Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book Review

Product Review

“Scratchbuilding Masterclass”

David Parker, Alex Clark, Stephen Tegner George Moore, Chris Meddings

Published by Inside the Armour Publications

Reviewed by Glen Broman

“Wow”.

This qualifies as my shortest review ever. When I picked up this book from Dave Youngquist at Last Cavalry and told him I would write a review on it, I think he was expecting something a little more substantial, so perhaps I should elaborate.

So, getting back to the review, this one is 50% shorter than my previous personal best on the 1/72 scale Ace 1/72 BRDM 1, which, as I eloquently stated in my brilliant and succinct review; “It sucks”. To be fair to Ace, their kits are much better today, but that BRDM ended up being a combination of scratchbuilding and putty, probably more of the latter, if the truth be told. After that kit, and a few more conversions along the way, I’ve come to fancy myself a bit of a scratchbuilder. After looking at the pictures of the projects in this book, I’ve reassessed my skills as a scratchbuilder and decided maybe not so much. I also briefly considered committing ritual seppuku with my X-Acto knife after looking at some of the stunning work but decided against it. For one, it would be very hard on the carpet in my modelling room, but more importantly, I think that would contradict the purpose the authors had in mind when they wrote it.

To be honest, when you look at the cover photo of an amazingly accurate German 37m AA gun in Alex Clark’s hand and realize that it barely covers the width of two fingers, it’s hard not to experience feelings of inadequacy. The scene from the movie “Wayne’s World” when Wayne and Garth meet Alice Cooper backstage at a concert and immediately drop to their knee’s yelling “we’re not worthy” comes to mind.

So after some reflection and a few therapeutic beers, I calmed down and put the X-Acto away. While this book does showcase the incredible scratchbuilding talents of a number of gentlemen whose work I have admired on the Internet and the Modelling Press, it also makes those skills accessible to the modelling public. As Chris Meddings states in the Forward, the purpose is also to inspire. Well I, for one, have certainly walked away from this book inspired, so well done Mr. Meddings.

The book starts with a brief introduction to tools and other useful products by Chris Meddings. While much of this will be familiar to experienced modellers, it serves as a good primer to those getting started and there are a number of tips in here that I found useful.

The next section is by George Moore and covers scratchbuilding and casting tips. I found this chapter both informative and useful. As with all of the authors, one detects the result of hard won experience in many of the tips. If you have ever made an absolute hash of your first attempt at something (or third, fourth and fifth in my case as I’m a slow learner) you will appreciate the insight.

Next up is Alex Clark. I’ve enjoyed his articles in the past as he is a fellow Braille Scaler. He shares a bit of advice that may, at first blush, appear to be a bit of the old blinding flash of the obvious, specifically, his “top down” approach. His approach is to start with the basic form, structure and shape and then go down to the intermediate level of detail, then down to the fine detail level. The more I thought about this, the more I realized the value of applying this process in a disciplined manner. While starting with the top level detail, how often has an attack of shiny object syndrome hit and then next thing you know you are heading down the rat hole of increasing levels of more intricate detail on a single piece and you have lost sight of the forest for the tree? Granted, it’s become a brilliantly detailed tree, but interest in the project wanes and the “shelf of shame” gets another resident. Maybe that’s just me, if so, isn’t this embarrassing? However, I have a feeling I’m not the only one. So Mr. Clark’s point is well taken and this may help get you through your next project. There is also a section on rolling thin sheet for tarps, panels and zimmerit. This will be extremely useful for those of you who are building the Dragon 1/72 scale M103 and are looking for a way to replicate the missing mantlet cover. Really Dragon? No mantlet cover even though it’s prominently displayed on the box art? I feel the need for another therapeutic beer, but I digress. The rest of this chapter is full of some really great techniques.

David Parker provides a chapter on advanced skills and super detailing. He uses the upper turret of a 1/32 scale B-17 as a case study as he lays out his process and build techniques. I admit that I started reaching for the X-Acto knife a few times as I was reading as the detail is superb, but the clear nature of the steps and skills really serve to give you the feeling that you could do this with a little practice. He mentions a building error and how he corrected it in the case study which I found both comforting and useful. Of course, my errors tend to the epic and spectacular level, but his logical approach to problem solving and correcting errors may help me from turning in to a quivering mass of humanity huddling in the corner of my work space the next time one of my projects goes south on me.

Stephen Tegner provides a chapter on full scratchbuilding in larger scales. There are some really nice 1/16 scale projects in here, along with some additional information on resin casting. His Char B1 Bis and Panzer 38T look like you could climb in and start them up.

What I really appreciate about this book is that it’s not a single build by each author, but key bits of advice and technique essential to improving your abilities as a scratchbuilder. There are a variety of photo series illustrating processes to supplement the text descriptions. Some of these projects have appeared in magazines as full build articles, so the focus on bits of them to illustrate technique and skills provides value, in my opinion. I’ve been frustrated in the past when I’ve purchased a product that turns out to be a compilation of stuff I’ve already read, so well done to the team from Inside the Armour on their approach.

The quality of the photography is excellent and the text boxes are very readable. The captions are clear and informative. One other thing I appreciated was that there were very few errors of spelling or tense throughout the entire book. This is a refreshing change over some of the products coming out these days. I highly recommend this product.

Thanks again to Dave Youngquist at www.lastcavalry.com for providing the book.