for those of us that have not mastered the Polish language yet. As soon as I pay off the credit cards, I will be purchasing volume 19 on Bismarck/Tirpitz

[_Derfflinger_]

Jack - Also consider AJ Press No. 42 on KM Graf Zeppelin. Simply terrific!!!

Derf

[Kit-Builder]

I have volume 18, and it is a great book. Pictures and drawings are very good. I also have gone out and purchased volumes 33,34 & 35 on German heavy cruisers, along with volumes 22 & 23 on the light cruisers. These are very well done books, and used with other material are valuable. Now I just have to learn to read Polish. One good thing is the pictures have English captions for those of us that have not mastered the Polish language yet. As soon as I pay off the credit cards, I will be purchasing volume 19 on Bismarck/Tirpitz

Hi Jack and all

Jack did you not get number 19? Do you know if there is pt.1 thought to 3? Thanks for taking the time to reply, I truly appreciate it, very .
As for the heavy cruisers, I’ve ordered #33 to see what it was like. I’m also getting Gun Power 17 on German heavy naval guns (for Bismarck, Scharnhorst and Hipper class ships).
My friend and myself are having a good look at 1:100 scale RC ships and as we are at the absolute start we are gathering reference material. A big scale Bismarck is back on the table (on again, off again) and a Prinz Eugen could be built in tandem with it. I’ve really come to like the PE and how cool would it be for those two to steam out together again if only in 1:100?
Thanks again Steve

Derf, the book seller that is getting me my copies was trying to slip me a copy of No. 42 (along with U-boat books) and he had high praise for it as well. I had to decline as I was only really interested in the Bismarck but he did make it sound good .
Regards Steve

[marcelo_malara]

I remember (don´t know where) reading that volumes 1, 2 and 3 are devoted to the operational history. I wish I could be more helpfull, but that is all I can do.

Regards

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

well my friend Miroslaw Skwiot makes really good books

Those are called AJ-Press ( AJ stand for Adam Jarski which is the editor ) but somebody refers to them also as Morskie monography about warships, they are printed in Poland, lately all of them are bi-languaged in English.

Poland books do include some old prints that are very valuable as well, especially about photos, but I think that all of that editor works is now into AJ-Press.

The photos are superb in high quality, the technical drawings very good ( I think among the best I have ever seen ) and the camouflage schemes very researched and complete by them too, but this is still a very difficult task to be achieved.

I admire their works and the efforts they are spending to make them .

I personally strongly suggest to purchase them all as well as all the others of course, as they are full of precious ducumentation.

In my opinion any book is worth the money spent for it, as the author surely did provide some value add, one way or the other.

Those ones do have a lot of value, guaranteed

I have them all, if you talk Bismarck class you have 5 books from number 15 till 19.

But than you have the Adm Hipper class ( 3 books ), the Panzerschiffe class ( other 3 books ), the light cruisers ( 2 ) and the guns book ( 1 ) and soon a camouflage dedicated one.

I have one old dedicated to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as well.

So as you can see they covered entirely the Kriegsmarine already.

@ Steve,

very useful for modeling as well.

As said, only small corrections needed sometimes, but we are talking top level knowledge now.

For everything else, to me are the most complete books available out there so far, a must to have.

Ciao Antonio

[José M. Rico]

I have Vols.15-19. Very good material overall; excellent for modelers. Unfortunately they are only available in Polish language.

Vols.15-16 deal with the operational history of the Tirpitz.
Vol. 17 deals with the operation history of the Bismarck.
Vols. 17-18 are about technical details of both Bismarck and Tirpitz.

All five volumes contain a large amount of detailed drawings and plans. As for the big A1 plans, I don't remember which plan belongs to which volume, but overall there are nine sheets printed both sides.



http://aj-press.home.pl/

[Kit-Builder]

Thank you all very much for your help. Sounds like I did the right thing when I ordered these books.
There is a new “Gun Power” vol.2 for you Antonio. I would like to see one on the Flak weapons used by the KM. The Flak weapon drawing in “The Battleship Bismarck, Anatomy of the Ship” are good (the 10.5cm could have done with more internal referencing) but you can see how much better the odd 3D drawing is for a good understanding.
Again thanks everyone, regards Steve

[marcelo_malara]

Anyone can tell the contents about the two volumes of German Naval Guns?

Thanks in advance.

[Kit-Builder]

....two volumes of German Naval Guns?

I hope this helps you friend.

Volume 1 deals with just these three turret/gun combos
38 cm (15”) used in KM Bismarck and Tirpitz
28.3 cm (11”) in KM Scharnhorst, Gneisnau, Deitschland /Lützow, Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee
20.3 cm (8”) in KM Admiral Hipper, Blucher and Prinz Eugen (and not-completed Seydlitz and Lützow).
This text above and image were lifted from here. It’s an on line “review” of the book.
http://www.modelingmadness.com/others/b ... oodgna.htm


Volume 2
German Naval Artillery vol. 2 (PL/ENG)
Author: Mirosław Skwiot
A4 size, 112 pages, 27 pages of 3D colour drawings (incl. cover), 157 b&w photos, 16 drawings, 24 tables.

Volume 2 of the book devoted to naval guns of Kriegsmarine deals with 15 cm SK L/45 guns of cruiser Emden, 15 cm SK C/25s in K-Class cruisers, widely used 15 cm SK C/28s, 15 cm Tbts KC/36s in destroyers and 12,7 cm SK C/34s in destroyers.
The out of print page at AJ Press has All 5 vol. (15-19) dealing with the Bismarck/Tirpitz listed. I suppose its get em if you can or start looking on e-bay.
http://aj-press.home.pl/archiv_ang.HTM

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

very good to see the cover of the second volume, I am going to order it immediately

I think it is due to recognize to those guys that they have raised up the level of knowledge on those ships and their details very much, providing huge amount of very valuable information in a very structured way thru their books .

Similarly I think is due to underline also Classic Warships publications and lately my friend Philippe Caresse with Lela Press as well both by his books on Bismarck and Scharnhorst as well as a lot of good articles on Navires&Historie .

Surely I forgot to mention many others for very good books and publications too .

Lately as a general observation, the photo quality is much better than years ago, many new unpublished ones, drawings and camouflage infos are increasing, so the whole trend is positive and do provide to those ships lovers and for the beginners a lot more infos than in the past when I started.

Than of course the Internet and sites like this one makes the difference on free infos for everybody .

Ciao Antonio

[Kit-Builder]

“….Internet and sites like this one makes the difference on free infos for everybody…”

G’Day everyone,
Antonio I don’t like to think of it as “free” more like friends sitting around discussing a common interest. A book can’t reply to a question nor will it interpret if you need help or not in understanding the topic.
If all that was here was in books would it be worth publishing it all? I think not, but I do think all of you are important to my understanding and interest of the German navy warships.
See (read) you all next year, Steve

[marcelo_malara]

Thank you guys for the info, I am going to get the first volume, as my primary area of interest is battleships and their armament.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

@ Steve,

YES, I agree with you, .. my ' free' definition was only related to the fact that a book needs to be payed ( sometimes very expensive ) while here our friendship and common interest allows us to share free infos and very often with a lot of knowledge on what we share .

@ marcelo,

you are going to like it....

Ciao and HAPPY 2006 to everybody. Antonio

[José M. Rico]

... I am going to get the first volume, as my primary area of interest is battleships and their armament.

I have the first volume on German naval artillery. Very good book. 112 pages, great photos and 3D graphics. The good news is that unlike the Bismarck/Tirpitz volumes, this one includes both Polish and English text.