Could you write about resin aircraft models for 130 pages?  Well, this publisher has. The book has a misleading title, though. A better one would have been Thoughts of a Master Aircraft Modeler because this book is actually a treatise on advanced modeling, using resin aircraft models and resin detail parts as subjects. It covers a lot which is not specific to resin models. For example, some of the photos are of injection-molded and scratch-built models. It has material on decals, when there isn’t much difference between putting decals on a resin model and putting them on an injection-molded one. It discusses different kinds of airbrushes and compressors. This book even touches on the furniture for building and displaying models. Maybe the best title would be Everything Even Remotely Related to Choosing, Making, and Displaying Resin and Other Aircraft Models.

 I respect the author because he is a master model maker and a founder of IPMS-USA. I can only guess what the publisher may have required of him. Maybe there was no editor. In any case, this book bored me stiff, even though I build resin model airplanes. It is much too long. We don’t really need six paragraphs on clamps and two on hemostats. The text is painfully wordy and has many asides: “As has been said, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (but any way you do it, the cat ain’t gonna like it)”, “an understatement of the first magnitude”, “an initial solid (or heavy) coat”, “depending on your chosen scale and the ability of your eyes (age isn’t a factor because none of us are getting older)”. My favorite, though, was “[a]fter opening the box”.  With writing like this, it’s no wonder that it takes 48 pages to get to the point when, finally, the box is open. 

In places, the writer shows open-mindedness about techniques. Whatever works is fine with him, and he approves of experimentation. However, this book is also full of admonitions like “keep in mind that”, “there is a caveat”, “don’t forget”, and “don’t get the idea that”. After the umpteenth, I got tired of hearing the pointer being tapped on the blackboard.

 I probably dozed off several times and missed how to deal with warped parts. I’m not sure that it’s here, though. I would have appreciated it if some of these many words had told me whether the resin wings that I have straightened in warm water are going to curl up again in the future, and why. I would like to have learned whether the curing temperature of the resin has anything to do with warping. I had hoped to see a resin biplane, too. Instead, the book uses a styrene model, the 1/28^th scale Spad, as the biplane. Some of the accessory parts added to it are not resin, either. I must have missed the remedies for pinholes in the surface of resin. I trust they’re here somewhere, under all the surplus.

There are some outstanding models. Who made them is not always clear.

 On the good side, I certainly learned some new techniques, such as tinting glue to see where it runs. I also learned about some products that I want to try, such as a cyano-acrylate glue that won’t make my eyes water. From now on, I will wear a mask whenever I sand resin parts.

 There is enough good writing to tell the reader how to do things. The text is organized. I was not puzzled about the techniques and I’m fairly sure that intermediate modelers will not be puzzled, either. The author has the right idea about painting, too: We don’t need to see every panel line.

 The illustrations in this book are very good. All of the many photographs are in color, and the paper is glossy throughout. These features will probably be the main selling points for this book. The price is very reasonable.

 I wish I could recommend this book to the advanced modeler, but the advanced modeler already knows most of it and is likely to be as bored as I was. I also cannot recommend this book to anyone who is sensitive to writing style. However, it may hold the attention of an intermediate modeler who reads it a little at a time.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has well over 150,000 visitors a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.