Reviewed May 2026
by Martin J Quinn

Even before World War I concluded, the great navies of the world, and those that wanted great fleets, started eyeing new designs and new construction programs. This began an new naval arms race, that was only halted by the Washington Naval Treaty, which killed many of these ships either in the design stage, or on the building ways. Some ships already under construction were allowed to be converted to aircraft carriers (Lexington, Akagi), while Britain was allowed to build the two ship Nelson class, which was a somewhat scaled down version of the N3 battleship design.

Among the design studies for Great Britain were a series of battlecruiser and battleship designs. According to Wikipedia, "These designs were given letters of the alphabet running backwards from K to G. The related battleship designs under consideration at the same time had design letters from L upwards".  Hence the "L" series of battleships were the first designs.  The Roman numbers "II" and "III" differentiated the designs between two gun and three gun turrets. 

As Imperial Hobby Production states on their website:  "The LII and LIII battleship design studies were part of a series of post-WWI design studies that eventually led to the Invincible and St. Andrew class battlecruisers and battleships respectively, and by extension, the Nelson-class battleships, after the Washington Naval Treaty's termination of the former ships. These two studies (noted by Roman numerals to differentiate them from other L2 and L3 design studies) featured flush-deck mounted 18" triple turret main armament with no super-firing turrets".

The design of these ships morphed into an "M" design series and finally the "N3" design, which was approved but never ordered, due to the aforementioned Washington Naval Treaty. 

For more information, see the N3 Wikipedia page here, and also the "Warship Projects" website page for the G3 battlecruiser here.  The latter page has a good drawing of the L-III design. 

The IHP L-III Battleship Design Study

The Imperial Hobby Production (IHP) L-III Battleship Design comes in a narrow, sturdy white cardboard box.

Inside the box is the hull, superstructure parts, tripod masts, main & secondary armament, secondary weapons and 4in AA guns. 

The hull is printed as one piece, and has already been removed from the print raft. It scales out pretty much perfectly to the design length and beam. There is some nice detail here, with planking, bitts, chocks, breakwater, some hatches and anchor handling gear.  There are no anchors and no anchor chain included in the kit. 

While the hull has been removed from the print raft, there are some nubs remaining, so the bottom of the hull will require some light sanding. Print lines show up in the photos, but I couldn't pick them up with the Mk1 eyeball.

Two fully printed tripod masts are included.  Each is keyed to fit either fore or aft. As the main let for the forward tripod is shorter than the aft, you can't mess installation up.  

The instruction is one page, with an exploded view drawing.  Rudimentary, but it works.   

I first saw this kit at MosquitoCon 34 in Wayne, NJ, where Mike Bartel, chief cook & bottle-washer of IHP had a table.  I have to admit that I had never heard of this design, as I was more familiar with the final N3 design. Parts of the ship reminded me of the Nelson's, parts reminded me of the KGV's, while other parts were reminiscent of Hood.  Outside of the US Navy's never-built Lexington battlecruiser and South Dakota 1921 designs, and the British G3 and N3s, I was never a big "never-built" fan, but this model caught my eye. Not only by it's looks, but by it's quality. 

While it is a craftsman kit, and a bit rudimentary (by design), the printing quality is very good. I like the fact that all the parts are removed from the print rafts - but some light clean up will need to be done before assembly. It doesn't look like it will be a long or difficult build.  I think fans of the "what-if" fleet will really like this kit, as well as those looking for either a change of pace or a quick build to cleanse the palette. Others may want to dress it up with some photo-etch and brass rod for the masts and yards. Whichever route you take, I think you'll enjoy it.  Recommended. 

This is Imperial Hobby Productions 1/700 LIII Battleship Design Study, kit number IHP-37002. The kit retails for $87.95, and is available from IHP's eBay store.