The author had spent six years building a 7-1/4" gauge model of an LNER B1 locomotive, 'Bongo', and wanted to paint it to a high standard. This turned out to be easier said than done. The complete process of painting, lining and reassembly of Bongo took two years of frustration, mistakes and wrong directions but, finally, he won a gold medal at the 2004 Model Engineer Exhibition and the Charles Kennion Memorial Trophy for the best finished model in the show. It was this success, together with the lack of published help on the subject, that led to his decision to put pen to paper. This is not an academic treatise on painting, but a practical 'cook book' from someone who did finally achieve a good result, starting from zero knowledge. With 168 pages, 130 colour photographs and 30 diagrams, this book takes the beginner through all the necessary stages and processes in painting a model engineering subject. It includes selection and making of equipment, paint, preparation, spray and hand painting, fixing blemishes, lining, transfers, tips on how to look after the paintwork and a list of suppliers. The many trials, tribulations and disappointments are related, together with the author's solutions to them. It was only when the job was finished and sense of humour restored that people admitted that they had hardly dared to visit any longer because of the endless tales of woe and disaster: Paint running, rough finish, dust, insects, touching the still wet paint, dropping the tender, power failure in the middle of a job, faulty paint, water in the air supply...If the reader avoids just one of these pitfalls then the cost of the book will have been saved, perhaps several times over.

Mice make wonderful carving subjects. Their high-speed antics and busy, scampering ways always attract attention and are the stuff of countless stories. The carving project presented here features an industrious mouse who, having gathered up a plump strawberry for dinner, has paused to enjoy the cooling shade of a strawberry leaf before heading home. The mouse, strawberry, and strawberry leaf are carved separately from unseasoned (or green) white pine. Over 230 color photographs and clear, concise instructions guide the reader through each and every step, making the process both enjoyable and rewarding. Techniques for soldering brass, placing glass eyes, and applying color stains to the finished mouse accompany the wood carving instructions. Twenty-one patterns and a color gallery of additional storybook mice caught in the midst of their busy lives are provided to fire the imagination. Carvers with basic skills will enjoy the challenges and advanced carvers will find David's detail work fascinating.

Join Stuart Hillard as he expands his expertise from quilt-making to bag-making. Not just a sewing book, Bags for Life teaches you the diversity of bags that you can create once you have learnt the basics. With projects for all levels of crafter, you can work your way up from the simpler tote bag to various, more complicated, projects - such as a toiletry bag or overnight bag With 21 stylish projects for every occasion Stuart provides achievable patterns, fast makes for all abilities and professional looking results. Delving into the anatomy of the bag, take a visual tour of the various parts of different bags, before moving onto the specific details of pockets, zips, piping, binding, straps and handles and even metalwork. Divided into 5 chapters, there is much to choose from - whether you want to make re-usable shopping bags or a crafters bag that holds your yarn, there is something for every crafter out there. Chapters include: A Trip to the Market: trolley bags to shop and go; simple drawstring produce bags; expanding market tote; and a wallet. A Day at the Beach: Convertible tote 'n' towel; splash proof sling and book bag; and multi-purpose hobo perfect for carrying food, blankets and even baby essentials. A Picnic by the Lake: Picnic bag with insulated interior; bottle carrier; and drawstring games and play mat. A Meeting in the City: The ultimate workbag with room for a laptop or tables; the overnight attache; and a don't shoot the messenger bag, an everyday essential. A Weekend in the Country: The ultimate weekend bag with plenty of pockets; an absolute essentials roll-up pouch; and a multi-pocketed zippered toiletry bag. A Great Afternoon In (for every crafter!): Knitting bag to store your current project in style; a sewing machine bag; a project pouch; and a drawstring project bag. With 2 pattern sheets, step-by-step illustrations and lifestyle photography, there really is nothing stopping you from creating a whole host of homemade bags in a fun and sustainable way.

Although many modelers can master the basic techniques of construction, it is with the painting and finishing of their kits that many begin to struggle. It is this skill that gives the model its distinctive look and feel and separates the good model form the truly great one. This title will present a detailed, step-by-step approach to addressing the difficulties involved in creating realistic, colorful finishes to armor and aviation models using a variety of different media and techniques. The book swill be aimed at both the beginner and the intermediate modeler looking to improve their skills and, through clear text and photography will give a chapter-by chapter guide to the subject. Each stage will deal with a particular element of the painting and finishing process, whether it be creating camouflage schemes or dealing with markings and decals, to build into a comprehensive study of the subject. Relevant tools and materials will be included in sidebars, whilst a Gallery feature will highlight the range of color schemes and finishes available throughout the world of military and aviation modeling.

Model railway baseboards are like the foundations of a house, and failure to build a rigid baseboard that has no movement will inevitably lead to problems. Accordingly, this invaluable, well-illustrated book is essential reading for all those who wish to be guided through the potential pitfalls of making a baseboard and who require practical information about the different kinds of boards and how to construct them properly. Describes in detail how to build several different types of baseboards from the simple box frame, through the monocoque flat board, the drop board and insulation board, to multi-level boards and the helix. With the less adept modeller in mind, the author also explains how to make a baseboard with only a drill, a screwdriver and glue.

Here is the most comprehensive collection of toy and model buses ever presented in one book. Experience the evolution of bus transportation as you explore a worldwide showcase of buses from the 1920s to the present. This book provides a unique resource for discovering an extensive variety of buses and over 150 toy companies who made them. These models feature coaches of most major manufacturers of buses; American, European and Asian coaches are shown in the actual liveries (trim) of scores of bus companies. Also featured are school buses, trolley buses and others. With over 500 color photographs of over 1100 buses, here is the missing link in the transportation toy library, the book that bus lovers have been waiting for!

Staying at home doesn't mean that you have be stuck in front of the TV. This is the ultimate companion to help you beat boredom and to embrace your time indoors. Organized by mood, this book is packed with ideas on how to energize yourself, find your purpose, relax and reflect, get creative and connect with the world around you. Whether it's for a rainy day or a weekend indoors, there are over 80 ideas to keep busy and to challenge your mind. Staying at home can be a challenge and this clever book will offer ways to keep you happy and healthy, from putting together a homemade exercise routine using everyday household items to creating your own home silent disco as well as ideas to help you discover a new hobby, such as learning a language or upcycling furniture. There are also tasks to keep you feeling engaged and proactive, with tips on lowering your plastic pollution and ways you can volunteer from the comfort of your home, as well as practical ways to help you stay connected with nature, from making your own bird feeder to star gazing from your window, and creative activities to help reduce stress and worry, such as journaling, colouring and crafting. Staying in is the new going out, and it's so much more fun when you have ideas to keep you busy and entertained. These simple activities are full of tips and tricks to make your time at home as enjoyable as possible. You'll never wonder what you can do with your spare time ever again!

N gauge is the most rapidly expanding of all the model railway formats and if you want to take advantage of its huge potential, then this is the book for you. The author explains exactly what N gauge is, its history, its advantages and some of its possible disadvantages. He begins with a train set and progresses through choosing a prototype and designing a layout, to a practical demonstration of how to build a baseboard, to designs for open-topped baseboards and fiddle yards.

Make: High-Power Rockets is for all the science geeks who look at the moon and try to figure out where Neil Armstrong walked, watch in awe as rockets lift off, and want to fly their own model rockets. Starting with an overview of mid- and high-power rocketry, readers will start out making rockets with F and G engines, and move on up to H engines.

Whether you intend to add flair to your office presentation or charm to your model train set, this book will give you professional insight into designing and producing architectural models--with truly spectacular results. This book is a primer for the design, construction, and presentation of the three-dimensional model from conceptual drawings. Ideal for use inside or outside the classroom, the process begins with the construction of a cube and tetrahedron, and moves on to encompass manufactured modules, a commercial building, a single-story house, and a city rowhouse. Landscaping and presentation details are also provided to make your creations look their absolute best. Beautiful photography illustrates the step-by-step instructions for the beginning projects, as well as a colorful gallery of more complex designs that will excite and inspire you. These projects are a wonderful combination of the precision of model-building and the limitlessness of your creativity.

Connect with all of the joys in your life in The Book of Things That Make Me Happy, full of journal space and fun prompts to help you appreciate the good stuff.

In the spirit of Cornelius Ryan's epic A Bridge Too Far an American author retells the story of the ill-fated Allied operation code named "Operation Market Garden." The audacious, yet multi-faceted Allied plan in September 1944 included an airborne carpet of 35,000 troops, dropped along a sixty four mile corridor reinforced by the entire British 2nd Army with the intent of seizing the Ruhr Industrial Valley and end the war before Christmas! The author uniquely combines the best works available into a superbly researched and illustrated text, suffused with a masterful articulation of the entire Allied tragedy in combination with 20mm scale miniature portraiture. The "visual seams" of oral military history are filled through the author's interpreting of the battle in miniature. Horsa gliders are once again seen dropping "flaps down" onto the Spandau raked fields of Ginkel Heide. Captain Viktor Graebner's 9th SS Recce fatefully charges towards Colonel Frost's battalion holding the northern ramp of the Arnhem Bridge. Major Julian Cooks leads the heroic "Hail Mary Full of Grace" 82nd Airborne river assault across the Waal. Brigadier Lathbury's First Parachute Brigade conduct their final charge beyond St. Elizabeths Hospital and the Hartenstein Pocket steadfastly holds against enemy attempt to liquidate them.

Award-winning minaturist shares his panzer modeling approach in this lavishly illustrated volume featuring rare and unusual armor subjects of the Third Reich. Each 1/35 scale "exotic panzer" is presented in its own project essay, complete with in-progress photographs. Advanced assembly, conversion, and finishing techniques are covered, with emphasis on creating life-like dioramas and vignettes that incorporate figures and landscaping. This new title, unprecedented for its wealth of both informative and inspirational material, represents a fresh take on panzer modeling that will appeal to armor model enthusiasts of all experience levels.

Whether you plan on using drones for recreation or a more serious purpose (from search and rescue through farming to scanning construction work on a high-rise apartment buildings), Build a Drone will make sure that you not only understand how to construct a drone, but the proper and safe ways to maintain and handle them. Within the last couple of years, the usage of drones in both the public and private (military) sector has exploded. People are talking about drones, building drones, and something most people didn't know of a few years ago is now a household name. Build a Drone will not only teach you how to build your very own drone, but will explain their history in the military and the impact they will have-and are starting to have-on our everyday lives. Chapters include: Ready Made or Build Skills and Understanding the Drone Build Drone Assembly Setup and Calibration Safety and Flying Your Drone Designing Your Own Drone And more! Author Barry Davies has built drones for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and AAI (one of America's largest drone manufacturers), as well as six experimental ones for MIT. He not only understands their use in the world, but knows the ins-and-outs of how they can be created and handled.

A highly illustrated step-by-step guide to designing and making contemporary tableware in clay, featuring inspirational pieces by leading designers. The tableware we use is very important in our everyday lives, whether plates, bowls, mugs, cups or teapots. This stylishly illustrated guide helps budding and established ceramicists alike to create practical and attractive ranges, starting with design principles, working through appropriate construction techniques, and leading on to decoration and finishes. Leading designers Sue Pryke and Linda Bloomfield explain the importance of inspiration and consistency in design, providing step-by-step guides to the main making methods, which include hand building, pinching, coiling, throwing and slipcasting. They also offer advice on using various clay materials - such as recycled and reused clay bodies - and the combination of clay with other materials including wood, metal, textiles and synthetics. Tips are provided on glaze fit, dishwasher- and microwave-safe glazes, firing and finishing. Featuring beautiful photographs of the work of such prominent tableware makers as Sasha Wardell, James and Tilla Waters, Reiko Kaneko and Nico Conti, there are many sources of inspiration for those wishing to further their tableware ambitions.

Promotional cars and trucks are miniature vehicles used by car and truck dealerships and manufacturers to promote the sale of their vehicles. Each example was produced for one year, then discontinued when the new models came out. For this reason, and their appeal to the car lover in general, promotionals have a popularity enjoyed by comparatively few collectibles. This new book presents a complete list of promotional cars and trucks, including manufacturer and current value, in a model-by-model chart. The charts are heavily illustrated with over 500 beautiful color photos, showing the full range of vehicles available. This comprehensive book will appeal to promotional vehicle collectors, toy collectors, and automobile and truck buffs alike!

This fascinating, well-illustrated and informative book presents a straightforward guide to points, signals and level crossings and provides all the information that railway modellers need in order to get the trains on their layouts moving effectively. The history of semaphore and colour light signals is outlined and the implications for modellers is clearly explained. A variety of different types of points, signals and level crossings is then illustrated with detailed instructions describing how to make them work. Simple, tried and tested mechanical and electrical methods used by modellers are explained together with modern electronic approaches, which are described in a way that enables them to be easily understood. The reader is taken step-by-step through various projects, and clear diagrams and photographs are provided throughout, including wiring diagrams for frogs, signals and level crossings. Written by an electronic engineer, this book contains invaluable information gained in a lifetime's experience of railway modelling.

Have you always wondered how to do a cryptic crossword? Solving one maybe easier than you think thanks to this book. The Telegraph's Puzzle Editor, Chris Lancaster, shows how to crack cryptic crosswords in an easy-to-follow way. This simple-to-use guide will help you solve any cryptic crossword, whether you're a complete beginner or a puzzler seeking to expand your knowledge. This book features: - Explanations of the common clue devices, including double definitions, hidden clues, charades, subtractions, homophones and container-and-contents clues - Work-throughs of practice crosswords - Tips for spotting each variety of clue - The top 10 solving tips you need to know - Advice on reference materials and taking your puzzling to the next level - Chris's top-12 solving tips - Appendices of useful lists including single-letter abbreviations and a glossary of common 'crosswordese' Whether you're a novice or an inveterate puzzle lover, this is the perfect crossword solving guide for all.

Love Space? Love LEGO? If the answer is yes, you'll love this book! 'Brick by Brick Space' will teach you how to build amazing space projects, giving step by step instructions - simple and easy. And all you need for it to work are LEGO bricks! If you want to bring to make amazing space craft, our planets, the galaxy and more, this book will help you do it - and all in the middle of your living room! Not only will you learn how to build amazing space projects; you'll also learn a bit more about them, through the information scattered throughout the book. This book teaches you how to make incredible space projects, and to understand them a bit better - a must-have for space lovers!

While the importance of collections has been evident in the sciences and humanities for several centuries, the social and cultural significance of collecting practices is now receiving serious attention as well. As reflected in programs like Antiques Roadshow and American Pickers, and websites such as eBay, collecting has had a consistent and growing presence in popular culture. In tandem with popular collecting, institutions are responding to changes in the collecting environment, as library catalogs go online and museums use new technologies to help generate attendance for their exhibits. In Contemporary Collecting: Objects, Practices, and the Fate of Things, Kevin M. Moist and David Banash have assembled several essays that examine collecting practices on both a personal and professional level. These essays situate collectors and collections in a contemporary context and also show how our changing world finds new meaning in the legacy of older collections. Arranged by such themes as "Collecting in a Virtual World," "Changing Relationships with Things," "Collecting and Identity-Personal and Political," and "Collecting Practices and Cultural Hierarchies," these essays help illuminate the role of objects in our lives. Covering a breadth of interdisciplinary perspectives and subjects-from PEZ candy dispensers and trading cards to sports memorabilia and music-Contemporary Collecting will be of interest to scholars of cultural studies, anthropology, popular culture studies, sociology, art history, and more.

Explore what makes you unique and brilliant in The Great Big Book of Amazing Me, full of journal space and prompts to help you feel self-love and see how truly amazing you are!

This new book will be an essential reference for modellers and wargamers who build and paint World War II British armoured fighting vehicles. It provides extensive information on different types of vehicles, describing when they were used, by whom and for what purpose. In addition, the many modifications made to vehicles during the war are included, with guidance on how to create these for models. Step-by-step building and painting guides illustrate vehicles in 1/35, 1/72 and 1/76 scale. This book features models, often with a comparison of models from different manufacturers, for the following: M3 Grant Mk1, including a North African version; Cromwell Mk IV; Royal Marine Centaur; Cavalier Observation Post; Sherman M4A1 and Crab; Crusader III AA Mk 1; Matilda; Morris and Guy Quads; Bedford QLs; Scammell Pioneer Heavy Artillery tractor conversion; Anti-tank guns, e.g. the 'Pheasant', field guns, anti-aircraft guns, etc and, finally, figures which include uniform painting guides.