Review by Felix Bustelo

The Warship Pictorial series of books have earned a reputation among ship modelers and naval enthusiasts as being excellent references. This volume on the United States Navy Portland Class heavy cruisers is the 10th published in this series and several more are in the works.

The first volume in the series (now out of print) was dedicated to the USS Indianapolis, with lots of photographs and detailed plan and profile renderings of ship. This latest title is a "Photo Album" and cover the class rather than one individual ship. This volume is aptly named, as it contain dozens of photographs providing a variety of views and detail shots of the two ships in this class.

The 64-page soft cover book is jammed with a total of 120 black and white of the Portland and Indianapolis (39 of the former and 81 of the latter). A large number of these photos are printed on a full-page, which certainly helps bring out those details. In addition, the front and back covers are graced with color paintings of the "Indy", with the back cover dramatically portraying her sinking.

The Warship Pictorial series have earned the reputation of having crystal clear photographs and that is certainly true of this volume. The photos for the most part are extremely crisp and the few that are a bit fuzzy are presented in the best resolution possible. The selection of photos tries to give modelers as many views and detail shots as possible to assist in building and detailing a model.

The book is divided into two sections, each dealing with one of the ships in the class. A brief history of the ship begins each section, which is then followed by the photographs. Each photo is annotated with a very descriptive caption, which helps to explain exactly what you see. While each ship was slightly different in certain aspects (and these are noted where appropriate), some of the photos are general enough to be applicable for both ships.

At the end of the book, one page provides the general statistics for these ships and summarizes the armament and airplanes utilized on each ship and at what time. Again, this is an enormous help for modelers wishing to build an accurate model.

This book is a very valuable reference if you are planning to build a model of one of these ships. While it stands up well on its own, it can be considered as a companion to the first Warship Pictorial volume on the Indianapolis. The quality of the content and the quantity of the photographs are extraordinary, especially with a suggested retail price of $11.95 US. My thanks to Warship Books for providing this review copy.