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Welcome toThe Miniature Builderthe online magazine for model building enthusiastsIs it for you? I hope so. Launching a new magazine without a body of readers and contributors would all be a bit pointless. Even the least astute reader will have guessed that The Miniature Builder is about building models. But that is ambiguous. More specifically it is about the modelling of buildings and about trying to find common ground between the wide variety of models produced in the various different scales. Model buildings exist in at least eight quite discreet environments:
Until now these have each existed in isolation from one another. Professional architectural or scenic modelling exists quite separately from the amateur hobbyist. Articles on buildings appear in the model railway magazines, the dolls house magazines and the military modelling magazines. I guess there are journals for resin house collectors and makers or about souvenir buildings for but I have never personally come across one. There must be trade journals for the professional and film modeller but they are kept quiet from mere hobbyists. There is no apparent crossover, though anecdotal evidence from articles and shops shows a sub-culture of railway husbands with dolls house wives. Whether they hide in separate rooms to escape from one another or whether they share their hobbies I know not. Letters to editor@miniaturebuilder.com are welcome on this and any other subjects. For me, and I am sure for many others, making the buildings is the interesting bit. I am happy to leave railway engineering, train operation, dolls clothes, miniature food, tanks and uniforms to others. There will be nothing on Prussian cap badges, GWR liveries or miniature cross stitch. The Miniature Builder will look at the miniature building trades – construction, joinery, wall finishes, roofing, flooring, wiring, and decoration, designs, techniques and materials. It will look also at architecture and full scale building construction to provide source information and ideas for model buildings. It will feature examples of the model builder's craft (art?) . It will review the range of building products available to you. I hope it will widen your horizons by letting you see what model builders from other disciplines are doing.
Exactly what we cover in the future will depend on what you, the interactive reader, call for. If your route to The Miniature Builder is from the world of dolls houses you might like us to extend into furniture building. If you have been a railway modeller you may want us to look at landscape as well as buildings. Professional architectural and museum modelling certainly covers a wide spectrum from individual buildings through to whole townscapes. The military modeller may be as concerned with reproducing the destruction of buildings as with creating pristine examples. To see what's planned and contribute to the development take a look at the "What do you want" feature. We might occasionally look at figures as an aid to the lifelike display of our buildings (though, if we do, we will probably draw on the experience of the military modelling fraternity rather than look to dolls house figures). To quote from an editorial by Chris Leigh, the editor of Model Rail, “We can and do learn many different techniques from other modelling disciplines. Military modellers are masters of weathering". Railway modellers can teach us lessons about mass production, dolls house makers about architectural detailing, Pendon about perfectionism.
My own, maybe fanciful, hope is that our common interests in architecture and its reproduction in miniature can mature into an identifiable and self-contained hobby in which we can produce interesting, attractive and realistic models of buildings for their own sake and our own satisfaction rather than as ancillary to another field of interest. I would hope too for a greater interaction between the professional architectural modeller and the amateur enthusiast. One rare example of this appears in the site of Canadian architectural practice Hewitt Designs in which Richard Hewitt comments " Building the models at HO (1/87 scale) allows us access to the huge assortment of model making materials that are available for model train enthusiasts etc." An online magazine is fundamentally different from a traditionally published magazine. Unlike the websites of traditionally published magazines, The Miniature Builder provides real content online - not merely adverts and tasters to get you to go and buy the magazine at your newsagent. The intention is that it begins small and over time grows and grows. The back issues will remain continually available while new material is added in the current section at the beginning of the site. It will gradually turn into a reference work with some monthly comment on the front. Being English my natural leaning is to UK prototypes but I recognise that England is just a damp outcrop perched on the north west corner of Europe and that there is a whole wide world out there. In particular of course there is a vast amount of model architecture produced in the USA and we will try to keep an eye on what the cousins are doing as well. I have grandly signed this article as editor but of course at the moment it is just me. Over time I hope you will contribute articles, photos, letters and ideas either by mailing editor@MiniatureBuilder.com or, if you are sending photos or samples, email us for details of the address in Berkhamsted, Herts (which is in England if you happen to be reading this in the majority of the world). Dave Wallis Editor P.S. Just in case you thought you understood what model making was about, you might consider this abstract of an article entitled "Divergent Thinking in the Construction of Architectural Models " by Kyle W. Talbott ; International Journal of Architectural Computing , Volume 2, Number 2, 1 June 2004, pp. 263-286(24) . I fear the full article is probably beyond my comprehension.
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Best known for their essential Plastikard styrene sheets, Slater's Plastikard Ltd also offer brick, stone and tile embossed sheets in a variety of styles for the constructor of model buildings. They also offer a bespoke casting and etching service. slatersplastikard.com
Specialists in brick and stone products. Almost anything achievable in full size brick and stone can be reproduced in miniature using their products, all cut from natural materials. All products available in 1:12 scale ; many are also available in 1:16, 1:19 and 1:24 scales. www.richardstacey.com Famous for their market leading plastic kits and embossed walling materials in 1/76th OO scale. Wills are part of the Peco group which also offers building materials under the Ratio brand for N scale.
ScalestreetHigh quality brick paper and printed house fronts in all scales including 1/12th, 1/24th, 1/32nd, 1/48th, 1/76th and 1/87th . If standard sheets do not meet your needs, bespoke products are available. Scalestreet also offer a wide range of MBS moulded styrene sheets in 1/24th scale and other 1/24th items . Best known for their essential Plastikard styrene sheets, Slater's Plastikard Ltd also offer brick, stone and tile embossed sheets in a variety of styles for the constructor of model buildings. They also offer a bespoke casting and etching service. slatersplastikard.com
Specialists in brick and stone products. Almost anything achievable in full size brick and stone can be reproduced in miniature using their products, all cut from natural materials. All products available in 1:12 scale ; many are also available in 1:16, 1:19 and 1:24 scales. www.richardstacey.com Famous for their market leading plastic kits and embossed walling materials in 1/76th OO scale. Wills are part of the Peco group which also offers building materials under the Ratio brand for N scale.
ScalestreetHigh quality brick paper and printed house fronts in all scales including 1/12th, 1/24th, 1/32nd, 1/48th, 1/76th and 1/87th . If standard sheets do not meet your needs, bespoke products are available. Scalestreet also offer a wide range of MBS moulded styrene sheets in 1/24th scale and other 1/24th items .
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