Book Review
120 pages
All should know that the author lives within the confines of the Potomac Division of the Mid East Region of the NMRA; indeed, many of us have probably been to his inspiring open houses. I know that my first visit to his N scale layout depicting Indiana really opened my eyes to what great scenery could look like. Mindheim is the owner of The Shelf Layouts Company www.shelflayouts.com - a custom layout building and design firm. Lance has been widely published in the model railroad press and has quite a long list of titles he has authored.
Lance starts his book with the claim that "More than any other visual element, scenery treatment makes or breaks the overall appearance of a layout" - a statement this reviewer agrees with. Yet, the title of this book may be a misnomer - this book cover scenery for all sizes of layouts and for all eras. Even if you are not modeling a switching layout, there is lots to learn from Mindheim's latest book. Even if you don't have a layout, you will be inspired and sure to start on your next layout with a better path to successful scenery. Lance is also modest enough to advise "there is no individual technique in this book that hasn't been covered before". Buy this book.
This book is organized into 14 chapters organized around these topics: Some Theory to Star; Base Layers; Vegetation; Other Scenic Features; and Conclusion. I like that he includes photographs of products he recommends; Lance goes further and gives his readers product numbers of scenery materials he favors. He also steers his readers to products that can be found at their local home improvement store and thus save them monies that would otherwise be spent on more expensive alternatives found in the pages of modeling magazines. An important theme in his book is that "effective color treatment is one of the most critical aspects of creating an effective result."
In case you missed the points that this author makes, he ends each chapter with a helpful "Key Points". I also appreciated that Lance does not hesitate to boldly tell us what we do wrong in our scenery attempts.
Why another scenery book? Because this profusely illustrated book covers a slew of fine points that other books I have read just simply overlook. Lots of emphasis on using grout as ground cover - model railroaders had overlooked this scenery technique for many years - glad it is getting the emphasis it is due. About the only thing missing from this book is a technique one reads about in the British modeling press - the use of Chinchilla Powder sprinkled on wet paint. Yes, owners of chinchillas can purchase at some pet stores a very fine powder that pet chinchillas can "bathe" themselves with. The powder is so fine that it can add a bit of texture to a scene without being out of scale.
The Author
Lance is an engineering graduate of Purdue University. Readers will take heart that all of us are capable of achieving model railroad greatness no matter what our background. Not mentioned in his book, but I do recall that Lance was in the insurance industry before devoting himself full time to building layouts on a commercial basis.
Available on Amazon
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