Military Model Scene

Title: Real Weathering
Author: Dick Taylor & Andy Brend
Publisher: MMP
ISBN: 978-83-66549-37-1

A new addition to their Green Series of books from MMP, this is aimed squarely at military vehicle modellers. A 156-page soft-cover book, packed with full colour photos.
There are lots of books and modelling magazine articles about weathering armoured vehicle models. Whether all of them show realistic weathering effects is a subject of debate. Some models can look attractive to the eye but are they 'realistic'? This book provides a collection of references showing real examples of weathering on a wide variety of equipment. Some are in service while others are in private ownership at rallies and yet more are museum exhibits. Following the Introduction where author Dick Taylor explains the idea behind this set of weathering references the contents are then grouped in topics of Canvas & Textiles: Dirt & Dust: Engines, Exhausts & Instruments: Fuel, Grease & Oil: Mud Glorious Mud: Rust: and finally Tracks & Tracked Suspensions. Each section has a brief text to set out the topic but then followed by a selection of colour photos illustrating a number of variations. There are no captions to the photos regarding the vehicle you are seeing, as it is the weathering effect that is the whole point.
I really liked this, as a modeller this is a very helpful reference. There are lots of materials to help with weathering on the market these days, with washes, pastels, oil/grease stains and streaking effects. This just suggests how they might be used in a most realistic way.
Thanks to Casemate UK, distributors for MMP, for the review copy.

Robin