Auriga Publishing's new Static Model Manual promised to enlighten us as to the art of beating, rusting and burning your kits to within an inch of their lives - but this time making them look realistic instead of throwing them in the bin! Let's see a little more Extreme Weathering & Painting in today's Read 'n review.
Static Model Manual Volume 10 - Extreme
Weathering Building and Painting
Auriga Publishing
international
Vincenzo Lanna-
Alessandro Bruschi
Duel
English/Italian Languages
Full colour
100 pages Full
colour photographs throughout
€ 22.90 + P&P Directly
at this link
In the attempt to
achieve scale realism in burnt and weathered vehicles paint companies have had
a field day selling their weathering, chipping and burnishing products. They
all seem to have the same stuff and the only difference is how much you can get
hold of it for. It seems weathered and beaten trucks and cars, tanks and AFVs
are being rammed down our throats by the marketing companies trying to sell their
gear.
Videos and books
are also a medium that is well worn nowdays. These layered finishes on burnt
and rusted vehicles are not so easy to replicate and we are therefore greatful
to have the extra choices on hand to replicate what is being pushed onto us as
the new norm. The modelling bar is being pushed up rapidly and so any knowledge
I have been able to garner I am truly greatful for.
Auriga Publishing
is ten editions old now. We have looked at some of their books here on TMN and
yes we like them a lot. This – the tenth in the series so far centres itself
around four very impressive builds that you may or may not have seen around the
traps. All three of them are quite impressive I must say off the bat. One is
set in the desert, one on a tropical beach and the other in an Italian backyard
garage so all climates are catered for except snow I suppose. Burnt, Rusted and
oil weary vehicles are the subjects on show here.
Physically the book
is 100 pages of various coloured step by step photographs of models with text
in both Italian and in English to suit every picture. The captions are close to
the action and easy enough to follow. I like it a lot that there is not large
blocks of text to either half explain or take your attention away from what is
being built. Too many books divide the writing and all it does is breaks your
attention span. I like the way this book is formatted. The pages are a medium
thickness glossy stock and the cover is of a soft and flexible thin card.
Their M.O. is a “Step
by Step” (SBS) style after the briefest of introductions and this book follows
that approach. Like I said it’s the way to go to keep the action moving and each
picture has just enough text to tell you what goes on before you. The other
thing I like about this book is that they do not push one or two or three
brands down your throat. It’s a bi-partisan approach to materials and some home-made
stuff that often teaches you a lot about making your own diorama instead of
buying it out of a well branded paint jar.
The first build
features an Italian Semeovente da 75/18 that has suffered an internal explosion
and then rusted in the western desert with dry sand and small dry grass around
it. The use of tin foil and masking as well as purposeful application of paint
so they WILL crack and look like they are weather worn. These effects are new
to me and I like the process achieved here. I think I could replicate it after
reading it. The groundwork is a good addition and the base sets the scene in
the desert quite well.
The second build
really does get better the more you look at it. The reference picture of the
real Oshkosh M1070 tractor truck in the desert of Iraq burnt out and destroyed
is mimicked here in some extreme detail by the modeller. The crazy colours of
the burnt and blistered paint’s layers as it is destroyed make an interesting
eye opener, and the features like the destroyed rims of the charred tyres, the
deformed interior cloth and the bent and ruptured fuel tanks make for some
really interesting scratchbuilding from the model maker and he uses some
interesting products I would not think of. Insights like this into alternative
to the norm everyday products to use make the book even more interesting.
We go on holiday
next – to the beaches of Puerto Rico
where you may have seen some heavily rusted Shermans on the beach that have
been tagged by someone or other. They are a bit of a local tourist attraction
and I had seen this model sans the half-naked lady already. She sure adds one
or two points of interest but luckily enough she isn’t extremely worn OR
weathered.
Many different techniques
are shown here. How to cut the tank to the right wave level is interesting as
is converting the fresh model surface to
a pitted broken surface and the making of the beach setting all add up to an
interesting set. The model is walked thru in a way that really highlights the
small but important changes that make the finished product look pretty realistic.
Much more so than the lady!
Lastly we have a
large diorama which features a whole garage of abandoned, slightly rusty and
broken and oil stained variety of vehicles left in a back yard somewhere in the
native writer’s Italy after the Second World War.
Three tankettes,
two trucks and two small Italian cars in completely different schemes are shown
here abandoned to the elements.
Impressively no corners are cut as the author and model maker takes us
through just how he changed each of these kits from a pristine plastic model
into a somewhat broken pile of metal of all types, colours and decayed
conditions.
Tempered by the
interesting addition of a small boy and his dog, we also see the building that
these vehicles are resting amongst in construction as well as the grass, vegetation
and broken barrels and tools lying around. The crane and the slabs the vehicles
are sitting on and leaking oil onto also set the scene rather realistically and
everything that is included is explained rather directly but also rather well.
If you want to hear
a modeller talk about his own opinion, if you want to see just one person show
off a technique after another this isn’t your book. The book shows just how to
achieve several different and varied effects in completely different settings.
It shows us in an unbroken line of SBS and pictures which I think really suits
modellers who are always strapped of time and attention.
It is also another
great book from this little known company. If you like your modelling without
the B.S. that can sometimes go along with it – this book is for you.
Adam Norenberg
Thanks to Auriga
Publishing international for sending us this book to read and review.
