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Kalmbach's New Scenery Video- a review (long)
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Robert Vancel
Sep 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM9/7/99
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Hi gang. The folks at Kalmbach have produced another great tape
covering the basics for the beginners in model railroading. The small
4X6 layout in the September issue of MR is the one covered in the tape
and I must say it is impressive.
I only have a couple of points to make about it, which is not meant to
berate the tape, just to voice my opinion about things that were left
out (and some that should have been)
The portion covering the building of a mountain (hill, in this case)
was good. Especially showing two of three possibilities. They do the
cardboard strip weave and the stacked and carved styrofoam board
methods. Both are excellent but I think in light of the fact they
used a lot of Woodland Scenics products, they could have included a
method that WS uses in their books. The stacked newspaper 'bun'
method.
The application of the plaster wrap was good and very informative as
was the instruction on using Sculptamold and rock castings. The
coloring castings section was well done, even pointing out how awful
it looks while you're doing it.
The river/waterfall section is well done except that I would have
liked to have seen how they did the riverbed (okay, so old hands at it
already _know_ to paint in the 'depth' on ahead of time). Same for
the very nice rockwork along the 'lake' portion. It wasn't mentioned
anywhere in the tape!
The lady who did the section on trees. Marvelous information although
the lighting for the 'drybrushing' portion of the tree-making left
everything looking really shiny. She did an excellent job of
explaining tree grouping and height (something we all are guilty of
forgetting!) but I have a suggestion.
SMILE!
I got the feeling watching her that she would rather have been
elsewhere than making trees.
The backdrop painting section really helped quite a lot. I've seen
articles and read books, ect. But until I _saw_ it being done, I
couldn't quite understand the progression.
Roadwork was nicely done (even learned a new trick myself).
All in all, the tape is most likely worth the $29.99 Kalmbach is
asking. But I feel that perhaps a bit more editing/writing could have
helped.
covering the basics for the beginners in model railroading. The small
4X6 layout in the September issue of MR is the one covered in the tape
and I must say it is impressive.
I only have a couple of points to make about it, which is not meant to
berate the tape, just to voice my opinion about things that were left
out (and some that should have been)
The portion covering the building of a mountain (hill, in this case)
was good. Especially showing two of three possibilities. They do the
cardboard strip weave and the stacked and carved styrofoam board
methods. Both are excellent but I think in light of the fact they
used a lot of Woodland Scenics products, they could have included a
method that WS uses in their books. The stacked newspaper 'bun'
method.
The application of the plaster wrap was good and very informative as
was the instruction on using Sculptamold and rock castings. The
coloring castings section was well done, even pointing out how awful
it looks while you're doing it.
The river/waterfall section is well done except that I would have
liked to have seen how they did the riverbed (okay, so old hands at it
already _know_ to paint in the 'depth' on ahead of time). Same for
the very nice rockwork along the 'lake' portion. It wasn't mentioned
anywhere in the tape!
The lady who did the section on trees. Marvelous information although
the lighting for the 'drybrushing' portion of the tree-making left
everything looking really shiny. She did an excellent job of
explaining tree grouping and height (something we all are guilty of
forgetting!) but I have a suggestion.
SMILE!
I got the feeling watching her that she would rather have been
elsewhere than making trees.
The backdrop painting section really helped quite a lot. I've seen
articles and read books, ect. But until I _saw_ it being done, I
couldn't quite understand the progression.
Roadwork was nicely done (even learned a new trick myself).
All in all, the tape is most likely worth the $29.99 Kalmbach is
asking. But I feel that perhaps a bit more editing/writing could have
helped.
Notice: This is NOT a flame. It is a review and opinion of a tape
I've watched five times already (I run it in the store).
Robert Vancel
Modeler, Advisor, and Independent Biker
(And DAMN proud of it!)
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