This was another Verlinden publication I found very valuable. Still reference it occasionally
But it is so hard to keep track of all the multitude of sites, whereas a book/magazine you can sit on the toilet and skim through and stumble across something you weren’t looking for is more user-friendly option for me.
??
You mean all of these?
I guess you’re right, it does get exhausting after a while …
I did buy a couple of ship modelling books in the previous millenium
and I quit buying modeling magazines 20 or so years ago.
I got fed up with modeling “reports” where half a page was about the model
and a mention that “some errors/faults were corrected” without mentioning
what the errors/faults were or how they were corrected followed by two or
three pages describing in detail how the model was painted and weathered.
I have learned a lot more here where I also have the option of asking the
author for more specifics.
One of the best books out there even by today’s standards. None of the use my product or fail hard sells that turn dome folks off . Just a good how to do it book for the beginner all the way through to the expert. His diorama books were also amazing. Filled with all kinds of great information.
Gotta love the old school stuff like this comic book style series.
Brian Fosten’s tips
Oh, wow. That is a really clever way to make fencing using brass wire.
That makes me want to track down a copy for cheap just to see if that assessment is accurate
it ONLY requires soldering skills and making sure that a previous joint doesn’t come loose when heating up the next joint.
Many of the tips require precision working and someone who already has the needed precision working skills would probably figure out how to do most of this anyway.
Glueing cocktail sticks to two flat boards to make a press tool for corrugated sheet metal.
Find a sufficient supply of perfectly straight cocktail sticks or circular section toothpicks.
Glue them perfectly straight and perfectly spaced on two boards. Avoid warping by using
a glue that is not water based. Make sure there are no glue lumps left in any of the grooves.
Make sure the distance/gap between the sticks/picks are correctly sized to get the proper profile. My guesstimate is that the gap needs to be somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the diameter of an individual stick/pick.
Make sure to find toothpicks of a diameter that suits the desired scale.
Splitting drinking straws to make gutters … well, … all I can say is:
Good Luck with that Sonny Boy.
Make sure you have adhesive bandages readily available …
Make sure you have the phone number for the looney bin on speed dial …
It literally says in the instructions: “… so that [the cocktail sticks] fall between each other when placed together.” This first of all means it can’t be as narrow a gap as you say, and second, is child’s play to achieve if you think about it for a moment.
FX: sound of dropping penny
Use a cocktail stick as a spacer.Anyway, I get the impression you’re a modeller of the more modern kind, who prefers to buy stuff ready-made rather than doing it yourself. Which is fine by me — I’m not forcing you to read or even like the idea of old modelling handbooks. However, it’s no reason for you to be condescending towards them.
While I do not really see these books useful nowadays (modelling has evolved too much, except maybe for dioramas), I still think that a book is the best starting point for newbies. You get all the information in one place, in a logical order and readily accessible on your workbench. For improving afterwards, all videos, forums and sites are great resources, no doubt.
As for Tony Greenland “Panzer Modelling Masterclass”, I love it. It was the one I got when returned to modelling and at the time it opened my eyes to how much this world had changed, plus being greatly inspirational. That was long ago, now I still enjoy it but only for nostalgia, modelling has changed a lot again since then.
Will this tool,
designed as per the instructions above produce this profile?
If the tool is built as per the description it will produce corrugated sheet where the “wave fronts and backs” will be near vertical which is far from the approximately 45 degrees of 1:1 corrugated sheet. I will not go go into the intricacies of stretching metal but I suspect that the tool as described might stretch the foil too thin and break it.
Don’t push the two sides all the way together. But in any case: whatever.
Military Modelling Guide to Military Vehicles
Written by: Robin Buckland
Publisher: Argus Books, 1988
Written by one of the long-standing contributors to the now-defunct Military Modelling magazine, this book appears to be intended as an introduction to modelling military vehicles. It does that reasonably well, but mainly in the light of the time when it was written, the late 80s. Much of the information in the book is simply obsolete now, for example much of the extensive overview of kit manufacturers and the address list in the appendix. Its subject matter as a whole is also more, “What does military vehicle modelling entail?” than, “How do you build military vehicle models?” — it does go into actual building techniques a little, but not enough that you would want to buy the book for that. The text is slightly rambling and has a lot of recurring spelling errors (Centurian, M4AI, Horsch, etc.) that detract from it as well.
The main good point about it, IMHO, is the author’s stressing that you should find your own ways to do things and that what counts is that you enjoy making the models you make. However, even if you find it really cheap, I wouldn’t say that alone is enough to buy the book for — after all, you can get that advice for free in a lot of places
Two options:
- Adjust the spacing as I proposed
- Keep the original spacing and add small distances to prevent it from closing too much
New design with small distances, i.e. strips glued between the sticks/picks:
Note that the gap between the red and blue sticks/picks has increased so the “waves” pressed into the aluminium foil might be less distinct.
Indeed.
This was my first modeling book. I always liked the display ideas like turning the Stalin tank into a cigarette holder or displaying a plastic airplane kit over an ash tray.
Some of the suggestions are definitely a bit overwrought but at least they get you thinking about how to do it simpler/better, and as you say they aren’t aimed at people who already know how to do stuff, more at those who are starting a journey of skill discovery. I follow Igmar’s Tips at YT, and I am humbled by the precision he displays, and know I’ll never come close to that, but it is still amazing to watch an expert at work.