Finescale Locomotive Building

Finescale Locomotive Building

In this book, Tom Mallard describes how he goes about the business of building exquisite miniature recreations of the steam locomotives from the past. Starting with an introduction to the subject, in which he discusses how he sees modelmaking as being on the boundary between art and craft, Tom next talks about the actual business of acquiring and developing skills, his own motivations, and his early influences. After describing his modelling "journey" through the locomotives he has built and the people he has worked with, he then discusses research and design. The main text of the book then follows, initially describing the tools that he uses and then the methods and techniques used in actually building the models. This includes how he uses 3D printing and other techniques in his work, notably including etching which is well described and illustrated. Throughout the book, we follow Tom's building of two 7mm scale models of the famous Lynton and Barnstaple Manning Wardles, "Exe" and "Yeo". Well illustrated throughout, the book includes detailed drawings and good photographs of these locomotives, lots of constructional photographs and finally, photographs of the finished and weathered models. Other locomotive types are also featured, including a stunning Scaleseven LMS "Compound". Tom's work is amazing, and I know I, for one, will never achieve his levels of fidelity to prototype, but apart from being inspired by what Tom has achieved I also took quite a lot away from the book in terms of how I might approach my own modelling projects, including how to successfully tackle various of the challenges presented when recreating steam locomotives in miniature.