The Ship Model Forum

Another well written book by Piotr Olender on an obscure but interesting subject. While the title says it is about the naval war, much of the book is about the land war and how it was supported by riverine operations.
The French were trying to colonize Vietnam and needed to force China to recognize French claims and to withdraw Chinese support and Chinese troops from Vietnam. (The book explains that the Chinese Troops went to Nam in support of Vietnamese independence.) The French, for lack of manpower, were not able to win the land campaign, but were finally able to force China to withdraw support and allow France to claim Vietnam by using the French navy to destroy the Chinese navy and disrupt the Chinese economy by blockading their coast.
The book is complete with tables covering the tonnage, dimensions and armanment of the ships of the respective navies and has profiles and plan views of some of the ships involved. These plans are not enough, in themselves, to build a model of any of the ships. The BIG drawback to this book is the terrible terrible reproduction of the photographs in it, for which in my opinion there is no excuse. I firmly believe that they would sell more books like this if they put some money and effort into better reproduction of the pictures.

Thanks for the review/info. I've been looking at this title and trying to decide if I wanted to buy it. Sounds like I should consider the history and drawings to be the main selling points and not count on good pictures.

I already have his two volumes on the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 and like them alot. If you don't have them already, I'd recommend getting them.

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On the workbench:
Gecko 1/16 Panzer II Ausf. F

Recently completed:
Panda 1/16 Pz.38(t)
Takom 1/16 Panzer I Ausf. B
Trumpeter 1/350 Severomrsk (Udaloy)
Trumpeter 1/350 Project 956E Sovremenny
Hobbyboss 1/350 Voltaire

I have his other books which is why I bought this one

I translated this book and I've known Piotr for many years (he lives some 50 km from my place). We first met in 1993, when he released his first book "Lissa 1866" (one of his best, but unfortunately never translated into English).
I know that some of the photos in his "Sino-French Naval War" do not look so good, but there is a simple explanation for that - quality of the originals is often far from perfect.

Although I realize that the quality of some of the photos would be poor, I believe that the "publisher" could do a better job with the photo reproduction. Even the NIP does not do as good a job as they could with pictures. There is a difference in quality between the books that they print and the ones printed in England. I don't blame Piotr at all. I would like to see him do a book on the Sino-Japanese war, and I'd by the Lissa book if it came out in English!

As far as I know, illustrations generate additional costs that is why many publishers (not only Polish ones) try to reduce their number or/and quality. That's sad, but I am sure that you are aware of the fact, the same sometimes happens to the text. So we still have the well-known money problem
Steviecee, I can tell you, that your suggestion may become reality next year.

I know that they skimp on pictures that's why I'd be willing to pay more for better done pictures
where do I order the Lissa book???????????????????