Introduction

Mr Black Publications Theme Collection books first issue was dedicated to World War II German Army; now the fifth book of the series is published as the second book for World War II German Military Forces.

It is printed in A4 format in high quality paper of 84 pages with digital print and has a matt laminated cover.

Review

As in all books of the company; it includes award winning models, boxarts and step by step articles by well-known artists. This issue has a dominancy of large scale figures and bust but also a few vignettes with 1/35 scale figures.

The articles are;

The book starts with an exceptional article; Die Ostfront 1945 by Kazufumi Tomori. He builds a 1/16 scale scratch-built vignette and shares it in 20 pages with 108 color photos in numbers supported in well detailed text. First, he describes how to repose plastic figures using putty and creating your own figures over wire armatures. Then he shows how to make a ruined building section using plasticard, foamboard, aluminium tubes, plaster and apoxie sculpt. On the painting part, he explains face painting in steps ,how to paint different camo patterns and coloring the groundwork.

Ernesto Reyes Stalhuth demonstrates how to paint a German Wehrmacht field grey uniform. He paints a 90 mm Pegaso Models figure for his mix painting on acrylics, oils and enamels. 4 photos for face painting, 13 photos for the uniform , 2 for the groundwork all supported detailed text. 7 photos for the finished figure and field gear close-ups.

Man Jin Kim shows how he paints a large scale bust. He paints 1/9 scale Tiger Ace Michael Wittman in Normandy from his own creations. Kit has two head and two head gear options. Artist choose head with field cap for the article. He starts with the head, then cap and finally leather jacket and insignia. Besides step-by-step painting process photos, he shares his palette on every stage adding text describing his color recipes. 32 in-progress color photos and 8 photos for the finished bust.

Another large scale painting but this time a full figure painting by Kaz Tomori. He paints Bonehead Models 200 mm resin figure SS Squad Leader,Russia 1941. He explains painting eyes, face and 5 o’clock shadow in 24 photos, 18 photos for uniform and MP40 painting supported with color recipes. 4 photos for the finished figure.

Stelios Demiras - MrBlack himself, paints the head of Young Miniatures 180 mm bust YM-1806 Waffen SS Panzer Crewman in oils. The article has 16 step by step photos and a good text from priming to final touchs in 2 pages. Numbers on the photos and clear text make it a useful guide for bust painters.

Again a great painting photo guide to paint large scale busts. Juanma Vergara paints 51 Studio 1/10 scale Otto Carius bust in Vallejo Acrylics paints and oils. After a short historical info about Carius, he explains painting the eyes in 8 photos by giving color codes for eyeballs, pupils and iris. Then he shows painting steps of skin in 16 photos and 17 photos for cap and panzer uniform with detailed text including his color recipes.

Toshihiro Sano brings us a well detailed article on how to paint a black Panzer uniforms and black leather. He paints Alpine Miniatures 1/35 scale Waffen SS AFV Crew in oils and Tamiya enamels. He starts in telling about his painting style and continues with the face painting in 11 photos sharing all mixes for base, shadows and highlight tones. 23 photos for Panzer jacket and trousers. Then he shares how to make and paint the figure base and add foliage in 14 photos. 7 photos for the final scene.

A very nice article for a different painting style of wet-on-wet technique by enamels. Besides many articles for acrylics and oils, Toshihiro Sano paints Young Miniatures 1/10 scale German U-Boat Commander bust. 17 photos for the head, 16 photos for the uniform and scarf, 8 photos for the visor cap, 4 photos for binoculars and 5 for the finished bust.

Regular contributor Stelios Neofytidis paints Alpine Miniatures 54 mm German figures with a base from Soldiers’ kit to create a Battle of Bulge-Ardennes scene. He shares his techniques and color recipes for a German Officer in Pea dot camouflage pattern and NCO in sheepskin coat. He also explains base construction and painting. 27 photos in total.

In the last article with 7 final scene photos, two modelers create a World War II scene in 1/35 scale depicting Joachim Peiper in Kharkov . Ryota Sakai explains how he did the groundwork, made a German PzKpfw III wedgie from a Dragon kit and painted them in Tamiya colors. Toshihiro Sano paints the two Alpine figures in his wet-on-wet technique with enamels giving his color codes.

Conclusion

High printing quality, high resolution photos showing close-up details, explanatory texts with acrylic and oil color codes for base colors, shadows and highlights, personal paint recipes , ease on understanding with numeric sequence on photos. This is really a very worthy reference for all modelers that wants to paint World War II German figures and improve their painting quality.