The origins of 1/1250 and 1/200 scale models can be traced back to the first years of the twentieth century and their use as identification aids by the military during the World War I. When peace came the manufacturers aimed their increasingly sophisticated products at collectors, and ever since then acquiring, enhancing, modifying or scratch-building miniature ship models has been an avidly pursued hobby around the world.

This book focuses on models of the ships of the World War II, probably the most popular subject for miniature model collectors, and the author, a well-known modeler himself, addresses all the practical issues that might confront those many collectors who like to enhance, convert, and modify their models, or even scratch-build models of ships not commercially available.