Enrique Carasco Molina
Book Review
Enrique Carrasco
Copyright 2022
Softcover
Kalmbach Item # 12839
Kalmbach
$ 21.99
I just received Kalmbach's interesting and well-illustrated softcover book. Interestingly, the cover seems to indicate perhaps that Kalmbach had mixed feelings about the topic - the typography shouts - "Realistic Dioramas" while setting "Combining Scales" in smaller and darker type. In mentioning this to others I also learned that Bernie Kempinski has written a book - yet to be published on a similar topic. More about that later.
As a model railroader, I have mixed feelings about Combining Scales for Realist Dioramas. On one hand, it is an important topic for model railroaders and one that has never been the subject of an entire book. On the other hand, much of the book seems devoted to basic scale modeling with an emphasis on dioramas. After reading Carrasco's book, I came to be convinced - as the author seems to unwittingly suggest - that using what is commonly called forced perspective would be more successful if combined with what is called a box diorama. I also wish that his introductory chapter had been a bit more thorough and perhaps illustrated by how others have used multiple scales.
The good news for model railroaders is that smaller layouts - and even larger ones with some extra effort - can employ the techniques of box dioramas by using a fascia, valance and wings (as Iain Rice describes them after stage usage).
This book is divided into a preface, eight chapters, and ends with a table of references. Enrique's introductory chapter is followed by seven chapters each detailing a different diorama the author has built (the author devotes two chapters to his Ardennes diorama). Interestingly, Carrasco - or at least his editors - choose to describe his technique as "depth of field" rather than "forced perspective". As others have written, even "forced perspective" may be a misnomer with the described technique in most cases simply being "reduced scale" but that is a discussion, your reviewer has conducted elsewhere (see the reviewer's blog for further discussion).
I also noticed that while the author cited Ivar Kangur as a fellow focused on using forced perspective in dioramas, no citation of either his web site or his books is provided - a glaring oversight in my mind.
A little about the author. A university academic whose native tongue is Spanish, Enrique Carrasco Molina, as he is also known, is from the Canary Islands. Self-taught in modeling since the age of 10, he has won several awards in modeling competitions. His other published work on dioramas, in Spanish, is titled Veleros y Dioramas: Tecnicas de Modelismo Naval Esenico. This place is as good as any to congratulate Kalmbach for bringing us foreign authors - ok, I admit it, foreign to what I presume are its largely American readership.
In closing, I must admit this book left me thirsty for what Bernie Kempinski has written on this subject. Final judgment - for those modelers who have toyed with the idea of using multiple scales in either their dioramas or their model railroads, this book would prove inspirational.
Revised February 22, 2025
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