USS Texas BB-35
by Steve Wiper of Classic
Warships
illustrations by Tom Flowers |
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Reviewed by Timothy Dike
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| The USS Texas was one of the oldest active Battleships to serve in
World War 2. She was commissioned in time to serve in World War 1, and
underwent many changes over the course of her career before finally being
preserved in her namesake state of Texas. Steve Wiper has captured the
story of her storied career in numerous photo's drawings and plans in this
forth book of the Warship Pictorial series. |
Click the images
below to enlarge
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| There are 48 excellent photo's of her showing many different configurations
from her building to her rebuilding and refitting. She is shown with her
early cage mast and her later tripod mast. The photo's are all extremely
clear and sharp, some showing her during refits that she went though. They
are captioned with appropriate descriptions of what each one illustrates
as well. |
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| There are camouflage design drawings of the Texas in her many appearances,
some with color references such as the one shown on the right. |
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| This book has quite a number of drawings such as this 1/350 center
fold half of which is shown on the right. One fascinating illustration
is the plan views of her 1914 and 1945 appearance. It give you an idea
as to the changes this ship underwent in her career. Notice the antiaircraft
guns spotted all over her deck! |
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| The Revised Texas book has the following additions:
1 Corrected textual content.
2 One additional black & white photo.
3 Four color photos from April-May 1941.
4 One complete set of "Booklet of General Plans" drawings
1934.
5 One entire page of drawings and text devoted to the ship's
boats.
6 3in/50cal single AA mount drawing.
7 12ft Rangefinder four view drawing.
8 1.1in quad AA mount drawing.
9 40mm quad AA mount drawing.
10 20mm single AA mount drawing.
11 USN Life Raft drawing and size chart.
Warship Pictorial 4 - USS Texas BB-35 will be available in July. |
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| In addition to all the photo's and drawings the operational
history of the Texas is documented from her building to her final preservation
as a museum ship. General statistics and armament summary are provided
for each year that a significant change was made. |
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 This
book has been out for a while and was out of print. It is back now and
with more photo's and information than before. Whether you are a history
buff or a modeler you will want to add this book to your library. The photo's
and drawings are great and the price is right at only $13.95 retail.
I hope to see more of these great books revised and brought back. Don't
wait for this one to go out of print, get your copy now.
This 8-1/4" x 11" soft book has 56 pages over 50 photo's and 13 drawings.
Links:
More Classic Warships books |
