AFV Modeller Publications David Parker’s Crew School (9780993564673)

[Mike]

David Parker’s Crew School (9780993564673)

AFV Modeller via Casemate UK

 

 

Building and painting AFVs is a subject often covered in books on modelling, but figures and their integration with a model or diorama isn’t all that frequent.  This book is one such tome, and covers the process of painting existing figures of many scales to adapting them to better suit your model, and then taking it a step further to build your own figures using just resin heads that are available and an armature - plus some sculpting medium of course.

 

 

It is a comprehensive book that runs to 112 genuine pages and is perfect bound in a matt-finished card cover.  It is broken down into chapters as follows:

 

• Introduction
• Basic Face Facts
• Uniform Approach
• Strike a Pose
• Switching for Effect
• Creating Creases
• Factory Fresh
• Armed and Dangerous
• Holt, Who Goes There?
• One Step Beyond
• Working with Mannequins
• Communication Breakdown
• Panther Personnel
• Charm Offensive
• Shell Slinger
• Ardennes Advance
• Appendix

 

 

 

It begins with some painting techniques to give your models additional depth and quality by improving your skills in “lighting” your figures by painting them with highlights and shadows, including how best to depict camouflaged clothing and adding translucent shadows without obliterating the shape of the camouflage swatches.  The basics of painting faces is explored too, showing how to create realistic shading and how depict eyes without using whites and making them look like escapees from a Marty Feldman film – we’ve all done it.  It also shows additional techniques that can be useful for larger scale figures and busts.

 

 

 

After describing the importance of posing your figures on and around your model, there is a section on simple changes you can make to better fit your figures to the task in hand, switching parts and re-building changes with armatures and putty.  This of course requires a basic understanding of how fabrics move with the human body, which is the next step in the discussion, showing how creases form in various poses using pictures to illustrate the effects further.  It further shows the kind of tools that you will need in order to consider sculpting your own fabrics, figure parts and so forth.  More radical alteration of figures is shown through the next chapters, including repurposing figures from a different genre or country by adding details to correctly tie them into the desired theme.

 

 

When you’re comfortable with altering figures, it’s the logical next step to create your own, and here a very clever approach to ease your progress is brought into play.  Mannequins.  David has had 3D mannequins printed to use as a basis for his figure sculpts, and having now seen them, they’re a rather impressive way to get consistent anatomical proportions for your figures, and they would probably sell well if they aren’t available already somewhere (which they don't seem to be).  Some awesome sculpting follows, with many tips and tricks of the figure sculptor exposed to assist us novices, taking us from the basic pose using an armature and resin head, through fleshing out (pun!), clothing, buttons, badges and insignia, as well as describing which types of modelling materials are useful for certain tasks.  More tricks and techniques follow along with plenty of painting hints, culminating in an impressive figure build for a 1:16 Schwimmwagen crew, taking inspiration from an actual picture taken during the war.

 

The appendix at the rear of the book lists the tools and materials that are suitable for figure work, and which ones work best in certain circumstances, reinforcing the general theme of the book.  The very last page shows a few shots of the projects just to round off the tome.

 

 

Conclusion

I’m a little terrified of figures, even though I used to paint Warhammer 40K in my 20s.  This book really assists with the various techniques and would be a help to most figure builders/makers, save for those few genius modellers that excel beyond all imagination.

 

Highly recommended.

 

At time of writing, this volume is on offer at Casemate, and you can visit by clicking below

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

 

 

[fewr9fkr9595]

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

even though I used to paint Warhammer 40K in my 20s. 

Thats ok. 
 

We all have our dirty secrets...

 

😂

 

Good looking book though. I have seen some of his work in person at shows and its super impressive stuff to aspire to 👌🏽