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The book iamreviewing is How to build dioramas by Shepard Paine, it is published by airlift publishing and the ISBN number is 1-85310-839-1.

I came back to modeling about 3 or 4 years ago after a 25 year absence and i realised that most of the knowledge i had gained whilst i was building kits as a youngster, i had forgotten and had to re-learn then one day i was given a book " How to build dioramas " by Shepard Paine, and within a short period of time i began to see a change in the way i approached my kit building. This book contains 14 chapters 3 of these are very precise step by step guide very well written and accompanied by good clear sketchs and photographs of every step.

The book is written by a master kit builder who himself has worked building kits and dioramas for Monogram, the dicusess in detail how to develop ideas for dioramas, designing scenes building bases and ground cover it covers weathering all model types, posing and painting figures, scratch building and converting accessories, super detailing, scratch building structures and how to photograph your models.

Every single chapter is written with the greatest care and attention to detail, but in such a way that the information is easy to understand and follow especially when this is combined with both black and white and colour sketches and photographs showing step by step detail. In this humble readers opinion this is one of the best if not the best how to guide out there, Two of the things modllers seem to worry about is weathering and figure painting as iwas one of those who were previously worried, the chapter on figure painting is pure gold and is worth the cost of the book alone e.g. on page 43 there is a sketch of 14 heads drawn in various stages of completeion form base coat to finished figure in easy to follow steps and the same goes for every chapter throughout the book.

In this readers opinion it gets 10 out of 10, this is my bible and constant companion and i think it should be apart of every modellers refernce library nyou won't regret buying it.
scott

No probs Andrew beleive me it is worth it.
scott