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This book appeared on the market several months after I acquired Mig's FAQ book. Being aware of Mirko Bayerl's contribution, I was happy to see this book arrive.
Historica books packaging insured that my copy arrived in pristine condition and, at the asking price, this is a good thing. Some vendors do not protect their products during shipping and a softcover can easily be damaged.
The book contains 144 pages of modeling inspiration and is full color throughout for the models. After a foreword by Tony Greenland, we dive immediately into the modeling works of several Nordic masters.
Mirko Bayerl has contributed three articles, Triangular Drama, Historical Research, Stuhlweissenburg, as well as a gallery entry named Hard Edged Warrior. The Triangular Drama discusses the three points of History, Realism, and Artistic Style during the construction phase of modeling. A dozen photos of his Sd.Kfz. 251/22 accompany the writing. His second article includes five period photos from his collection, three contemporary photos for comparison, and three photos of his IR equipped Panther. The third article describes heavy fighting and uses his Sd.Kfz. 250/8 for illustrative purposes while his gallery entry is of a Tiger II of s.SS.Pz.Abt. 501 in Hungary during March of 1945. Nine photos are used along with a contemporary photo and sketches explaining how he achieved the hard edged camouflage.
Another well noted modeler, Ulf Andersson, contributed an article entitled “The Russian Swingfactor” as well as a Su-100 for the Armor Gallery and a diorama named “Peace of Mind.” They are illustrated with 12 photos of various soviet tanks in the article, 7 photos in the Armor Gallery and 9 of his diorama featuring a Finnish T-34.
A very nice crashed aircraft diorama by Per Olav Lund is the subject of the next article names “Beached Whale” which features a scratchbuilt WWI Roland CII biplane along with scratchbuilt figures and a heavily modified Scale Link Douglas motorcycle with side car.
My favorite article includes a beautifully rendered diorama named “Close Encounters of the Third Reich” by Ulf Blomgren. It mixes several elements expertly to involve the viewer and justly deserves all the awards garnered in competitions. Thirteen photos of this composition illustrate the diorama.
The last article, The Engineer’s Perspective, by Gunnar Jannson is illustrated with 15 photos including his scratchbuilt figures and his thoughts on scale accessories. He also has two of his works, “SS-Sturmmann” and “Cassino Kampfer” in the figures gallery.
The Figures Gallery follows with “The Cossack” and “101st Airborne” by Andreas Bennwik, Magnus Fagerberg’s “Frontschwein”, and a superb trio of work by Andreas Herbst named “Modelling the PTO” in which each of the vignettes (Appetite for Destruction, A Foothold on Red Beach, an Payback) is described taking notice of the differences of emotion aimed for.
Aside from the aforementioned works, the Armor Gallery which follows has another Sd.Kfz. 251/22 (6 photos) as well as a StuG III G (8 photos) by Lars Brandstrom, Aufklarungspanzer 38(t) by Johan Fohlin (8 photos), and a StuG III C/G by Rickard Pamenius with 7 photos.
The last section of this book is the Diorama Gallery with “Judgment Day” by Ulf Andersson, Sd.Kfz. 250/1 by Lars Brandstrom, “Say Cheese” by Toni Canfora, Pz. Spahwagen by Andreas Bennwik, “Last Ride” by Johan Fohlin, “Pole Position” by Mattias Larsson, and the whimsical “Fishing for Spies” by Markus Eriksson.
With sharp and well lit photos, this book provides a lot of inspiration and is a greatly updated version of Verlinden’s early gallery books. It does seem that the Nordic Edge is sharp.
My thanks to Historica Books for the superbly packaged review sample.
More images available here:
http://www.nordicedgemodel.com/preview.html
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