FAQ - Tonal Modulation

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F.A.Q. 'Tonal Modulation'
Adam Wilder
DVD
Night Vision Creations
Price: £10.50 Approx.

Introduction

Modulation Style is the second DVD in the series from Night Visions Creations and Mig Productions. The first in the series was on how to use Mig pigments.

The DVD

The contents are a single DVD, approximate running time one hour. On inserting the DVD into either a PC or stand alone PAL system player, it should autoplay, and present you with an initial menu of ten items. If you select 'Intro' and play, all the menu items will play consecutively. Please note however, that a title was missed out of the menu 'Contrast Detail'.

The DVD begins not unlike the Pigments DVD, with a short section titled Europe 1597 and Adam Wilder dressed up explaining how he was inspired by the great Masters, only to be woken up by Miguel Jimenez as his supervisor and shown to be just a painter and decorator. I have to say I find these bits slightly embarrassing to watch.

Onto the menu proper, and it begins with quite a lengthy segment on basic airbrushing. This part is very much out of place on a DVD of this sort. If you have reached the point in your modelling that you think you're ready to try 'Tonal Modulation', it's reasonable to assume that you know how to thin paint, clean an airbrush and keep it upright so you don't spill paint on your model.

Then we move on to what most modellers will have bought the DVD for. Tonal Modulation. I still have to admit, that I don't understand why this particular technique has suddenly been given a new name. Adam Wilder demonstrates the technique on the Jagdtiger from bare plastic to finished model. It's not a new technique. It's a dark basecoat acting as a pre-shade, over which a graduated base colour is applied. Various other techniques are employed as well, such as highlighting with oils, washes, chipping, shading, filters etc., but I'm still stuck as to why this is suddenly a new technique. It appears to be an amalgamation of various techniques that the best armour modellers have all been using for ages.

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Don't get me wrong...it's a great DVD that if watched and followed will serve as a superb 'manual' on how to achieve a fantastic result. Well worth the money. Just mis-labelled.

There are some excellent demonstrations of techniques such as how to apply chipping, washes, how best to feather in highlights using oils, add depth around fittings and fixtures etc. Adam explains each of the techniques as he applies it, using good close-up camera work with nothing extraneous to the subject being demonstrated. I did find the music a little off-putting and would have preferred an option to mute the soundtrack however.

At the end of the DVD there's what amounts to an advertisement for Saumur, consisting of a few short video's of running vehicles, and a pan around the storage yards, which where a little too shaky to be of much use. It could have just been a short extra to fill up the DVD until the legend at the end began to extol the virtues of holidaying in the region?

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Conclusion

If this sounds like a negative review then I apologise, because it's not really meant to be. At approximately £10.50 I think it represents great value for money. It's like having Adam Wilder demonstrate his unarguably superb painting skills to you personally, whenever you want at your convenience. It can't be beat. It could have been called 'How to paint armour the way you've always wanted to' though, instead of trying to sell it as a completely original way to paint your armour models, which I'm not sure it is. Recommended.

My thanks to Adam Wilder for the review sample. To view this and other Night Vision and Mig products, please visit their website: Mig Productions