Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)

Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)

Scratchbuilding is the ultimate level of achievement in scale modelling. It means that you cannot use a kit, because it is not yet (or never will be) commercially available to help you building a model of your desired subject. You must depend entirely on your own skills, knowledge, experience, scale plans (if available), photos, books, Google search, basic materials like polystyrene/metal sheet, wood, some more or less exotic or special tools/material, vacuforming techniques, metal rod/tubes, accessories like photo-etched parts, etc. Also: few valuable friends (masters of specialised craftsmanship) to help you in areas you are not so good at, persistence, patience and brains = problem solving capabilities, methodology, fantasy and an added ability to understand/visualize how the original machine worked. Quite a daunting package. Sometimes you may be lucky cutting corners by utilising parts of other similar kits.

And how about combining all these skills with the anticipation of winning awards, exhibiting in a modelling show/competition?

Megas Tsonos' superb new book on “Scratchbuilding Aircraft”, with 152 pages and over 600 colour photos can take you through this entire process, from tools and materials, to using plans, to planning your build and tackling individual areas of the construction of your own fully scratchbuilt aircraft scale model. Published by “Inside The Armour Publications” (and Chris Meddings), it will give you an idea of what is like to build your own model aircraft of a subject/variant that has never been (or will be) released in kit form and your desired scale (1/48th regarding this book).

Megas Tsonos is perhaps the greatest modeller and a master craftsman, privileged to guide you in such a “journey” - if you are ambitious enough. Over the past 30 years he has built many such models, which were never (and still are not) available in kit form. And all of them have won the highest awards in national and international modelling contests, mainly IPMS/ScaleModelWorld.

It is not an easy task building these models from scratch. And it is equally -or even more- difficult to write a book about it, using explanative and understandable text and accompany it with more than six hundred good quality, close-up photos and diagrams/line drawings, adding captions & numbers to each image (repeated in the text), to show the work required to be done. This is pure writing resilience.

Most of you are already familiar of Megas’ work in magazines like “Air Modeller” so you know what to expect. The question is whether this book will help you achieve your goals in starting up your next dream project.

Let’s be totally honest. You’ll need all the skills package mentioned above to even come close achieving success – especially if it’s your first time attempting scratchbuilding on anything ambitious. But if you’ve ever tried to do it, with various degrees of success (or failure!), or if your target is to start with easier subjects and gradually progress to more complicated, or simply wish to improve your ability to scratchbuild even sections of models, then you will find here a helpful knowledge base and a valuable source of expert advise and information.

Just browsing the contents of this book -or even after reading the very first chapters- you may feel something like: “Gosh, I cannot try anything like this”. But the key is to hold on and try to read between the lines to fully understand what the author really means about each construction, analysed step-by-step. The key to scratchbuilding is not about explaining some secret, “magic” techniques or revealing a special, unique talent, but using new, smarter ways of thinking and problem solving. Imagine a very complicated kit with no instructions! Now think exactly the opposite and get all the instructions you’ll ever need - minus the kit! This is the benefit of reading this book. The author has chosen the classic and practical method of showing his techniques by dividing and applying them into various modelling projects in 1/48 scale.

Each subject (or problem) is approached and analysed not only from a modeller’s perspective but also from an aircraft mechanic’s one. Megas is a (retired) aircraft engineer and was employed by Olympic Aviation SA for two decades. This is a most valuable asset for a modeller - alas not available to many of us. But it is good to know what we are lacking, so we can focus on studying it - at least at the level required to solve our problems. Happily, Megas has chosen to build and show us enough models of various difficulty levels. From a Canadair CL-215 to some biplane flying boats (like Felixstowe & Calcutta) - also a Halifax, a Stirling and a Noratlas. The CL-215 and the Stranraer (always in 1/48th scale) are extensively described (more than 80 pages in total). WIP photos of the other models are used as well, plus brief descriptions for each one are also included. However, their full construction may be found as complete articles in “Air Modeller” magazine.

A 20 page introduction chapter is devoted in explaining all the basics about aircraft modelling terms (wings, dihedral angles, fuselage sections, etc), references, tools, materials, safety and planning the build. The following chapters (50 pages in total) are about aircraft components in scale, where the author shows the reader how to think deeply about solving construction problems on symmetry, structures and details like engines, nacelles, control panels, clear parts, biplane sections (ribbing, rigging), interior & exterior detailing, landing gear, etc.

If you have ever attempted either building a vacuformed kit or kitbashing successfully, then this book is your stepping stone to proceed to the next level of scratchbuilding. If you’ve never tried either of them, then the “jump” will be somehow more difficult and complicated - or a bit frightening. This book is not aimed at beginners or average modellers, eager to replicate a build, following each construction step meticulously.

But if you’ve reached this far, you might want to take a step further, buying and studying this book. At least you will find yourself expanding your horizons, committed to being more brave and decisive, building something really unique and reaching new levels of excitement - be it a new wing, an extensive conversion or an entirely new model of your dreams.

Highly recommended! – and available at a very low price, considering the wealth of information included. Get a copy now, while it is still available here & here.

 

Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)Scratchbuilding Aircraft. A Scratchbuilding Masterclass Book, by Megas Tsonos (Inside The Armour Publications, 2020)
  • Share