Ship Modeling Simplified: Tips and Techniques for Model Construction from Kits (Paperback)

by Frank Mastini (Author) "Take a look at the models on display at your local hobby shop..." (more)
Key Phrases: keel holder, gunport frames, plank bender, Artesania Latina, San Felipe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.

About the Author

Frank Mastini acquired a lifelong curiosity about the sea and its historic sailing vessels as a younster in Italy. A graduate of the Italian Naval Academy, Mastini honed his seamanship skills aboard the 270-foot, square-rigged training vessel, Amerigo Vespucci.

He began his professional model building career in 1961, developing a clientele of collectors for whom he still builds on commission. Mastini recently finished a scratch-built model of the Mary and John, a ship that carried a group of Pilgrims from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1630. He is the author of a series of articles for Ships in Scale magazine and is in frequent demand as a coach for beginning modelers.

When not on the telephone discussing modeling problems, Mastini can be found at his Hartsdale, New York, workbench, enjoying retirement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 162 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (March 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071558675
• ISBN-13: 978-0071558679
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #99,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide for beginners, April 5, 2000

By	Darin Lea (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This book provides very useful insights into planking a model ship from a kit. The book is better organized than many books on model ship building, but does not cover complete construction from start to finish, instead pinpointing specific areas of difficulty you are likely to encounter with a variety of models and kits. The book has several lists of tools and equipment for establishing beginner, intermediate, and advanced workspaces and also provides directions for designing several specialty tools that are quite useful. The illustrations throughout are very detailed.

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect it ain't, but very good it is, September 27, 2001

By	Jimmbbo "Jimmbbo" (Fresno, CA United States) - See all my reviews

After years of plastic and wooden airplane modeling, and having taken up sailing a while back, I decided I just HAD to build a wooden sailing ship, complete with planking, masting, rigging, the whole smash.

To avoid the frustrating (and expensive) experience of learn-by-doing in a new medium, I decided to seek out and purchase a library of "how to" books on the subject, and managed to drain several "boat bucks" (one boat buck = 100 regular bucks) from my bank account in assembling a library of the most highly recommended tomes on the subjects of construction, detailing, rigging, etc.

Each of the construction-related books I bought had something of value, but each was sadly lacking in describing the process clearly, and few had consistently clear photos and easily understood text. Most had slightly different ways of approaching the project, and none made me feel warm and fuzzy about turning an expensive box of wood strips, plans, and other bits and pieces into that masterpiece I still have no room to display (another story).

Mastini came the closest, with clear, simple, logical instructions, sharing his experience with loads of useful practical hints and tips along the way. The book is reasonably well organized, has clear photos and drawings that are near the related text (some authors/editors seem to take some perverse delight in describing a very complex procedure and then referring the reader to "figure 4" which is found some six or eight pages from the text.... Argghhh!) The book includes an Italian-English nautical dicationary and English glossary of terms, useful for the Italian kits whose English translation is weak or non existant. Can't comment on its usefulness yet, but it seems like a nice touch.

Anyway, to date, I have referred constantly to Mastini while assembling my Artesania Latina Harvey (hull construction, planking, bulwarks, decking, deck furniture). I like his plain, clear writing style, and the book has helped me avoid several major pitfals in the process, and helped me turn out a creditable first try so far.

There are only two knocks I can give it (both minor).

The first is that in each section, Mastini briefly outlines a series of steps to building the subject part of the boat. Cool! But... the text following the outline develops in a rather haphazard manner, not as an expansion of the outline. This caused me to continuously go back and forth between the text and the outline, trying to tie them together. Maybe I'm just too linear a thinker, but it was unnecessarily confusing, IMHO.

The second is not really a knock on the book, and applies to most of the books I purchased. It seems that most of the techniques look so simple on the printed page are much more difficult to accomplish with hands and tools :)

Perfect it ain't, but very good it is, and if I were to buy only one book for a project, this would be it.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of The Foundation Books of The Hobby, January 4, 2001

By	Mark A. Savage (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews

Yup, this one right here. My wife got this for me! I just started in this hobby, and SHE buys the best book. Isn't that always the way.

Anyhow, this is a trememdous book about building wooden ship models. It's clear, easy to read, and makes perfect sense. You'll learn more in 10 minutes of reading then hours of weeding through any kit's instructions. Start right here, then move on. This is a must book for modeling, and also, it's just plain fun to read. Many of the questions you have right now can be answered by reading this book. It has really helped me get going.

Don't wait any longer. Get this book, then find yourself a ship to build. Go for it.