Building a Miniature Navy Board Model

Phillip Reed’s latest building guide tackles what many regard as the ultimate expression of the ship model maker’s art, the Navy Board model. His step-by-step construction of a miniature 1/192 scale model of the Royal George of 1715 demonstrates all the conventions of Navy Board framing and planking. With the aid of nearly 400 photographs, he takes the reader through every building stage. Methods of hull and deck framing, internal and external planking, and the construction of the complex stern are all covered. Reed also shows how to render the multitude of decorative carvings on the figurehead, stern, and broadside. This is the first book in many years to cover the well-known and sought-after early eighteenth-century Navy Board models.

The author takes the reader through every stage of the work with the aid of nearly 400 photographs. Methods of hull and deck framing, internal and external planking, the construction of the complex stern with its array of galleries, doors and windows, are all covered; and the rendering of the multitude of decorative carvings on the figurehead, stern and broadside is also demonstrated. A section showing, amongst others, his model of the siren, explains how the techniques used to frame Royal George can be adapted for ships of a later date, using single and double frames closer to full-size practice.

Here is an invaluable manual from which any model maker can benefit from the lifetime’s experience of one of the world’s leading exponents of the art of miniature shipbuilding.