Thursday 4 October 2012

Review : AK's ''The Weathering Magazine'' Issue 1- Rust

A month ago, I was reading the latest ( then) issue of SMMI- Scale Modelling Military International and my eyes falls on a advert. To be honest, there was a hot model in advert, wielding a welding-torch and looking all dirty and greasy and that caught my eye ( LOL ) so I read through the advert and I couldn't be more glad that I saw that advert.

It was a advert for a magazine, dedicated directly to weathering, and the publishers are no other then the famous AK interactive. The name of the magazine also caught my attention; the name was just pure and simple '' The Weathering Magazine''. So, as soon as I got back home from work, I did a little research about that said book and found some reviews and I felt like trying out the book myself. And boy oh boy, I was right to buy it.

This is what you see on the cover -

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And, naturally, turning the cover, you will see the contents various ads and bits and bobs that you would normally see from a magazine.

The very first, you could say , Chapter comes into view like so -
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Oviously, as you can see from the title, they showed a step by step process of how to rust a prototype tank that went trough trials and just abandoned and sitting in a corner of a factor ( Porsche's factory to be exact). This chapter deals with how to make rust streaks of various shapes and sizes and how accumlated rain drops, which leads to a pool, can rust metal products.

The 2nd chapter tells you how rust can happen and how to acheieve rust on a Bare steel body
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The 3rd Chapter shows to acheive some hastily attached  armour without any paint on a vehicle can rust. This chapter also tells you how to achieve milling effect, complete worker's marking and wrting; the typical white chalk u would see on doors or frames when carpenters working on them, you know Photobucket

The fouth Chapter depict how a railway car can undergo rust after prolong usage and exposed to the elements-
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In the fifth one, you would see a chapter showing you how rust can occur on a ship currently in service and through heavy seas.
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I find this chapter exceptionally useful because they cover almost everything in there, from paint fade to rusts from scratches made by the anchor, and also along the anchor chains.

The sixth one teach you how to make a ultra-realistic, three dimensional chip effects that is complete with rust forming in that chipped paint area.
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This chapter is very, and I mean Very, interesting as well as it tells you how to achieve such realism by using pigments in a manner similar to the salt technique.

In the 7th one, you will see some simple steps how to achieve that old, used, metal fittings on furnitures, doors and so on so forth. In this case, the example is some metal fittings on some old barn doors.
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In the next one, you will see how to naturally rust metal parts. Of cos, the rust process is sped up using some chemicals and in this one, AK promotes their own product ( naturally ) to show some easy and simple steps how real metal parts can be rusted. However, I have to give it to AK for not turning a blind eye on the other product as well, as they review other products which can naturally rust metals ( this is covered in a diferent chapter )
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The 9th chapter shows you how easy it is to make some small, localized chip paint effects and rust streaks and rust effects from those chip paints. Apprently, all you need is a good eye and some proper colour.
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In this chapter, you will see a step by step tutorial of how rust can occur on a modern vehicle. The title says ''Less is more'' and what they say in this chapter is that how one can achieve a great looking model with a moderate amount of effects.
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Chapter 11 is titled '' Sand Blown Old Rusty Steel '' and it shows you how the adverse condition of the desert can rust away metallic .
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You will find quite a number of references photos in chapter 12 and there are some descriptions on the photos that actually helps understanding the concept of rusting more.
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Chapter 13 will shows you how an abandoned vehicle will slowly rust ups and how the rusts will show among the faded original colours of the body.
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And last but not least, in this chapter, they talked about how each and every products and paints has their own use in rusting. They also reviews some of the products and give some shout-outs on which brand has which kind of rust colour and which brand's colour is better then which. Yes, I know what you are going to ask, what is that woman doing in there. To be honest, I don't have a clue, i guess AK deem it to put in as something to be eye catching or something, but quite strangely and frankly, Im don't really like their idea of putting in something like that.

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This book is a must have in my opnion. The only draw back is those random appearces of those models ( as in, human, woman models ). I mean, if I wanted to see stuffs like this, I would have bought myself a Playboy mag. The price is not bad as well, for £8.99, you get a nice magazine, that actually, teach you how to do stuffs. Normally, ''how to '' modelling mags are around and above £15 (which I never bother buying cos of the price ).

VERDICT - HIGHLY, EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED.



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