New Pele Soeberg Book

[chuck geiger]

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. I think this is why he doesn't get along with the brass at Kalmbach - He wants to present and not explain.

Sorry - It doesn't come out for a couple of months - I have the DESERT TO MOUNTAINS book and it's pretty good. I did forget about Lou Sassi - he rocks, also I emailed Pelle last year about his book and he said he didn't know if he was going to do another one, because the editorial staff at Kalmbach Books and him don't see eye-eye on the presentation. I like him already.

[Philip H]

At the risk of starting a flame war . . . I think Pelle's books are good for different things.  Mountains to Desert is a great roll-up layout tour of his work, and will stay in my collection longer then the MR issues that house his articles.  I found Done in a Day to be veryy informative on what his techniques are, and it too will have a place.  I may or may not buy his scenery book - the cover looks fantastic, but I don't own any scenery books from anyone else.

What MR is trying to do is adapt  a content rich internet format to a paper printed magazine.  Hence all their labeled pictures.  They are also moving more toward being the hook publication for folks coming into the hobby, as opposed to a "serious" modeler's journal.   Their books are going the same way.  yes, its different then the MR we all grew up on, but that doesn't mean its bad.   :-\

[AlkemScaleModels]

I emailed Pelle last year about his book and he said he didn't know if he was going to do another one, because the editorial staff at Kalmbach Books and him don't see eye-eye on the presentation. I like him already.

I believe that Pelle does all his own page layout. When he submits a book, it is already designed. That might be the point of contention.  I don't know for sure.

In my dealings with Kalmbach books, I submit text in a word file, photos and diagrams. They do the editing, final photo selection and page layout.

[chuck geiger]

At the risk of starting a flame war . . . I think Pelle's books are good for different things.  Mountains to Desert is a great roll-up layout tour of his work, and will stay in my collection longer then the MR issues that house his articles.  I found Done in a Day to be veryy informative on what his techniques are, and it too will have a place.  I may or may not buy his scenery book - the cover looks fantastic, but I don't own any scenery books from anyone else.

What MR is trying to do is adapt  a content rich internet format to a paper printed magazine.  Hence all their labeled pictures.  They are also moving more toward being the hook publication for folks coming into the hobby, as opposed to a "serious" modeler's journal.   Their books are going the same way.  yes, its different then the MR we all grew up on, but that doesn't mean its bad.   :-\

Well said Phil!

What would be great is maybe a collective book-zine of all the regions and their modeling. Maybe bullet point "how to do". West, Soeberg and Fulgate - Central - Lance M./Bernie and East - Our scenery scholars. Our guys would &^&* it all up. David is off the hook, Chris, you are an artist and dude to pull a z scale out of the air - (done in Murray dialect from Stripes).

[wm3798]

We'll call it "Railwire Publications"...

We could do a project on modeling the Northeast, early steam (a compilation of the dearly departed Gregg's work), Classic urban (a collaboration between DK Smith and Rich Yourstone), Contemporary post-industrial, (By Ed, including pages of philosophical ramblings punctuated by stark photography), The Juniata Division (Dr. Vollmer, paging Dr. Vollmer), and if asked, I could pen a little something about dragging coal across the Alleghenies.  We've also got some serious New England stuff going on with Ian and that crowd... I suppose Tom could contribute a piece on structures and weathering, but isn't he modeling the midwest now?

John, of course, would be the publisher, underwriter, and arbiter of all things related to the project.  I bet Don McFall at Old Line Graphics would be interested in this...

What say youse guys?

Oh, and it would be hard cover.  None of this sissy quasi-magazine crap at a book price...

Lee

[AlkemScaleModels]

We'll call it "Railwire Publications"...

We could do a project on modeling the Northeast, early steam (a compilation of the dearly departed Gregg's work), Classic urban (a collaboration between DK Smith and Rich Yourstone), Contemporary post-industrial, (By Ed, including pages of philosophical ramblings punctuated by stark photography), The Juniata Division (Dr. Vollmer, paging Dr. Vollmer), and if asked, I could pen a little something about dragging coal across the Alleghenies.  We've also got some serious New England stuff going on with Ian and that crowd... I suppose Tom could contribute a piece on structures and weathering, but isn't he modeling the midwest now?

John, of course, would be the publisher, underwriter, and arbiter of all things related to the project.  I bet Don McFall at Old Line Graphics would be interested in this...

What say youse guys?

Oh, and it would be hard cover.  None of this sissy quasi-magazine crap at a book price...

Lee

Self publishing is a viable option. Create space and others make it easy. Tough part is getting the word out.

[DKS]

Tough part is getting the word out.

Yes, that and divvying up the proceeds. What? $.22 per book per author?