I highly recommend the Landstrom book - and all the others he wrote. The man was a rare combination: a fine, knowledgable historian, an archaeologist, and a first-rate artist. His book on Egyptian ships, published more than thirty years ago, is still, as I understand it, generally regarded as the standard work on the subject.
I fear I can't be as enthusiastic about Milton Roth's Ship Modeling From Stem To Stern. I've ruffled some feathers with my comments about that book in other web forums; I hope the following doesn't ruffle any more, but I really feel obliged to warn newcomers about this book. In 1988, right after the book was published, I wrote a review of it for the Nautical Research Journal. Quite a few years later the subject came up on another web forum, Drydock Models. Rather than try to rephrase anything, I'll quote what I wrote on that forum at that time:
"I read the comments on Dr. Roth's book the first time I visited the Forum. I've hesitated to post a reply because (a) I figured it would be bad form for a newcomer to do such a thing, and (b) I take no pleasure in making negative comments. So far I've concentrated on enjoying the site (and there's a great deal here to enjoy), and occasionally adding some comments on small points where I thought I might be able to help. I am now, however, going to take a deep breath and say some unpleasant things. My reason is that I think it's extremely important to steer newcomers toward good books - and away from bad ones.
"Rather than try to rephrase my observations on this book, I'm going to take the liberty of copying a review of it that I wrote for the Nautical Research Journal shortly after the book was published, in 1988. It's in Vol. 33, p. 215. Here goes.
"With the untimely death of Dr. Milton Roth ship modeling lost one of its most enthusiastic promoters. A retired podiatrist, Dr. Roth came to the hobby late in life but made a noticeable impact on it. He was a well-known, jovial fixture at NRG conferences, and his articles appeared regularly in several commercial magazines. His mail-order supply house, 'The Dromedary,' earned a fine reputation for fast and friendly service. Dr. Roth also acquired his share of critics, who wondered (and sometimes asked none too subtly) how thoroughly he really understood his subjects. This book probably will give his admirers and detractors alike about what they expected.
"In style and content it is a highly individual work. Irrespective of the title, the text deals almost exclusively with sailing ships; powered vessels are mentioned only in passing. The weight given to various topics seems to reflect the author's own interests. We get two paragraphs on the 'lift' method of hull construction and sixteen on techniques for removing CA adhesive from various parts of the human anatomy. Much of the commentary on the problems of product distribution will be of limited interest to most readers. On the other hand, Dr. Roth deserves applause for his forthrightness in describing the defects of imported 'plank-on-bulkhead' kits.
"Those who knew Dr. Roth will find his personality stamped on every page. Other readers will, on numerous occasions, scratch their heads as they attempt to figure out what the author was trying to say. (A representative sentence: 'It will be for you to decide what you have learned as distinct from what you have not already known.' [Think about that one a minute.]) The best parts of the book are the good-humored introductions to the subject's most basic elements. There are some peculiar errors of fact (no reliable evidence suggests that Samuel Pepys ever built a ship model, and the reference to the death of an English king in 1712 is bewildering), but most of the historical information is general enough to be innocuous. The lists of sources for tools and kits will come in handy, and the bibliographical notes, though they have a few holes in them, are reasonably thorough and up to date.
"The weakest chapter is the one entitled 'Size and Scale.' Herein, I fear, the reader will get lost in a jumble of outright misinformation ('1/4 inch = 1 foot' and 'quarter scale' do not mean the same thing), and murky syntax ('the popular scale, 1/4 inch = 1 foot, which we have established as also being equal to four feet of the size in the original object, is expressed in units'). 'To find the decimal equivalent,' we are advised at one point, 'divide 12 by the scale you wish to model.' Six lines later we read: 'To find the decimal equivalent, divide the scale by 12.' At this point I'm not sure what the author intended the term 'decimal equivalent' to mean, but one of those statements has to be wrong. An understanding of scale is basic to any form of scale modeling. Burying it under three pages of verbal and arithmetical confusion does no service for anybody - least of all the novice for whom, presumably, the book was intended.
"The text runs into trouble whenever it gets involved with mathematics. The author apparently wasn't at ease with the concept of percentage; he tended to write '.22 percent' when he meant '22 percent.' The chapter on 'Proportions for Rigging' ends with a table entitled 'Standing Rigging of the 74-gun Ship of the Line, Washington, 1815 (based on tables of USN 1826).' There follows a list of rigging lines, accompanied by a list of numbers. What do the numbers mean? Well, the explanation at the bottom reads: 'Ratio/Proportion of spar Diameter Circumference (In Inches).' Good luck, intrepid beginner.
"Many of the book's problems undoubtedly stem from the sad circumstances under which it was finished. If the author had lived to give the proofs a thorough reading he undoubtedly would have made some major changes. (I don't think he really meant to say, for instance, that 'there is no difference between a scalpel and a saw in their respective cutting abilities as long as they are sharp.') Part of the blame for the book's overall sloppiness must also rest on the shoulders of the publisher. Virtually every page contains grammatical and/or typographical errors. The manuscript needed, and apparently never got, the attentions of a competent editor.
"The book includes about 250 illustrations, the majority of them reprinted from other published sources. The drawings range in quality from the superb (George Campbell's perspective view of H.M.S. Victory's foretop) to the awful. In several cases they do not quite serve their intended purposes. A reprinted drawing captioned 'Buttock Lines in the Sheer Plan' also shows the station lines and waterlines - and provides no hint as to which are which. The captions generally acknowledge the sources properly, though the names of several artists and repositories are garbled. Two old prints are credited to 'The National Maritime Museum, Washington, D.C.' No such institution exists.
"There also are numerous photographs - but, surprisingly, none of Dr. Roth's own models. The quality of reproduction generally is high, the thirteen color plates being excellent. But at least one photo is printed in reverse, and another is upside down.
"The last chapter offers advice to the modeler who wants to turn professional. A rather emotional passage lays out a formula to determine the price of a kit-built model. Much of this discourse is predicated on the emphatic assertions that $3.65 x 50 hours = $175 and 100 x $80 = $800. Should the reader laugh or cry?
"Milt Roth was a first-rate gentleman, and I wish I could recommend his book. His many friends probably will value it as a poignant memorial to a likable, outgoing, and ebullient character. But it is not a sound introduction to ship modeling."
John A. Tilley
East Carolina University
"I expressed some brief reservations about the Roth book a while back in another section of the Forum, and another participant asked, quite reasonably, what beginner-level ship modeling books I would recommend. I'll repeat here that I like Wolfram zu Mondfeld's Historic Ship Models, Ben Lankford's How To Build First-Rate Ship Models From Kits, the various works of Harold "Dynamite" Payson, and (though it's out of print) the anthology Scale Model Sailing Ships, edited by John Bowen. There's a shortage of good books in this category - largely because veteran expert ship modelers tend to write things that show off their expertise, rather than assist the beginner. But I have to suggest that Ship Modeling From Stem to Stern is a book to avoid.
"Comments and disagreements will, of course, be welcome. That, as I understand it, is what this Forum is about."
Several members of the Drydock Models forum jumped to Dr. Roth's defense - and got rather emotional about it. On the other hand, when the subject came up still later at Modelshipworld.com, it seemed quite a few people agreed with me: http://modelshipworld.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=941&highlight=milton+roth .
My suggestion to anybody who's interested: read all those comments and form your own opinions. The pictures in the book probably are, in themselves, worth the $7.00 jamnett paid - especially if the money goes to a worthy cause. Frankly I wouldn't spend more than that on the thing.
Regarding plans - the Landstrom book will be a big help. (In addition to the big color outboard profile/sail plan, there's an exquisite, pen-and-ink perspective drawing of the bow, including the guns.) If you find you need more, the Amis du Musee de la Marine (Friends of the French National Maritime Museum) publishes a series of plans of French ships, including a Reale. I've only seen a few of the plans in this series; frankly I've had mixed reactions to them. The ones I saw were on relatively small scales, with several drawings on one sheet of paper. They certainly seemed to be accurate, but the amount of detail was...well, so-so. They're sold in the U.S. by Taubmann's Plan Service: http://www.taubmansonline.com/ . The price is sky-high.
Several Forum participants have commented in the past that Taubman's prices for the Musee de la Marine plans are far higher than what various European dealers charge. Off the top of my head I can't recall any other distributors for them; maybe some other member can help.
Hope that helps a little. Good luck.