By John Bowen, © 1997, HB, Conway 218 pgs

ISBN 0-85177-659-0

More Miniature Merchant Ships:

By John Bowen, © 2003, HB, Conway 208 pgs

ISBN 0-85177-936-0

The recent publication of John Bowen’s follow up volume "More Miniature Merchant Ships" provides an excellent opportunity to bring the attention of fellow ship model enthusiast to this excellent series.

Both of these books follow the same format with 50 or so pages of scratch building techniques interspersed with photographic details of the forms and fittings of merchant ships, followed by a large section of high quality plans and specific construction details for 30 or more individual ships.

While the plans are all drawn to 1/1200 scale the detail is sufficient to enlarge them to 1/600 scale or greater. Generally all topside decks, a profile, hull lines (waterline only), bulkhead faces and detail items are included for each of the 30 ships covered in each volume. The modeling techniques are suitable for scratch building in any small scale.

The majority of ships covered are passenger steamers and freighters from the first half of the 20th Century, a selection of which include:

Aquitania (1914)

Baltic (1904)

Campania (1893)

Carmania (1905)

Empress of Russia (1913)

Lusitania (1907)

Nieuw Amsterdam (1938)

HMHS Britannic (1914)

MV Britannic (1930)

Californian (1902)

Carpathia (1903)

Empress if Ireland (1906)

Mauretania (1939)

Oceanic (1899)

The two volumes complement one another, however either is worth having on its own and it would not be necessary to start with the first volume. Anyone with a serious interest in scratch building small-scale ships will find them to be an invaluable resource and inspiration. Strongly recommended.