New Pele Soeberg Book

[chuck geiger]

New scenery book from Pele Soeberg, has anyone got
it yet? - Could he be the new Dave Frary? (who was
the new Bill Mac.)

[ChrisNH]

First, to qualify this remark, I have not read the book..

Based on the preview and the table of contents I think you will find it is a series of detailing/weathering projects not a comprehensive scenery guide like the Dave Frary book. Still, its definitely on my list!

Chris

[Philip H]

The Kalmbach Books site says it doesn't ship unitl 31 October, so it may be on my Christmas list.  Now if we can just get him to do his DVD in American format . . .

[ChrisNH]

Are we talking about the same book?

http://www.amazon.com/Done-Model-Railroaders-How-Guides/dp/0890247625/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251745328&sr=8-1

This one is out now.. is there another one coming?

Chris

[Philip H]

Nope, this one:

http://www.kalmbachstore.com/12433.html  SHows a shipping date of 31 October at the bottom of the page.

[ChrisNH]

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Model-Railroad-Scenery-Railroaders/dp/0890247366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251745617&sr=1-1

Got it.. thanks.. sorry for the confusion..

I have a feeling its still going to be a little more specialized and less of the scenery bible then Frary's book.. but since I am batting 000 in this topic who knows?

Chris

[wm3798]

I like the results the guy gets, don't get me wrong.  But doesn't he have an arsenal of equipment at his disposal that mere mortals would have a hard time getting access to?  I recall he had an article about "scratch" building a Denny's or something, and he used some laser guided mill gizmo that costs thousands of dollars.

Not exactly an approach most of us can take.

Lee

[Ian MacMillan]

While I like Pele's work...his books leave more to be desired. To me they are not very how to and are more just model rr poRn books. The articles lack instruction, but the photos are amazing.

Just about every really good scenery how to book I have read has been from Lou Sassi.

[tom mann]

I like Pele's work too, but agree that his book has a lot of white space and borders on "how I did it" vs. "how to do it".  However, his scenery sometimes looks cartoonish in color and texture.  It is good, but is missing something...

[davefoxx]

I think his name is actually Pelle.  Pele was a Brazilian football player.   

I think the problem that you all seem to be identifying is the dumbing down of the model magazines, particularly, for me, Model Railroader, which I have subscribed to since 1981.  I miss the days where they presented how-to-articles that actually explained something in an article format rather than as captions of photographs.  Don't get me wrong, photographs help and are necessary to show me how to do it, but a more detailed explanation than captions is preferable.  Are people just too lazy to read?  I always enjoyed taking more than a few minutes to review an article.  I feel like I can peruse MR in minutes, rather than in hours these days.  Considering that the subscription price keeps increasing and the number of pages per issue seems to be decreasing, I haven't been too happy with the "hour of enjoyment per issue" ratio for some time.

For example, compare layout construction articles in MR like the recent Beer Line layout versus the 1980s-era articles by Andy Sperandeo (Washita & Santa Fe Ry.) or John Olson (Jerome & Southwestern Ry.).  I miss those types of articles.  I'm sure that I would have enjoyed the Beer Line series more, if it had been prepared in such a manner as those other articles.

Dave Foxx

[ChrisNH]

the problem that you all seem to be identifying is the dumbing down of the model magazines, particularly, for me, Model Railroader,

Not me..

Respectfully, having almost completed reading through the MRs from the 80s (I am on March 88 right now..) I think the modern style of how-to articles featuring more images with more color and resolution are great. I have a problem with not being able to sneeze without using woodland scenics nasal cloth, but thats a whole other issue..

In any case, I don't think there is anything dumbed down about Pelle's work that I have come across.. Mountains to Deserts was more akin to the V&O storey then a how-to book. Don't have the Done in a Day book, can't comment on that.

Chris

[davefoxx]

In any case, I don't think there is anything dumbed down about Pelle's work that I have come across.. Mountains to Deserts was more akin to the V&O storey then a how-to book. Don't have the Done in a Day book, can't comment on that.

Chris,

I don't blame Pelle or any of the other authors.  Pelle's work is incredible, and I consider his modeling to be at a level where it is considered art.  Rather, my discontent comes from the magazine itself.

Specifically, I blame the editors who are producing a product that they believe is what the public wants and, most importantly for the magazine, what sells.  The color pictures are nice, but the articles lack in substance sometimes.  More like an outline of what to do, rather than really explaining it.  I enjoyed when the authors explained what they did, why they did, and whether it was successful.  They might have even laid out the pros and cons of their construction methods.

I just feel that today's articles don't go into such depth.  Go back to Andy Sperandeo's first article on the Washita & Santa Fe Ry, for example.  That was an article on the prototype, the proposed layout design, including several phases of construction, and a description of what was to be modeled.  Maybe I'm missing something, but the articles today just don't go into that kind of detail.

DFF

[ednadolski]

The color pictures are nice, but the articles lack in substance sometimes.  More like an outline of what to do, rather than really explaining it.  

If I had one word to use, it would be "sketchy".

It also has a tang of noncommittal political correctness to it, as if they are afraid of alienating one advertiser by giving too much info/details about a competitor's product.  They also seem to be trying to fend off potential accusations of favoritism regarding scale, operations, eras, or other areas where readers often have strong personal preferences.

Overall it seems to come down to a defensive, least-common-denominator approach.

Ed

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

I actually first subscribed in the winter of 2008 till the first 09 issue, I wasn't impressed. Truthfully, I think some of these "small guy" PDF magizines you get for free online are actually much better than MRR. And with "small guy" mags, you don't get all these advertisements. I think 15 pages online can sometimes be worth more than a 90 page magizine from MRR.

[Ian MacMillan]

Problem also is MR when ever the book is tied to them. Pelle's book Mountains to Deserts was ruined by 3/4 of the book being articles that were published in MR over the course of the year that his book was released.