What is a good beginners book I could use to get going with?
After several years of modeling wooden ships, I have acquired nearly forty volumes of reference books in my model room. Some of them are general works and some of them offer advice on specialty workrigging, planking, etc. However, if I were beginning this fascinating hobby, and could have only one reference book, that book would be Ship Modeling Simplified by Frank Mastini. In our hobby, skill levels are commonly characterized as Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. There should be a fourth level: Master Shipwright. After several years, most of us can claimrightly or notthat we have arrived in the Advanced class. A very small fraction of us can claim to be a Master Shipwright. Frank Mastini was a Master Shipwright. If you are going to learn from others, why not learn from a Master. At 161 pages, this is a short book as references go, and certainly too short considering the wealth of information contained in it. First, nearly every page contains crisp, well-drawn illustrations of the s
