Railway Modelling Realism; An Aspirational Guide is by Kevin Cartwright and Nigel Adams and forms part of the Silver Link library of Railway Modelling. Both authors are experienced modellers who have been striving for that look of realism over many years of modelling in various scales and gauges. They know from experience that achieving realism comes with patience and practice. Being members of various clubs and societies and regular exhibitors at model railway shows, both Nigel and Kevin recognise the benefit of sharing ideas and developing techniques with fellow enthusiasts.In Model Railway Realism the authors draw on their combined experience and using example layouts, from friends, clubs and of course their own builds, they provide valuable guidance to assist modellers in getting closer to that elusive, but aspired to, perfection!
The concept behind the book is good, however the execution leaves a great deal to be desired. The idea is excellent, structure and flow of the chapters is good, and the text is well written. The quality of graphics is poor and is well below standard for a book retailing at £20. A good number of track plans are included, some are well drawn, others are no more than crude straight line ruler drawings while others are scanned hand drawings. Many photographs are technically poor, some are low resolution, others badly lit. This is difficult to accept given the high standards that appear month after month in the modelling press.