Models for the making

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 27

Models for the making

The Modelmaker’s Handbook, by Albert Jackson and David Day. Pelham, 1987. 352 pp. $44 (limp cover). (Reviewed by A. J. Petre) "Hey, this is a terrific book,” said the 14-year-old, as he vanished into his room clutching it to his breast. So it is — all those difficult, small, and obscure questions that model-makers have, the things they usually learn by hard experience and failure, are answered here. So they should be, at such a price for a limp-covered volume.

First produced in Britain six years ago, “The Modelmaker’s Handbook” has previously been published only in hard-cover guise. Any aspiring model builder who reads this volume before starting — before buying materials, even — will save a great deal of work and anguish. Older relatives, contemplating an expensive and complex kitset as a gift to a youngster, might well consider this volume instead. The book starts with the basic techniques of modelling — tools, adhesives (a very valuable section, this), materials. It goes on to the fine details of painting and finishing, from the camouflage colouring on military vehicles and aircraft, to giving models a successful imitation metallic finish. Sections follow on figures, dioramas and landscapes, railways, model

motors and engines, radio control of models, aircraft models, boats, and cars.

Outstanding sketches and illustrations support text which is easy to read and understand, but the most impressive aspect is the detail that each chapter encompasses. The section on model aircraft motors, for instance, contained hints that the lad mentioned earlier had discovered only through hours of experience, and long discussions with senior model-club members. Early reading of the section on setting up radio-control gear in aircraft would have prevented at least a couple of expensive crashes. It was hard to find any vital point the book did not cover. Very few volumes do anything like as well. Other sections seem to be equally detailed and painstaking in approach. Together, they make a volume that is unusually comprehensive, and singularly useful. There are also enough ideas here to keep the average youngster and parent busy for months, if not years — most of the modelling genres so carefully described have lifetime adherents. Plainly some of these adherents have given freely of their experience for this volume.

Now we know how to mould a perspex cockpit canopy, we must pop out to the workshop for a wee while