The Royal Navy had built a series of small escort vessels during WWI in order to help protect convoys. The most well known of these was the Flower class of corvette. As the need to replace these came due in the 1930s two distinct classes of ship were developed. One of these was the sloop, of which the Flower corvettes fit. These were fairly small ships with some ASW capabilities (depth charges) and fairly light armament. They generally had good sea-keeping for ships of their size and were built in a number of classes before and during the war.

There were also larger ships that were called frigates. These had better sea-keeping and generally larger armament. As such, they were also slightly faster, but for these escort vessels, speed was not the paramount requirement. These ships were not built in the numbers of the sloops.

In both cases, some US ships were also delivered to help fill the need. US Coast Guard cutters were taken into the sloop class, while destroyer escorts helped fill the frigate ranks. To most American readers, sloops are not a class of ship of which they are familiar, the term having not been used since the age of sail. Frigates were also not normally used until after WWII and while the USN has frigates in service now, they are basically the same size as destroyers.

In line with the 'craft' series of books, this one provides a historical section that covers all the different classes and the differences between them. This then goes into a modeling section that provides a selection of photos of built up kits in various scales. Following these is a list of known kits of sloops and frigates. Not surprising is that most of them are in resin, with 1/350 scale being the most popular. A nice addition is a section of drawings showing the various camouflage schemes worn by these ships. After a bit more historical section, we are provided some nice line drawings of these ships.

In all, it is an excellent book for both the enthusiast and the modeler and something that should find a place in your library.

October 2021

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