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This book is a photographic record of the construction of two 1/192 scale models of the American privateer Prince de Neufchatel, one waterline model and one with a full hull (we also get detailed instructons on producing the seascape for the waterline model).
To be entirely honest I’m not in a position to review the detailed content of this book –I’d have to be an experienced scratch builder of ship models to judge just how useful this masterclass actually is. It becomes clear very quickly that the author is expecting his readers to have a fairly high level of skill already – carving the hull of the ship from a single block of wood only merits a single short paragraph! After that the level of detail increases rather dramatically, with several pages dedicated to creating the copper covering of the hull from painted tissue paper!
The author is clearly a very skilled, dedicated modeller. The two models of the Prince de Neufchatel are very impressive, and there is also a gallery of other ships he has built, all of which are equally impressive. He also has a rather well stocked workshop, with dedicated moulds for creating ship’s boats, and even a number of tools he has made himself!
As the title makes clear this book is intended as a masterclass, so its target audience will be existing stratch builders looking to improve their work, or perhaps experienced kit modellers looking to move on. As at best a novice many of these steps look very much beyond me, but I’m sure a more experienced modeller would find the details in this book of great value, or at the very least be inspired by the quality of the final models.
Chapters
Building the Privateer Prince de Neufchatel
Introduction
The Masterclass
The Model Gallery
Epilogue
Materials and Tools
Author: Philip Reed
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 128
Publisher: Seaforth
Year: 2018 edition of 2007 original