Here is a review of a very useful book - "Model Buildings Masterclass" by Roy Porter.

If you run across this book - take a serious look at it.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

I have this book which I picked up for an unbelievable €15 a couple of years ago in a secondhand bookshop.
It's a terrific reference book and any success I've had with scratchbuilt model buildings is due to reading it.

Looks like a great book.
I can't find it in stock anywhere, Is it still in Print?

Pat: great dio..well done

When I was writing the review www.amazon.com had a bunch of used ones. Check there.




Great results on that diorama - very cool.

thanks Scott

Try Osprey Publishing
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_detail.php/title=C0632~ser=MST

For anyone in Canada that is interested, this book is available at Indigo.ca for less than $30 and listed as 3-5 weeks delivery. I ordered one back in January, and it never came in. Eventually they canceled my order.

Less than two weeks later, I looked it up on a whim and it was in stock, so i snatched it up. It is listed as 3-5 weeks delivery again, so if you really want one for a good price, go for it, but you'll have to be patient.
I haven't had time to read it yet as it just arrived this week, but it looks pretty good to me so far!

Jamie

I can also vouch for it being an excellent book, along with Terrain Modelling and Advanced Terrain Modelling by Richard Windrow.

Roy Porter's book I search high and low for, published some years ago, I was fortunate to win a copy on an ebay auction for around £8.00.

Next to track down is Shep Paines invaluable publications.

Alan

Alan some of Shep Paine's books are still in print by Kalmbach Books. I just bought his How to Build Dioramas direct from them.

Looks like a good book with plenty of good pointers. Ive always veered away from buildings for some reason but maybe its time to give them a try.

Des

Just had a look at it.....interesting that on Amazon, the price is over $100, but from Osprey it's $35.

Wonder if Amazon's price is a typo.

Just checked Osprey. This book is out of print on their website.

No typo, as Marty says -it's out of print. The price on Amazon is for used and new - from second hand dealers

I have to disagree a bit here guys; I found both Model Buildings and Terrain Modeling to be pretty weak, sadly overpriced books. Model Buildings was very UK-centric IMHO, with little info on other parts of the world - Eastern Europe for example. I also thought the quality of the models was just not that good. The techniques were very dated and not all that imaginative.

Pat, your dio is excellent and far better than most of what is in that book.

The one really good thing in Terrain Modeling is just the simple idea that we should research groundwork as carefully as we do the vehicles and figures we make. We've probably all seen examples of beautiful AFVs, obviously with hundreds of hours' effort in them, attached to bases that don't come close to keeping up with the model. This book is a good antidote to that kind of thinking. But there, I've just given you most of the value of the book for free Again I thought many of the examples were mediocre and the techniques hardly innovative.

I would advise folks to buy Shepard Paine's books long before these. And you can learn more by experimenting than by using these books. Just my two euros.

Hi Danny

You're are entitled to your opinion, but as far as I'm concerned its wrong and I disgree.

The techniques in your opinion "hardly innovative" I would answer with if its not broken why fix it. So it may not be using the latest materials on the market, but instead items easily found and available, certainly in the UK and I'm sure in America.

Sure you can learn more about anything by experimenting, but I bet you learn more quickly from these books than you would by lengthy and perhaps costly experimenting.

Also remember the book (Model Building Masterclass) was published over ten years ago in 1997, so I think we can all expect improvements in the quality of peoples models, and as Pat said whilst his own personal skill and craftsmanship produced the excellent dioramas he displayed, it's from reading Roy's book that allowed him to do so and he credits it as such.

Granted some of the techniques, which many did not know about ten years, have been courtesy of the Internet etc. used are readily available on sites like this. But I would imagine can owe their origins to the techniques and thinking of people like Roy Porter and indeed Shep Paine etc.

I like the relaxed easy going style of writing, and as for being UK -centric, sure the styles shown where mainly UK buildings, but did include others, and if it's a UK building then it's certainly going to have some relevance to the rest of Western Europe.

If your detailing with buildings in a conflict diorama, and as an awful lot of fighting went on in Western Europe so is very relevant.

In this context Including building styles in say America for example might be regarded as a little pointless.

Having said that, more importantly with some imagination the techniques described could be used to create any building by changing the detail and making it relevant to that area specific.

Recommend me one publication that covers model buildings in all parts of the world ?

At the published prices they are not overpriced at all, but given the Roy Porter book is out of print, it's like anything, people who want something badly enough will pay whatever they need to get it. You can hardly blame the author if his book is exchanging at prices far above what it originally cost.

Look at the stupid prices people will pay for OOP Dragon/Cyberhobby kits.

I don't need anything for a hobby that badly I'd just pay whatever it takes to get it.

I don't say these books are the be all and end all of the chosen subject but I disagree with your opinion overall and specifically that they are weak, overpriced (if you buy sensibly) and contain poor quality models.

Alan

P.S. Upon reading Scott's review again I think it's spot on in all respects.

Well, we all have our opinions The nice thing about them is, unlike facts, opinions cannot be "right" or "wrong", they are just one's conclusions. If I say I like Paul Weller's music, that's an opinion and it can't be right or wrong. If I say he's 23 years old, OK, that's wrong.

I think both books are overpriced and not particularly useful, and I would hate to see someone spend a lot of money on them without hearing a few opinions first; then they can make a better-informed judgment. So, I don't care for them and you like them. To each his own. That's what makes these sorts of forums fun.

Regards, DE

Hi Danny

Wrong again If you say you "like Paul Wellers music", that's a fact, but if you say his music is good that's an opinion.

They can't pass "judgement" on something they've not had evidence of , but they can come to a decision based on opinions expressed by others formed from their experiences, to buy the book/s or not.

We agree to differ, fine, no harm done, no falling out. It's a reflection of the free world, including allowing the expression of minority views, if you take this thread as an indication

all the best

Alan

As far as referance,it may be weak on some ares of the world but, for someone with no constrution knowlage of building buildings it's good. How many times do you see a building with floor joist and finished floor but no sub floor. Same with ceilings and roofs. Also the problem of electricity and plumbing and vents. It all depends on the time and area you are modeling. It is a good referance to a standard of building for those with no knowlage of it. Key point is research for the area and era.

For anybody interested in buying this book in the UK and can't find it there is a copy going for auction on ebay, but be quick, it's got under two hours left to go from now . Current UK time 3.45. At the moment it's a very good price.

Alan

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&&item=220230108167&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:GB:1120

Wow whoever won that got a bargain- under a fiver.

Hi Pat
Yes I agree. I got mine on ebay and I paid more than that, but it wasn't marked as damaged as this one was.

Two more on the way

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Roy-Porters-Model-Buildings-Masterclass-Book_W0QQitemZ120257890695QQihZ002QQcategoryZ69818QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Model-Buildings-Masterclass_W0QQitemZ320249057482QQihZ011QQcategoryZ274QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Both with low starting price, one with reasonable postage the other a tad high.

Alan

Hi Mr. Egan,

I couldn't agree with you more. I found the Terrain Modeling book to be a yawner my self. About halfway through I had come to the conclusion that I could have written it in the late seventies, considering most of the techniques that were being used. It offered nothing new to me really, sure there was some talent but nothing like the talent I can see on many of the various websites today.

I cannot comment on this book as I have never seen it but I can tell you I wont exactly be looking out for it either. It is obviously a decent book to some and thats fine, I wont tell them they are wrong but I agree that everyone reading this should see both sides of the coin.

Hopefully I will be allowed to voice my views without earning a long, drawn out, sporadically typed lecture based on personal opinions.