Models of sailing ships, with their towering masts and billowing sails, have always held a special fascination for model makers because they capture all the romance of the sea, shipboard life, and a fighting spirit. However, many would-be modellers are discouraged by the inherent complexity of the subject – especially the masts and rigging, as well as the often-sumptuous decoration. Plastic kit manufacturers were quick to capitalise on this interest and produced kits that were advertised as easy and reasonably quick to assemble, featuring ready-made detail that is easily tackled by modellers of varying skills and ages with the promise of a good result. Plastic sailing ship kits are affordable, especially in comparison to wooden ship kits, and building a fleet of the most famous ships in history is easily achieved. Despite their ease of assembly, plastic models of sailing ships, like the ships themselves, remain complicated to build. Manufacturers devised several simplifications of the