The Ship Model Forum

Laurence,

Kaijinsha (Ships of the World) also publish special issues on all of the above navies. There's even one on British destroyers.

http://www.ships-net.co.jp/additionale.html
http://www.hlj.com/hljlist2/?Maker1=KAS

I've got the books on British battleships & cruisers, but I wasn't able to buy the other 2.

Are these the Kaijinsha special issues? You can buy most of them from HLJ, or as a last resort you can order direct from Kaijinsha. And it's now the other 3 - Kaijinsha published a special issue on British aircraft carriers in October last year.

Yes its the specials, I've just ordered them through Hobbylink!

I just returned from Tokyo & was fortunate enough for someone to guide me around old used military bookstores. I bought a Volume 1 Battleships & Battlecruisers by Fukui and a Kaiginsha Ships of the World British Battleships at a bargain price.

I have been collecting the Ships of the World series as they have excellent photos, some of which I have not seen elsewhere.

I would highly recommend the Fukui book vs the cheaper Diamond Sha, which I did have a chance to buy at several bookstores. I decided that the Y5000 price was a false economy vs the massive Fukui book. Actually, I did not know it was the Fukui book when I bought it as I don't read Japanese. I only knew that it was really impressive.

Yes, the Fuki books really are impressive in a world where almost all the photos of Japanese Warships got destroyed at the end of the war. I did buy the Diamond Sha Destroyer book, as Fukui never published his original destroyer book. I was very happy with Diamond Sha volume. Some really wonderful Destroyer photos. I also bought the other "Ships of the World" volume no. 453 History of Japanese Destoyers. These two books taken together are must have items!

Bob B.

IMHO, the Fukui and Diamond -Sha books are complimentary. The Fukuis are more comprehensive, but the Diamond-Sha format and clarity is in almost all cases, superior. Plus, the Fukuis are nearly impossible to get a hold of, for most people.

I've got the 2 and the 3 vol Fukui sets, along wiht the Diamond-Sha series.

Hello Bob,

I am the owner of the books , but you must know that there's a third volume, aircraft carriers airplane tenders, torpedo boats and submarine tenders. I had already the volumes 1 and 2, but I managed to buiy the 3 books in the USA. The average price for volume 1 and 2 is appr. $ 200 per volume and volume 3 does $ 700.

Ton goeman

I have all 3 volumes for sale all mint condition in their card slip cases!
One even has the original card outer slip case also which were nominally thrown away once bought.
PM me if interested

I first obtained volumes 1 and 2, but later I had the only possibility to buy the complete set (3 volumes). So now I owe the first two volumes twice. At Abebooks or some US naval hobbyshops, the volumes were offered at $ 250 each. Volume 3 is the hardest to find and was sometimes priced up to $ 750! So $ 100 for two volumes is a bargain!

I sold all 3 volumes last year for between £100-£150 each and I think the cruiser one went for the highest price.

There are usually stacks of Japanese Navy books at 古本屋 (old book stores). Prices are very cheap. Next time I`m in one of those shops I`ll take some pics and post them.

I have this book titled 帝国連合艦隊 (Imperial Combined Fleet); it is an illustrated histroy of the IJN from inception till 1945.

_________________
No Quarter Asked - None Given

I guess one of the problems with Illustrated books on the IJN is the recycled photos appearing over and over again. Of course this is due to a lack of source material, but I've learned not to go after new titles that claim to be Illustrated histories as there is nothing new by way of photos in them. Often the only thing new appearing is the odd photo from a private source of very low quality. I will say though that probably the best money I have spent in years was to get these two titles on Japanese Destroyers.
"History of Japanese Destoyers , Ships of the World 1992 No. 453" a softbound book some new and well reproduced photos
"Japanese Naval Warship Photo Album , Destroyers" The best from the archives of Shizuo Fukui and The Archives of the Kure Maritime Musem. Full page high quality reproductions and a number of photos I'de not seen before.

Bob B.