John Ahern's Model Building Plans

[Pacific231G]

On 20/01/2021 at 19:40, Chubber said:

Alternatively, look at Edward Beale, Railway 'Modelling in Miniature' [no ISBN] for 1940s, many scale building drawings including full info for a UK 30-40s sawmill, wagon repair shops, etc.

 

Or 'Modelling the old time railways' by the same author. These men wrote 'how to do it' before plastic moulding was invented and their techniques still astound me after years of studying heir work.

If  you are getting that keen, then 'Building Construction' by WB McKay Vols 1-3 should be on your list of 'must haves'. These 1950s volumes originally produced for the 'Clerk of Works' examinations have been re-printed in one modern volume [AFAIK]

 

Finally, though intended for plastic [yech!] modellers, David Rowes 'Architectural Modelling in 4mm scale' [Wild Swan] contains plenty of good advice, interesting methods of window construction and 'How to measure and scratch-build a real building' stuff.

 

Douglas

I have several of Edward Beal's books and there are a good number of buildling drawings in them but there's  far less than in John Ahern's book about actual modelling techniques even in the post war Modelcraft "Railway Modelling Series" book five on architecture . I've also noticed that the only one of his books that I have (all of them AFAIK except Railway Modelling in Miniature) that has many photographs of his own layout is West Midland published in 1952. His railways were far more of the "as much operation as possible" school (nothing wrong with that of course) with buildings in the gaps between railway lines. Of the buildings that do appear, most, though perfectly workmanlike, seem far less developed as individual models or as "scenes" than Ahern's and overall, his scenery isn't really in the same league. That's not a criticism of Beal, he was a pioneer in small scale railway modelling a decade or so before John Ahern; there's obviously a limit to how much any one modeller can achieve and Beal achieved a very great deal. He also greatly respected the work of  John Ahern and others. I'm just looking at Modelling the Old Time Railways and of the dozen photos of actual layouts in that, three quarters are of John Ahern's Madder Valley and Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch. 

 

Apart from Cottage Modelling for Pendon, I have among (too many?) other books, Dave Rowe's Architectural Modelling, though since I started preferring card have tended not to refer to it so much, and Derek Bidwell's Modelling Historic Architecture published by the HMRS. This is also good and, as a professional modelmaker he included techniques in both card and plastic card.  Nevertheless it's John Ahern's book that's most likely to not be on the bookshelf and whenever I visit Pendon seem to spend far more time enjoying the Madder Valley than the truly excellent modelling in the village scene. I don't know if that says something about impressionism compared with realism.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Pacific231G
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