This is the ninth volume in a series providing ship modellers with all they need to know about a famous class of warship and associated model kits.

The subject of this volume is the Imperial Japanese Navy Kongo class capital ships. The lead ship of the class, Kongo, was originally built in great Britain for Japan as a battlecruiser. Her three sisterships were all later built in Japan, also as battlecruisers. After several major reconstructions, they were brought up to modern standards and reclassified as battleships. During the Second World War, these ships found a perfect role as escorts for fast carrier task forces. Less successfully, they were also used in support of lighter forces in confined waters where two of them were lost. The surviving pair saw much service before they too were sunk in the final stages of the war.