Ship Modeling Mags?

Over here in the UK we have two "general" monthly magazines - Model Boats and Marine Modelling International

Rick

hey Manny, welcome to the "light" side ;)

No equivalent to SAMI or AFV; you can find older issues of Warship Modeler on sale Squadron monthly sales, you can pick a couple see if you like them.

Model Art magazines have great pics/references, but the text is in Japanese

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&tid=585

Osprey New Vanguard has a few titles with broad subjects (i.e. german destroyers 39-45, British battlecruisers 39-45, etc).

Squadron/Signal has the old series of "in action", ww2 stuff. Their "ship" equivalent for "walk arounds" are "On Deck", centered on one ship (ie USS LEx, etc).

Classic Warships Publishing publishes an excellent array of titles, including Warship Pictorials. E-hobbyland carries them the cheapest I have seen.

Leeward Publications publishes short books called "Ship's Data", again for specific ships (ie USS Texas).

Most info we get online; dozens of web sites dedicated to specific ship types.

Couple great photo reference library:

US Navy Photo-History

http://navsource.org/

WW2 in color

http://www.ww2incolor.com/

for modern ships, one of the best sources are the official military web sites.

And dont forget the new Google/Life photo archive...

cheers

Though not magazines, keep these books in mind.

They used to publish "Warship Modeler", and Squadron still has several left:

3rd Q 2005

At the bottom of that page are links to the remaining issues.

There are - or have been - quite a few magazines concentrating on models of twentieth-century ships.  Those publications seem to come and go; I can't claim to have kept up with them.  Some other Forum members probably can comment on them more intelligently than I can.

There's no doubt in my mind that the most sophisticated English-language journal devoted to ship modeling is the British quarterly Model Shipwright.  It isn't cheap, but it maintains a high standard.  It covers ships and boats of all nations and all periods - perhaps with a slight emphasis on sailing vessels, but usually with a good balance of steel ships as well.

In the U.S., there's the Nautical Research Journal.  The publication of the Nautical Research Guild, it covers a range of topics that goes beyond model building, but there's always something for the modeler in it.  The NRJ has been through a period of changes over the past few years; some of those changes I personally didn't like much, but I think things have stabilized now.  It's a first-rate publication.  If your interests don't extend much beyond model building you may find it a little frustrating; some of the articles are pretty esoteric.  But the full run of the NRJ contains a vast amount of information for modelers.

Speaking of full runs - both the NRJ and Ships in Scale offer CD sets containing all their back issues.  The NRJ set, in particular, is one of the most useful resources - and biggest bargains - in the world of ship modeling.  I wish Model Shipwright would offer something similar; maybe some day.

Here's an idea that might be useful.  Our ship model club, the Carolina Maritime Modelers's Society (meetings at 2:00 on the last Saturday of every month, except in the summer, at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort; new members and guests always welcome) spent some of its treasury buying acquisitions for the North Carolina Maritime Museum's library.  We bought a subscription to Model Shipwright and copies of the aforementioned NRJ and Ships in Scale CDs, which are now available for club members (and anybody else who can get to Beaufort) to consult free of charge.  Model clubs might consider making such contributions to their local libraries.  (Hmm...I wonder how many public libraries subscribe to FSM?)

The only one of which I am aware is "Ships in Scale."  It covers mostly wood ships but occasionally has an article about plastic.  However, there is an excellent web site that contains articles, pictorials, etc. It is www.steelnavy.com.

I hope that it helps!

Bill Morrison