Modelling Scale Figures
Author: Mark Bannerman
Softcover - 80 pages
Publisher: Osprey
Series: Osprey Modelling 42
Price: £13.99
ISBN: 9781846032387
Introduction
It would not be the first time Osprey has published a book on modelling figures however this appears to be first one that does not focus on a specific subject or time period. The author himself is certainly no stranger to the Military Modelling site, having published numerous articles, most of which are on armour kits. Having read a quite a few articles by Mark, I was therefore less intimidated by this book as he generally explains his methods in a straight forward manner that is easily understood.
Modelling scale figures has always been one of the more intimidating parts of my builds as an armour kit does not feel complete unless there are some figures present to give it that extra character. It was therefore with great excitement that I was granted the privilege to review this book as I was confident that it would assist in my efforts to improve and broaden this part of my modelling skill set.
Content
The structure of the book lays out the content very well and caters to the different modellers skill sets in very progressive manner, beginning with a simple but yet fundamental introduction. This section does well in explaining the various types of figures in the market, ranging from manufacturers down to the different scales. The tools of the trade are also clearly indicated, which would be most useful to beginners hoping to establish their workbench for the first time or even more seasoned modellers hoping to grow their existing tool kits.
The subsequent sections begin with the construction of the figures with an out of the box build on an Airfix figure before moving onto a simple conversion build. The progression then continues onto a medium conversion build before dwelving into the more complex scratch building phase. Each conversion build utilises a different figure of various types, starting with a plastic figure and then moves onto a metal figure. The scratch built figure comprises of the various materials such as epoxy putty and milliput.
Pictures certainly tells a thousand words and this book does not disappoint in this area. There are plenty of pictorial documentation showing the progress of each step giving the reader a clear explanation of the journey to the next phase.
The chapter on painting and finishing had to be the one I was most interested in when I first received this book. Mark does well once again in showing the tools of the trade, which really highlighted to me how inadequate my workbench really is. A good section is dedicated each to oil paints as well as acrylic paints. Throughout these sections, the paint applications appear to have been done through a paint brush as oppose to the airbrush. I found the section on using oil paints to perform shading and highlights most interesting. The process of shading and highlighting is very well documented pictorially and simply does well in explaining the process of getting to the end result. The section which utilised arylic paints certainly took me by surprise especially when viewing the end result however it became more apparent later in the chapter that oil paints were used on the figures face with only acrylics applied on the figures torso and feet. It certainly would have been interesting to see how Mark would have approached the painting process on the figure's face using entirely acrylics.
denotes 
Vinnie Branigan
