The ShipCraft series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeller through a brief history of the subject, highlighting differences between ships and changes in their appearance over their careers. This includes paint schemes and camouflage, featuring colour profiles and highly detailed line drawings and scale plans. The modelling section reviews the strengths and weaknesses of available kits, lists commercial accessory sets for super-detailing of the subjects, and provides hints on modifying and improving the basic kit.
This is followed by an extensive photographic gallery of selected high-quality models in a variety of scales, and the book concludes with a section on research references books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites. This volume is something of a departure for the series in covering a wide variety of the types, at first improvised and then purpose-built for the Brown Water conflict. Besides the well-known American involvement, the book also covers some of the craft used by the French in their earlier struggle with Vietnamese guerrillas.
With its unparalleled level of visual information paint schemes, models, line drawings and photographs this book is simply the best reference for any modelmaker setting out to build one of these unusual craft.
About the Author
Roger Branfill-Cook is a qualified battlefield guide, a professional translator from French, and also a writer on military subjects and a modemaker. His most recent book was 'River Gunboats: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia' published by Seaforth in 2018.
Industry Reviews
"The beauty of this Ship Craft offering is the Modeler's Showcase, a section dedicated to precise color photography depicting sixteen fine representative and inspirational dioramas, most by the author, Roger Branfill-Cook, plus several excellent products by Jack Carrico, and three other individual artists offering one diorama each."-- "Naval Historical Foundation"
"Perhaps most impressive are the dioramas of Jan Vererstraeten and Jack Carrico, with the former being a highly detailed Riverine Patrol Boat and Command and Communications Boat diorama, and the latter being multiple detailed pieces created using kits from Masterpiece Models. Unsurprisingly, Branfill-Cook includes many of his own creations in this section, offering good examples of kit conversions to represent French and South Vietnamese craft as well as a variety of American vessels."-- "The Northern Mariner"
"This book will be of great interest to modelers and military historians alike."-- "AMPS Indianapolis"