Planking Techniques For Model Ship Builders

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. A Modeler's reference for planking wooden ships, both kit and scratch models.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. A Modeler's reference for planking wooden ships, both kit and scratch models.

In Ship Modeling Simplified, master model builder Frank Mastini puts to paper the methods he's developed over 30 years at the workbench to help novices take their first steps in an exciting pastime. You don't need the deftness of a surgeon or the vocabulary of an old salt to build a model. What you need is an understanding coach. Mastini leads readers from the mysteries of choosing a kit and setting up a workshop through deciphering complicated instructions and on to painting, decorating, and displaying finished models--with patience and clarity, not condescension. He reveals dozens of shortcuts: How to plank a hull "egg-shell tight"; how to build and rig complicated mast assmeblies without profanity; how to create sails that look like sails. . . . And along the way he points out things that beginners usually do wrong--beforehand, not after they've taken hammers to their projects. Ship Modeling Simplified even includes an Italian-English dictionary of nautical terms, the key to assembling the many high-quality Italian kits on the American market. Model building is fun, and not nearly as difficult as some experts would have you believe. Here is everything you'll ever need to get started in a hobby that will last a lifetime.

The 'plank-on-frame' method is the pre-eminent ship modelling technique, which nearly all model shipwrights aspire to: this practical manual is the foremost guide to its intricacies. Taking as his example the two-masted sloop Cruiser of 1752, the author leads the reader through every stage of building a model of the vessel, from preliminary research and taking off lines to the actual construction of the hull and fittings, and its masting and rigging. Each clear, step-by-step stage is described in the text and illustrated with explanatory line drawings and photographs. Though a single ship is employed as an example, the techniques can equally well be applied to any wooden sailing ship. Since original publication in 1994 this volume has established itself as the standard work of reference for model hull construction and is indispensable for modelmakers who pride themselves on an accurate, elegant scratch-built technique.

A highly detailed, superbly illustrated manual introducing serious model builders to hand-crafting ship models from the bottom up. Not for beginners. 133 illustrations.

The United States and Europe. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, and whether you have hours to spend on a project or years, you'll find money- and time-saving ideas on every page. Book jacket.

As a child, John Brooks loved to build models and sail with his grandfather. When most teenagers were at the prom, John was changing jibs in the Indian Ocean, halfway through a 35,000-mile, two-year cruise. He began building boats in commercial yards at 19, while studying boat design and building his own boats. John worked for many years honing his craftsmanship on fine yachts, small boats, custom furniture, and a harpsichord. He has been a instructor at the WoodenBoat School in Maine since the mid-1990s, teaching glued-lapstrake boatbuilding, fine interior joinery, and carving. Ruth Ann Hill grew up on the coast of Maine. A writer, boatbuilding assistant, naturalist, and graphic artist, Ruth is the author of Discovering Old Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park: An Unconventional Guide and a contributing editor for Maine Boats & Harbors magazine. John and Ruth started their business, Brooks Boats, in 1991. They design and build glued-lapstrake boats in West Brooklin, Maine-and get out to enjoy their handiwork in its proper element whenever they can.