The 'ShipCraft' series provides in-depth information about building and modifying model kits of famous warship types. Lavishly illustrated, each book takes the modeler through a brief history of the subject class, using scale plans to highlight differences between sisterships and changes in their appearance over their careers, then moves to an extensive photographic survey of either a high-quality model or a surviving example of the ship. Hints on building the model, and on modifying and improving the basic kit, are followed by a section on paint schemes and camouflage, featuring numerous color profiles and highly-detailed line drawings. The strengths and weaknesses of available kits of the ships are reviewed, and the book concludes with a section on research references - books, monographs, large-scale plans and relevant websites. This volume features the King George V class battleships, the most modern Royal Navy battleships of WW2 and a very popular modeling subject. The King George V herself helped sink the Bismarck, and the Prince of Wales was famously sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Far East. Ships of this class served throughout the war in many theatres, and their changes of armament and color scheme during this time offer many opportunities to the ship modeler to modify basic kits to show ships at different periods in their lives.

Scenes from nature spring to life in Mike Doyle's latest curated collection of LEGO art, Beautiful LEGO: Wild! From botanical marvels to adorable critters such as a sea otter family made from 3,500 LEGO pieces every page is sure to delight the artist and naturalist in all of us. Interviews with LEGO masters from around the world give you a glimpse into the inspiration behind these incredible works of art. Discover amazing landscapes, insects, mythical creatures, and more, all within the enchanting pages of Beautiful LEGO: Wild!

Includes a selection of projects for economical and easy-to tackle conversions of ready-to-run models to transform them into unavailable loco classes and variants.

Those of an engineering bent who wish to make a live steam model have a basic choice between a railway locomotive, a stationery engine, a marine engine or a traction engine in one form or another. The locomotive needs a track, the marine engine a hull and a stretch of water, but a traction engine can run on any area of reasonable ground. Coupled with the enormous growth of interest in preserving and running full-sized engines at agricultural shows and steam rallies, it is no wonder that traction engine models are so popular. In this book, John Haining, the doyen of traction engine modelling, explains what is involved in the construction of working steam models and outlines briefly the history and variety of such engines. A degree of reader familiarity with normal machine work and workshop practice is assumed, but even the inexperienced lathe owner will easily follow the procedures with the aid of the many clear illustrations provided by the author and will be encouraged to try his hand at this fascinating branch of model engineering.

A considerable amount of engineering work takes place on the bench, using hand tools and techniques which are second nature to those who earn their living in an engineering environment; they probably learned at a technical college, as an apprentice, or possibly by the example of older and more experienced workmates. The amateur or hobbyist engineer may not have enjoyed such advantages and, for example, may break a lot of hacksaw blades because he has not been shown how to use the saw or what sort of blades he should be using. This book sets out to cover all the normal bench processes in a simple but informative manner which should help all who have come to enjoy working with metals but whose education did not include a grounding in the basics of engineering benchwork.

Discover a relaxing new hobby, with all the equipment and techniques you need to create 25 beautiful botanical watercolours