Bernard Frölich has always been a builder of ship's models. As a geographical engineer, he discovered Jean Boudriot's books and monographs in the late 70s. He fell in love with the beauty of sailing ships of the classic period and since then has dedicated all his free time to building historical navy models.
This practical experience made him a genuine authority in that field. He has published numerous articles on that subject over the past years. At our request, he has gathered, edited and significantly enriched these articles in order to produce his book.
L'ART DU MODELISME describes the author's experience and methods in 300 pages abundantly illustrated with numerous drawings, sketchs and more than 600 commentated photos. In this book, Frölich describes in detail all the crafts that a shipmodeler must master : he must be in turn a shipwright; a carpenter; a cabinetmaker; a marqueter; a blacksmith; a ropemaker and a sailmaker. He shows that any beginner, if he is industrious and persevering, can master this art. This fact becomes all the more evident since we can see the tremendous progress made by the author himself through the use of photographs of his own work. This book itself is a tremendous learning experience. In the first twenty pages Frölich describes his studio, his tools and equipment and his library. He then devotes about one hundred pages to the timbers of a 1730 merchant vessel , the Mercure, and to M.de Tourville 's three-decker vessel of 1680, L'Ambitieux. In the next one hundred twenty pages, the author discusses the equipment, fittings, guns, decoration and sculptures, ship's boats and rigging. The final sixty pages offer a description of Frölich's own models (all at 1:48 scale ) : the schooner Jacinthe; the lugger Coureur; the brig Cyclope; the bomb ketch Salamandre; the 12-pdr frigate Belle Poule; the merchant vessel Mercure and the xebec Requin. The unfinished model of L'Ambitieux - the Chevalier de Tourville's three-decker vessel - is abundantly described in the chapter on framework.
Although the author denies it, this book is a genuine treatise on historical naval shipmodeling. The photographs included show that the skills of today 's shipmodelers match the talent of the creators of the period model pieces preserved and displayed in our museums.