Introduction

Having recently reviewed two books from Adam Wilder, a book that landed at my door from Federico Collada made me think of the saying “there is more than one way to skin a cat”. Federico Collada has written a book that covers everything from making your own weld beads to adding a dusty finish to you models in a novel and unique way.

Review

Federico Collada has been sharing hints and tips for a long time now, and he has now had a paper backed book published in which he exhibits some of the methods and techniques he uses on his models. The cover tells you there are over 30 tips covered in this book. There are 118 pages included in this title and there are quite a few tips that I have never heard of let alone tried before.

The first tip that really caught my eye in this book is a method for making weld beads using thread that has been dipped into a slurry of melted plastic. The method is clearly explained in both words and pictures, the result looks very pleasing and is possibly one of the easiest ways I have seen weld beading replicated.

How many of you have tried to use the oil paint method of adding a colour modulation to flat panels, and then not been pleased with the results? Well this book shares with you a method of doing the same thing using felt tip pens and using materials that to my mind are fair safer to use on plastic. Another plus with this method is that I feel it would be easier to remove the effect if you are unhappy with the result.

Another tip I liked covers scratch building your own clear bottles, and even covers a way of having bottles filled to various levels with what is a convincing looking content. What I particularly like about these tips is that involve making use of what would usually be thrown away by the modeller.

How to make vinyl tracks sag is a question that often pops up in forums, I have seen many methods suggested for replicating sag and varying degrees of success and failure results. Federico suggests a method I would not have thought of and also shows it in practice. This method even retains the sag in the tracks after they are removed from the model!

Conclusion

The book itself is well presented and I can see it being one of those titles that ends up being thumbed through a lot. Everything in the book has been presented in a clear manner, and I see no issues with following the information and methods it provides. Having looked through this book, there are a number of tips I want to try out for myself. I do recommend that you pick up a copy of this book as it will prove a valuable resource when overcoming issues.