 | Modelling Highlights |  |
| Modelling Highlights | |
| 4mm Coal Wagon, A Step By Step Guide | 0000-00-00 | |||
| John Hayes | £14.95 | 154 pages | Wild Swan | 1999 |
| This is a very good modelling book, covering every step and method of representing this most ubiquitous of British wagons in 4mm scale. The photographs and diagrams really could not be any better, and the resulting models are miniature works of art. The author has achieved much more though, producing a wonderful pictorial record of these wagons in service, and showing particularly well the state of private owner wagons after pooling and nationalisation. This is one of the best books that Wild Swan have ever produced - and they are all good. | ||||
| The 4mm Wagon Part Three | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Geoff Kent | £16.95 | 160 pages | Wild Swan | 2004 |
| The third and final part of a trilogy covering conflats, containers, wagons for long loads and brake vans. Apart from featuring some key brake van designs in excellent detail, I think this is the best book of the three - and the first two were both very good. This final volume also sets out to cover various finishing touches and features numerous excellent photographs of details that whilst of great importance to the modeller are rarely seen. I predict that this will be one of Wild Swan's fastest selling books, highly recommended to 4mm modellers of nearly all persuasions. | ||||
| Alex Jackson The Man and the Coupling | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Dave Booth | £6.00 | 55 pages | Scalefour Society | 2009 |
| I have to confess that part of the appeal of this book to me is the biographical detail on Alex Jackson, a talented modeller who rose to some sort of prominence in the immediate post war period with a very well engineered and modelled 3/8 scale "Gauge One" garden railway. Defecting to 4mm scale he was one of the group of Manchester modellers who pioneered a more "finescale" approach to modelling, espousing 2 rail pick up and more precise track standards amongst other things. Alex also developed a novel coupling, which is the main subject of this book. Aside from being a really practical guide to making and using these unobtrusive couplings, this is also a good read and an intelligent discourse that touches on many aspects of modelling, including names from the past and their influence on the post war scene. I have one tiny gripe, the book is not laminated so the cover will eventually mark. This minor quibble aside the book is superbly well produced and printed. | ||||
| Building Micro Layouts Design Tips, Techniques and Project Plans | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Paul A Lunn | £12.99 | 64 pages | Santona | 2009 |
| I find layout planning books, with few exceptions, to be fatally fascinating. A diverting sequence of someone else's schemes, all with the potential to deliver endless hours of vicarious pleasure whilst achieving nothing. Of course some might just inspire a reader into building something, and this book may well come into that category. Building upon and referencing the author's various articles in "Railway Modeller" the book consists of a number of dimensioned and well reasoned layout ideas together with helpful observations and thoughts around the subject. Does it really hit the mark though? Carl Arendt, master of the Micro Layout genre, gave me this quote: "A well crafted, thoroughly thought-out and copiously illustrated book. Paul Lunn succeeds in connecting the design of micro layouts with the mainstream of British model railway practice... no small feat!". I think the implied criticism is fair, this book is mainstream. If you are looking for startling originality and a move away from RTR stock, 4mm scale and "Setrack" then this may not be for you. It's still good though and very nicely produced and printed to boot. | ||||
| Carl Arendt's Small Layout Scrapbook | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Carl Arendt | £12.95 | 64 pages | Carl Arendt | 2006 |
| A very welcome reprise to Carl's earlier books, both now out of print and unobtainable. The theme is minimum space railway modelling, with minimum space being loosely defined as smaller than 4 X 6 feet, although most models featured here are significantly smaller. Built upon the ever growing number of contributions to his very interesting website at www.carendt.us, this is a fantastically diverse collection of well modelled railways, each of which offers above average visual and even operating interest. The contributors come from around the globe, literally, and the number of models displayed here and on the website are testament to the great influence and inspiration that Carl has provided - no mean achievement! | ||||
| Designs for Urban Layouts | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Iain Rice | £14.99 | 80 pages | Atlantic | 2002 |
| A very inspiring and readable book, proving that the author has lost none of his wit and artistry over the last decade or so, and returning to mainland Britain for inspiration. Using prototype photographs and the author's distinctive and attractive sketches, different ideas and themes are worked up into mini layouts, working dioramas and complete layout schemes. I personally like the intelligently discussed references to other people's layouts and ideas and think that there is a lot of truth and interest in what is said. By the way, the "unrecalled" location of the rather eye catching photograph on page 27 is where the S&DJR crossed the Lower Bristol Road on its ascent out of Bath, only the pub on the left still survives. | ||||
| Landscape Modelling | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Barry Norman | £12.95 | 66 pages | Wild Swan | 1986 |
| An inspiring book, visually pleasing but also very practical in its advice on techniques for model railway scenery. Although the author is very skilled, and the book illustrates some of the most convincing model scenes ever created, the author does not "talk down" to the beginner and the methods and ideas he describes are easy to understand and adopt. | ||||
| Light Railway Layout Designs | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Iain Rice | £8.95 | 72 pages | Wild Swan | 1991 |
| Reprinted in 2000, Iain Rice's classic book on modelling light railways, containing inventive plans and inspiring sketches, all accompanied by photographs of different prototypes and some of the author's super models. A very appealing book, as enjoyable for its light railway content as much as its modelling content. | ||||
| Model Railway Planning and Design Handbook | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Steve Flint | £18.95 | 96 pages | Santona | 2004 |
| This is a highly original and very inspirational colour compendium of model railway thoughts, designs and models. It is ingeniously laid out as five themed chapters which each reflect the styles and thoughts of five different modellers; Steve Flint, Paul Lunn, Neil Ripley, Ken Gibbons and Jack Burnard. The uniformly excellent quality of the photography graphics and print reproduction together with the quality of thought and modelling of the contributors has created one of the most pleasing books on the subject ever produced - it is certainly the best colour book on model railways that I have yet seen. As the compiler Steve Flint observes we are living in a new age of model railways where the quality of British outline ready to run models far exceeds anything previously available. The book sets out to show schemes which are fundamentally "railwaylike" rather than "finescale", and in doing so provides a fascinating counterpoint to the superb but very different books and modelling approaches espoused by Wild Swan - every bit as intelligent but completely different. This book, I suspect, may be the harbinger of a quiet revolution in British railway modelling. | ||||
| A Modellers Handbook of Painting and Lining | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Ian Rathbone | £21.95 | 154 pages | Wild Swan | 2008 |
| A very complete account of how an experienced painter sets about finishing railway models. Right through from tools, materials, preparation, cleaning, priming, top coating and the multifarious complexities of lining, every single stage is explained and illustrated in great detail. Apart from a very few prototype reference shots, every single photograph in this book is in colour - a first for Wild Swan and beautifully and believably printed too. The only thing is that the quality of Ian's work is so good that it makes me wonder whether I could or would ever produce anything even approaching his standard. Patience and practice are the keys according to Ian. Oh well - I believe he accepts commissions! | ||||
| Modelling Scotland's Railways | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Ian Futers | £18.95 | 112 pages | Santona | 2006 |
| I first "met" Ian Futers during the infamous three day week when he introduced readers of the Railway Modeller to his clever circular "Glen Douglas" layout in the truncated March 1974 issue. The whole concept of simple track layout on a continuous curve coupled with characterful structure modelling was brilliant and was one of the very first of a whole series of atmospheric Scottish themed layouts that Ian has since built. Using both Ian's models and those of others, this densely packed book develops numerous authentic Scottish themes into attractive and practical model railway ideas. As with Steve Flint's earlier modelling books the use of colour and general layout and look of the book is extremely effective. The photographs are particularly well chosen and reproduced and cover a wide range of eras and subjects, including many atmospheric and informative colour photographs of structures and stations. All eras up until the present day are covered and I unreservedly recommend this excelllent book to anyone with an interest in its subjects. | ||||
| Railway Modelling the Realistic Way | 0000-00-00 | |||
| Iain Rice | £19.99 | 352 pages | Haynes Publishing | 2007 |
| Published at the end of 2007, this is a very worthy successor to Norman Simmons widely read and published "textbook" to small scale railway modelling. I very much like the Iain's writing style, notwithstanding a tad too many tads, and have thoroughly enjoyed reading through this book. A self confessed member of the finescale movement, I think Iain gives us a very cogent and intelligent analysis of where UK railway modelling is and how it got there together with a great deal of practical information and advice on how to do it. Other comments are that it inevitably majors on 4mm scale and tends to cover the historic/steam era railway, although definitely not to the exclusion of other areas. Overall this is a really good read and an interesting summary of UK railway modelling in the early 21st Century. | ||||