I got my forgeworld order in the other day, and there was my cool books. I was really looking forward to getting these two master class books, as the descriptions made them sound very useful. They are, indeed!
The book is beautiful, as you would expect from a forgeworld publication. You will not be disappointed with the quality of this book, from the binding to the pages and printing. Very durable and worth the money. But what about the guts, you ask?
Well, here is where you get your moneys worth. I am not going to break it down chapter by chapter, but I will overview the book. The first thing to know, and they tell you this on the web page, it is not a "how to build a model" book, this is a master class level item. Not to say that the techniques in the book are beyond the 'average' modeler, far from it, they teach you well.
The first chapter is, as you might expect, about tools and equipment. What you may not expect is that it is not the typical fact sheets for GW tools and such. It is a good, solid run down of things you'll need, and things you never even thought about needing. And lots of stuff not made by GW even? (Heretics in forge world department, inquisition please report to forge world!) For instance, they talk about taking apart a water filter to get a lifetime's supply of rivet heads, and how to use them. Bang on!!
They then move on to building tanks (Armour is the focus of this book... go figger). They show a step by step build of a Renegade Medusa tank. From bag-o-parts to finished product. They do not show you how to build and work with resin, but rather how to doll it up and take the existing vehicle and dress it for war. In the article they make tank tread holders from old brass sprues (never throw those away!!!!). They also run some hydraulic lines to the dozer blades and put rivet heads everywhere. In short, they take this chapter to give you ideas for how to take your models to the next level, how would the crew be using it, how it would look after a fight. There are SCADS of pictures, and the keyed text is great at not just saying how to do a step, but in many cases why. Another cool idea, hairspray to make some great use/damage effects on the plow blade.
