I just received my copy of McCarthy's book. For the vast majority of the book, it looks to be very useful. A couple items that jumped out that are not addressed in the text are the wales, which should be tapered in thickness at the bow and the standing rigging. The wales do not appear to taper in thickness so they cannot possibly seat and be caulked at the rabbet at the bow. The standing rigging in the photos is all very light in color so appears not to have been treated
with pine tar (dark brown) as was the norm. His description of planking is good, but photos, drawings, and text on how to spile or properly edge
bend the planks would be helpful. The model shows the planking to be done as was done on a real ship unlike most kit planking, but a little more detail on how to do this would be helpful. Thankfully there are the on-line videos that explain this very nicely as well as a clear description in The Fully Framed Model. The sketch of the cannon is incorrect for the subject vessel, Cruiser 1752, as it appears to be a Borgard gun (1716-1724) rather than an Armstrong (1725-1759) that would be appropriate at the time Cruiser was launched. The carriage does not look quite right as well. A huge plus is that he gives several sources for rigging tables that will give the circumferences of all the various standing and running rigging lines on page 120. He also includes tables for this vessel's masts and yards. These would be useful for any size vessel. Another source of mast,yards, and rigging dimensions that he does not mention is James Lees' Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War.
There are MANY helpful things in this book and I would recommend it for anyone that wants to a scratch build or possibly some bashing of a kit to make some useful changes.
Allan
