It was quite a pleasant surprise to receive this figure book in the mails the other day. Published by Mr. Black Publications out of Athens, Greece, it contains nine articles on various aspects of the wide world of figure modeling. All of the articles are superbly done and provide material from award winning modelers. I should also verify that the book is written in English.

I particularly enjoyed that each one of the writing styles of the various authors was different. It is quite refreshing to read a book done in this manner as often times, the 'how I did it' books get to be rote and dull. Not at all in this particular case.

Each of the articles is loaded with full color photos and each one goes through the steps taken by the builder to reach the results shown. It is pretty obvious why these folks won awards for their work as it is truly superlative. Each of the articles highlights a different aspect of the hobby and as you can imagine, many of them are on the painting of the subject more than any actual construction, but that is not entirely the case.

I have included a photo from the back of the book showing the nine subjects and rather than go into any detail on any particular one, I will provide a brief rundown of some of the techniques provided.

These include a large scale bust, doing a figure conversion, painting leather and metal, doing a vignette, simulating different fabrics, doing a major conversion to a horse, painting a WWII figure, doing flesh tones and combining acrylics and oils.

Some articles provide a full tool and color listing while others simply mention these items in the article. The end result is an excellent reference book on these various techniques as well inspiration to see what can be accomplished with practice. Highly recommended if you enjoy figures.

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

January 2012

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