Book Review "Master Scale Modeling" by Jose Brito

“Master Scale Modelling”

“The Ultimate guide for painting and weathering with Vallejo water based acrylics”

By Jose Brito

Reviewed by Glen Broman

One would think that with all the time spent in captivity due to the various waves of COVID, you would think I would have cranked out a small mountain of reviews by now. Well, if you thought that, you would have been wrong. This is the first review I’ve done in ages. There are several reasons; first, I actually started building models again. I mean lots of them. Just a few weeks ago I primed 22 models. Second, this is a really big book, it took a while to get through it, and that’s not a bad thing. It is 520 pages, not including the Gallery at the back. So a few thoughts on this, as a low attention span former Tank Commander and Combat Arms officer, this has to be good to grab and hold my attention for 500 plus pages. Also, us tankers love pictures, and this book is full of them. The quality of the photos is amazing and there are anywhere between 4 to 6 per page covering in progress and detail shots of building and painting, to one or two per page to really show off the detail. Be still my beating heart. I would also mention that for those of you who have not heard of Jose Brito, he is a world class modeler.

So a note up front, the author uses Vallejo acrylics, and achieves amazing results with them, if you are looking for a book that covers painting with a variety of medium and brands, this is not it, however, the painting techniques would apply equally to most acrylics and the building and composition techniques are universal. The bottom line is that there is enough in here to keep you gainfully employed trying out new skills on your bench for days.

The book is broadly organized in three major chapters, The World of Scale Modelling, Works, and Gallery. The first two chapters are further broken down into sub chapters; the Gallery is just a big old pile of modelling goodness. The first chapter is pretty much your bog standard intro, with sections on scale, tools, Vallejo products, modelling materials and kits. All subjects are profusely illustrated and well captioned, heaven for a visual learner like me. There also some interesting sections on the workplace, planning and composition, developing bases and research. Ah, I live for research, although sometimes I’ll start researching something fascinating like the 12 tone Serbo-Croatian Border Guards splinter scheme and end up watching cat videos on YouTube. The curse of a short attention span, but I digress. The real meat and potatoes is the Works section, this is a veritable smorgasbord of cool. There are subjects such as detailing, building resin kits, dioramas of various shapes and sizes, modelling water and the intriguingly titled “urban decay”. Oooh, I’m getting all tingly inside just thinking about it. How about a section on “metal and blood” and painting Gladiators. Reminds me of the scene in Airplane when Leslie Nielson asks the kid if he likes Gladiator movies. Okay, need to focus again, back to the book. There are just a ton of interesting subjects in here on a wide variety of subjects, to include civilian vehicles, figures and sci-fi. There are undoubtedly some subjects in here that you will be familiar with, but I would think that even the most experienced modeler would find useful new techniques or approaches in here to apply. The step by step focus and clear illustrations also facilitate the learning process.

The Gallery, as you may imagine, is full of large pictures, some two page spreads of completed models and dioramas. It’s the perfect finish, like a cold one at the end of a long day.

So a note about the price for my notoriously tight fisted modelling friends. As a large book in the 500 plus page with extremely high quality photos and production values, this is not in the $20 range. I purchased mine from Dave Youngquist at Last Cavalry (www.lastcavalry.com) for $55, which I may add, is the best price I’ve found on a number of online sources and Dave’s service is always first class. I view this more as a reference investment than a book and, in my humble opinion, is well worth the price.