My foster Son wants me to write a book about Modeling Anything. From the Common kit to the far out model made of found materials, Totally unrelated to the subject! My question is, should I bother? There’s so much out there that has been built out of stuff that no one considered before.
Now we all know about Resin Models. I have only built two. I found out I was allergic to the dust! It made my skin burn like I had been splashed with hot oil! Certain woods I have used have bad effects if you inhale the dust, such as Mahogany, Believe it or not!
So knowing the things I do from 71 years of modeling, should I write It? Do we really need a general “How To” that starts before many of you were born?
I’ve bought a book or two on modeling, wood ships mainly, but found they don’t hold up well to time. Take a look at those Shep Paine brochures, some of what he wrote still holds but much of the techniques, while still work just fine, are out moded when compaired to the new materials and after market products.
I’d still say yeah, go for it. I’m sure there are several techniques that you’ve learned that would benifit many, including myself. If you write one, I’d buy it. Plus, it’ll always be there long after we’re gone. A legacy, kinda like a photograph.
Let me start with a joke that goes like this: Well if it’s the only way to see the pictures of your builds - dang, I’ll buy it!
And again - with no pictures I don’t think it would be marketable…
Then again - you’re writing all the time, anyway - making a book out of it isn’t that much of a hassle…
Nowadays you don’t have to worry about printing press, matrices and stuff - just make a pdf and put it up for a print-on-demand service (like lulu.com). Even if there’s only one taker, they will print it, bind it (even hardcover if you like) and ship it even to Poland - and you make whatever margin you dial in.
So like you see, that’s no big deal any more… I say try it if you have some free time on your hands…
While writing this I just remembered I was supposed to do something similar with the memoirs of my gramps from the times when he was a slave laborer in the WWII Germany… Would anyone want to read something like that?
“Who would publish it?”; how about you . . . self publishing isn’t that hard.
“Who would read it?”; more than you might expect.
As a published author, I thought my first book would be nothing more than a niche book; for USS Arizona and Pearl Harbor historians, and maybe a few more. In fact, I have sold over 400 copies, nearly 300 to the bookstore at the USS Arizona memorial alone. My second book, a young reader story, has not done as well, primarily due to its launch last summer, in the middle of the Covid thing.
Now, if you are at all interested in doing this; and it seems that you are otherwise you would not have brough it up, then look at other modeling books. See what they have, and more importantly, what they don’t. That should give you a good idea what to cover.
Now the big factor; cost. If you add art, especially color, then the cost jumps up exponentially. Black and white pictures can be done like text, but color pictures get expensive; and a modeling book would definitely have to have pictures.
I write the occasional article for publication in small circulation newsletters, such as our church bulletin.
The thing is to write about personal experience as that is something unique that only you posess. Otherwise you can assume someone else wrote something of general knowledge in an informed and literate way which you could only hope to match.
Hoo states it well, without direct reference. He is the ONLY USMC deep sea diver who has walked the decks of BB-39 and then written a good book about it (I own a copy) that I have read, and I’ll bet I haven’t missed any other ones.
I would read a book you write about your time in the Sac Delta running spill boats that were converted LSDs or whatever they were, and builds models of them.
Id buy it! I’ve bought two books in the past year or so. The revell book, very cool but useless. And a kalmbach publication on model airliners. You have to write it in your unique TB dialect though
I have a question for you! I learned to Scuba dive to the maximum depth allowed-On Mix! Now of course that’s out of the question. So the question. Didn’t you feel stifled and somewhat confined in the hat with the little round windows in it??
Thaat’s why I did the Scuba thing. I even have a hard time thinking about how many times I used a Hookah Rig!
Never had an issue with any of the dive rigs I’ve used, and I’ve dove a bunch of them. In the Mark 5 (the spun copper helmet with the little windows) your face is close enough to the port that it doesn’t really obscure the view that much. As you would expect, some of the other rigs do have better visibility, but there is just something about diving the old ones that is so cool. Aside both single and double hose scuba, the rigs I’ve dove include; the MK-5, the Mk-1, the Mk-12, MK-20, MK21, the KMB-10 and 12, the Superlite 17 and 18, the old triangular, free flow ‘Jack Browne’, and several hookah masks. I’ve been to 120’ on scuba, 285’ on surface-supplied air, and 300’ on HEO2 mix. Never had the opportunity to play with any nitrox gear, but did try out the MK-16 rebreather.
I wish I remembered half of the vessels I have dove on. The most fascinating and dangerous was the " Doria". I have a personal connection to her from childhood. Not going into it here. Now the Hookah was okay for river dives on salvage jobs, But it could get dangerous if you didn’t pay attention. My partner got trapped that way. I had to take an aux tank down to get him air till we could get the boat off him.
Of course, he was one of those Cocky guys who knew it all! That day the partnership was dissolved. I wasn’t going to lose a diver on my watch! So I went back to solo easy jobs and recreational dives. On my own with my Buddy always at my side or nearby. Great sport and work for a Husband and Wife team!
It’s been long enough that I don’t even remember the series I dove with, But, I did get to try the Re-Breather type and wished I was a lot younger and my heart had behaved!
There is an old line,“Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you”, that goes in diving too. In ‘work’ diving, as opposed to recreational diving, You have to be able to not only trust your buddy, but to be able understand and know how the guy thinks. It keeps you out of trouble and can most definitely save yours or their life.
You know, the funny thing is that when people hear you’re a diver, the first thing they ask about is sharks. The fact is that sharks are about the last thing on your mind, as there are a whole bunch of things that will kill you that are more prevalent and more hazardous than the ‘big gray hungries’.
I still like a book/magazine. I’m ears deep in technology professionaly, but when it comes to relaxing on the sofa reading a book or a magazine… nothing beats that.
The only way a new general modelling book would fly is if it were heavily illustrated and took up about a thousand pages! There are just too many sub-topics, too many different types of models, too many tools, too many types of adhesive and paint, and too much variability in the quality of models. But I do think that some books would fly, and I would buy them in a second.
What I would like to see, for example, is a good book about weathering. That’s one subject that I’ve had trouble getting a handle on, and the few times I’ve tried to weather one of my models I ended up without the slightest change in the model, or a disaster. And I’ve even tried to “study up” on the subject through You Tube videos, magazine articles, and entire books, most of which are simply discouraging because I simply don’t have the skills to replicate what I see and read about.
I think that one type of book that is missing from the “library” is one about the philosophy and psychology of building models. Why do we build models? Why do we choose particular types or scales of models to build? What are or should be the goals of building a model? Why are some modellers happy only with perfection in the final result, while others are pleased if their neighbour, who knows nothing about scale modelling, seems blind to obvious faults in a model and says, “Wow! That’s incredible!” To be truly useful, such a book intended for beginning model makers would include just such topics.
TB, I reckon I’d read anything you wrote. Your posts are always entertaining! I have no doubt that a book on your life would be an absorbing read, as you seem to have had a very interesting and varied life experience. You also have a good ‘take’ on things. If it was going to be about modeling, then my choice would be for card models. This is a relatively unknown and fascinating subject, in which you have great experience.
Incidentally, I would recomend Hoo Yah’s book on the USS Arizona to anybody. A fascinating and informative read.
