It was quite a pleasant surprise to receive their second volume in the mails the other day. Published by Mr. Black Publications out of Athens, Greece, it contains six 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 six subjects and some of the images from the gallery article.

These articles are on a 15th Century knight in 75mm, a 'Blackbeard' figure, also in 75mm, a WWI German trooper in 54mm, a Templar knight from the 12th Century in 90mm, a gallery of the work of Louis D'orio, and a 5th Century BC Greek Mercenary in 75mm.

A variety of techniques and painting are done on each one and any modifications to the base kit are detailed. 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.

April 2012

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