Top tips for crafty constructors

Sailing Ships from Plastic Kits, by Kerry Jang

Model ship supremo Kerry Jang is back in time for Christmas 2024 with another comprehensive work on building miniature maritime masterpieces.

The book starts with a history of plastic ship-modelling kits, pointing out the welcome improvements to the accuracy of each ship's appearance compared to previous materials.

Then, as with his previous books, Jang starts his tutorials on how to get the best out of kits from the likes of Airfix. He offers tips on glueing, painting and attaching fiddly bits, and he points out where you can improve on the colours or designs.

The author focuses on the plastic kits for several particular vessels, including the Vasa and HMS Victory, but the lessons that readers learn will stand them in good stead for tackling other kits, and may even give them the courage to try making ship models from scratch.

Sailing Ships from Plastic Kits
By Kerry Jang
Seaforth Publishing, £25
ISBN: 978 13990 78603

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