This is Keith Magee's preview (Chapter One) to an article he has been working on for some time. The initial Chapter is offered here on the site. If you are interested in the complete article it will be made available (either on CD-ROM or other downloadible format) for a nominal (read very affordable) fee. More on that soon as we need to work out the details on the delivery process.

Building a Diorama from Scratch

As ususal if you have questions or feedback you can post it here.

Thanks Keith!

Cheers,
Jim

Keith, very, very nice and professional. I'm sure the finished product will be a great starting point for anyone looking to get into dioramas. Keep up the great work!

Highly professional and inspirative...
How I can have the whole book?
Cheers

I know i'll be sure to buy the whole book :-) . Great article Keith. I can see why you do this for a living ............because you are great at it! :-)

Mark

I updated the article with the full-story purchase info. Here it is:

If you would like to purchase the entire eBook,which includes Five chapters, 40+ pages and over 100 color photographs, you may order in one of two ways:

a) Order a downloadable version in Adobe Acrobat format - $4.95. To order the download version, please email [email protected] and we will email you the download information.

b) Order a complete CD ROM including a gallery of all 200 photos used in creating the article, delivered to your home address. $9.95 (TX residents add $1.08 state sales tax = $11.03). To order the CD-ROM version, please email [email protected] and include your name and complete mailing address. The CD-ROM will be mailed to you via US Mail.

Payments can be made through Pay Pal. An electronic invoice will be sent to the email you specify.

Good article. yes very good a walk thru
Jeff

Thanks for the kind words... this was originally intended to go to Kalambach Publishing, but i thought i would try the electronic ebook method of distribution. If this goes well, i will do more this way. Royalties on the book if published in paper format are pretty low, and the price to you the end user is about double to triple... so if you like diorama books, this is a win-win for both of us! - Keith

Does the same deal apply to us outside the US? Im in Europe and am interested in this e-book.

Sarge,
I assume you mean if the CD-ROM was shipped to you? Well Keith would be the final word (as he is doing/paying for the actual shipping) but I would think as long as you would be willing to cover whatever additional amount for overseas it wouldn't be a problem. Being just a CD sized container it shouldn't be that much for general post.

Heck I was amazed when a webmaster in Germany (www.panzerdiesel.com) sent me a t-shirt and the shipping for that was only like $15 or so. I wish we had really inexpensive options like that here. It's pretty much USPS (US postal service) or nothing when it comes to lower cost Euro shipments.

Jim

Postage to Sweden from USA isnt bad at all, specially for a CD, maybe $3-$4 perhaps, but nothing outrageous like $20, well, I reckon you could get that expensive by choosing 3rd day delivery or something. But reg air mail, takes about 1 week, and is very cost effective!

The $9.95 price is for US only, but I have no problem mailing it outside of the US at my actual shipping costs figured in. I'm sure mailing to Europe / Sweden wouldn't be too bad. I would calculate the actual cost as follows:

$4.95 for the article
$2.00 for the cost of the CD/mailing box
+ ACTUAL cost of the postage

So I guess I would need your mailing address, then I can look up the actual costs on the US Postal Service website.

Of course, the other option is simply to purchase the download version for $4.95 (US dollars), and I will invoice you via Paypal. If you are not a member of paypal but have a credit card, it takes less than a minute or two to enroll. Either way is fine with me.

just email me directly with your location, and i will get you the actual price.

UPDATE on the scratchbuilding ebook we are offering here on Armorama.... this "book" was originally going to go to one of the magazine publishers I do articles for, but we decided to give electonic publishing a shot first. If you are into dioramas, or even want a background to display your armor, you are going to LOVE this book! Now - good news and bad news! The good news first:

We've grabbed quite a few orders (thanks!), but before the book was finished, we have decided to add one more new chapter...the original was only 4 chapters, and now we are doing 5 chapters. This will allow us to discuss a lot more of the fine detailing issues that would have otherwise only been touched on quickly.

The bad news is we are going to be late shipping the title due to these changes. Once I complete the last chapter, we still have to run it through the ACROBAT formatter, and then we'll be ready to go. Slowing everything down is the fact Jim and I are both on vacation, which means a lot isn't getting done right this minute. Hope to have this all ready to ship to you to fill your orders by mid-late july.

No one will be invoiced until the unit is ready to ship to you... when it does, you will receive an invoice through PAYPAL.COM for either the PDF ($4.95) or the CD ROM (9.95 + tax if applicable). As soon as you post payment through Paypal, I am notified electronically and will ship your unit and withdraw the funds, but no funds will be claimed until your product is shipping.

Sorry for the delay... hope you will find this extra chapter worth the wait! Let me know if you have quesitons or concerns. - Keith

Hey Keith, any updates on this? I am still interested, just haven't heard anything in emails or anything else.

Thanks!

Marty

Yes - everything is still in the works... Jim's focus for the past couple of months has been the website, so he hasn't made much progress as of yet on the layout of the chapters. He tells me he is going to get right on it. If you (or anybody else) has requested the CD or Download, I've captured your contact info in a file and will notify you as soon as jim tells me the ebook is ready.

Thanks for your patience!

Keith-
has there been any update to this project?

Yes - three things you should know..

First, i have talked this over with Jim, and have agreed to give it FREE to all registered users of ARMORAMA.COM (not free to guests or those who don't register), Initially, a "Fine" magazine had signed an option on the artilce for 12 months - then they changed editors, and they didn't run the article in time. It was supposed to be in by now, and since they are now puttin the December edition to bed, their option will expire (and i get to keep the money!). Now I'm talking to two book publishers who say they prefer to see it as a standalone book, but I will retain digital rights for distribution.

Two - I laying the copy out all over again, this time using Pagemaker which allows better design and placement.

Three - I will make it online veiwable in it;s finished form, but have to get the new layout done before i can upload it..

Sorry for the delay.

Keith,
That's great news. Really look forward to reading that online !!! :-)
Thanks,
Jan

Shout out to Keith

very nice!!!...and easy to follow, even I could follow it... #:-)
keep it up!...cant wait for the next one

Cris

Keith, any more updates on this? I would still love to get my hands on the whole thing, free or paid!

Thanks!

NICE
ROBERTO

I promise to finish laying out the format... someday! Actually the entire artilce is finished, complete with over 100 photos and 5 chapters (40 pages), but I need to lay it out over again and then create the PDF file... just time consuming... but I have too much invested not to publish it.... so be patient.... it's coming!

just wondered if the is a time frame for the rest of this wonderful tutorial on dioramas. great piece! capnjock

Oops, Keith. I thought this was posted yesterday, but it is exactly a year and a day ago !
Well, this just goes to show how busy we all are with other things. I DO look forward to seeing the whole story though !

i would like to get my hands on it to..
any ides...how it gonna cost to ship it here to MALAYSIA?

hi, gosh, it looks real, It looks like I walk over the canals in Amsterdam!!!

Laurie