The fine folks at Mr. Black Publications, out of Athens, Greece, have produced another of their superb figure books. When these were first announced, I had thought that they would cover all genres of model building, but it seems they have found a niche with figures and to me, is one of the finest books of its kind around. As with the others in the series, this one is written in English and very well edited so there are absolutely no syntax issues that one sometimes finds.  All of the articles are superbly done and provide material from award winning modelers. Though it is from Greece, the book is written in English. Though my own figure skills are amateurish by comparison, I like to read articles on how the masters are able to do their work. They make it all seem so easy!

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. This edition contains six different articles and while that is down from the last edition, the majority of articles go into much greater depth. I particularly like how a couple of them show the actual painting palettes used by the modeler (or should I say artist) when painting their figure.

First is a Viking chief using a 90mm Pegaso figure. This is probably the most in depth article in the book. Next is a 75mm Reality in Scale figure of a Pretorian Guard. This is followed by the most colorful 90mm Pegaso figure of a Mamaluke Officer from 1805. A very nice 200mm Pegaso bust of a German officer is next. The WWII figure is 28th Battalion Maori soldier using the 300mm Khaki Army figure. The last article is a pair of figures from WWI using a pair of 54mm Tommy's War figures and an appropriate trench diorama base.

In all, another outstanding edition and if figures are your forte or you just want to learn the techniques of the masters, this one is for you.

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

November 2013

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