A video online shows you one sequence. A book shows you why that sequence works – and that difference tells the moment you are standing over a model nobody filmed. This category holds a selection of publications on figure painting, diorama building and weathering from AK Interactive, Abteilung 502 and the Greek publisher Mr Black Publications.

What is in the category

• The large F.A.Q. manuals – reference volumes running to hundreds of pages. Figures F.A.Q. covers figures, Dioramas F.A.Q. the whole business of building dioramas.
• The AK Learning series – thinner titles, each on a single subject: vegetation, buildings, female figures, metallics.
• Magazines – Tint Inc. on figures, Damaged on things worn and broken, and the Tanker Techniques winter special.
• Mr Black guides – the Scale Model Handbook series, A4 format and a great deal of content in few pages.

Language

This is worth saying plainly: none of these titles has appeared in Slovak or Czech. Most AK Interactive books are bilingual, English and Spanish in the same copy; the Mr Black titles are English. In practice this is rarely an obstacle, because most of the information is carried by the step photographs and the accompanying text is short and factual. Every title states its language in the parameters and in the description, so there is nothing to guess.

How to choose

If you are starting out, reach for a thinner AK Learning title or Painting Guide 1 – they cost less, are shorter and stay on one subject. The large F.A.Q. volumes make sense when you want one place to look anything up. Magazines are a different thing again: not a textbook but a source of technique and reference, and every issue stands alone.

Frequently asked questions

Have these books been published in Slovak?
No. None of the titles in this category has a Slovak or Czech edition. The AK Interactive books are mostly English and Spanish; the Mr Black titles are English.

Is a book worth it when there are so many free videos?
A book does something a video does not. It lays a sequence out whole, with the photographs side by side, so you see the entire path at once and can come back to it at the bench without pressing play. It also explains why a step is taken – and that is what carries over to a different model.

Do the titles follow on from one another?
Mostly not. Both the Learning series and the magazines are put together so each volume stands alone. The one exception is Dioramas F.A.Q. and its 1.2 extension, which builds on the main volume – though it reads perfectly well without it.

Paints, brushes and materials for the techniques in these books are in the Paints, Brushes and Diorama categories.