It is always great to receive the latest edition of Mr. Black Publications' Scale Model Handbook, and #16 arrived in the mails the other day. This edition is part of their Figure Modeling editions and so concentrates on that subject.  While my main focus is not figures, I very much enjoy looking at masterpieces and learning a thing or two on the subject that can be carried over into other types of modeling. We modelers may have our favorites, but much of what we do can easily be transferred over to other areas of the hobby.

This edition has its usual nice selection of articles; eight in all this time. Unusually, images of all eight are shown on the cover instead of one being featured over the other. Probably had difficulty choosing which to use and I don't blame him as they are all superb.

In this edition we have a 75mm Roman Legionary from the 1st century, a 90mm Knight Templar from the 13th Century, and what I consider to be the most interesting article, a 75mm 'Descendant of Odin'. This latter article shows how this is scratch built from a wire frame to a completed figure. This article does not include painting it, but is fascinating to see with lots of photos.

Next is a 180mm Hannibal Barca and a 180mm Otto Carius. These are both large scale busts. Then we have a 200mm Ensign 28th Foot at Waterloo. The last two are also fantasy works with a 75mm/100mm Rhino Painting followed by a 54mm 'Twitchy Mary'.

As usual, the photos are superb and often will give a step by step on how the various effects were reached. As figure modelers are mostly painters, this sort of information is quite useful.

I would also like to mention that Mr Black Publications provides a special free shipping offer and also a WWII package option that may interest you.

Thanks to Mr Black Publications for the review book. Visit them at www.mrblackpublications.com.

May 2016

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