Intro to Professional Model Making DVD - opinion?

I don't recall the name, so if he's a widely known ILMer you can laugh at me. Anyway he has a 2 DVD set that looks interesting. Has anyone gotten it yet? Fonco Store

 

I think Frank posted a link to it last week. Looks like a good set though. Shame it's prob only NTSC so it won't work here.

 

Maybe not widely known but he worked on several great movies !

Fon Davis - IMDb

Would love to buy it but like Simon said, it's probably only NTSC... it wont work here either.

 

I want to check this out thanks for posting it I never knew it existed.:thumbsup

 

Julien, if you have a dvd player that supports region 1 discs, then the DVD will def play. On most pc dvd drives you can change the region settings.

Michael

 

I know my computer does but mine, however, can only do it a certain number of times. So as an alternative, instead of having to whittle down the amount of times I can change my region settings, I just up and bought a region free dvd player.

It's still in use today, even though things are transitioning to Blu-Ray, but I've not quite cared enough about Blu-Ray yet to bother.

 

I have this DVD and I can highly recommend it. It was so interesting, I watched it non-stop all the way through. It's full of great tips and tricks, only a few of which I already knew.

I'd love to get more info about his spray booth setup. I'm wondering if this is something standard he adapted for his shop or if it was completely custom built.

Also, his vacuum chamber is very interesting. I've never seen one like that before. I liked the way he could bleed the vacuum to keep the RTV from overflowing its container during de-gassing.

 

I bought the DVD and it worth it see many techniques in action. Although I knew most of the tricks I just have not used them in my personal projects. Fon covers a lot of techniques and tricks for those more curious about model building. He covers vacuum forming, scribing, mold/casting, basic electronics, washes, weathering. I may put my DVD up for sale soon as I took a few notes and do not need the DVD set. But anyone interested in the tools/tricks of the trade, most definitely get the DVD set. It will clear up any foggy ideas of tool use, tricks, approaches, techniques in plain sight. I'm much more visual so this just helped in that respect.

 

Never thought about my pc DVD player ! I should be able to read it then, thank you for the tip Michael !

 

here's a link to a program i use it makes your pc dvd region free and you dont have to change the region settings of the dvd rom. it works great.

SlySoft AnyDVD | any dvd, region free, dvd copy, copy dvd movies, dvd decoder, dvd ripper, macrovision, dvd copying software

 

I have the DVD as well and it's excellent. Need help with vac form? He covers it. Can't make that smooth canopy? He shows how. Lighting? He does it.
The info just goes on and on... 2 thumbs up from me.

 

I just got my Intro to Professional Model Making DVD for Christmas and I watched the first hour and so far it's very informative. I am so glad I got it, so many tips you can pick up just by watching it. Tools, types of material, methods and how he handles the materials, its well worth it. The DVD also played fine in my Samsung Blu-ray player (BD-D5700), I had no problems with it at all.

 

A heads-up that Fon's dropped the price on these.

To recap: if you're wondering about some techniques or are curious about rounding out your foundation model building skills, this is a good double set to grab. Get these techniques down and you're far ahead of most hobbyists (and probably even a few pros, ugh). Anyone who's been working a few years may think that they'll get less out of it, but it's always good to see something in action and get a few reminders and tips.

 

Thanks for the information, sounds like a very good investment for anyone wanting to improve their skills.

The link at the top gives me a "404 Not Found" error. I was able to find it at Amazon.com (unfortunatly, they do not ship overseas and Amazon.de doesn't have it )

but I was able to find it at ebay.com that ships worldwide

Jason

 

Just ordered mine from Micromark.com.

Can't wait to check it out.

 

He changed the part of the link that takes you to his online store.
It's still there.

 

I just ordered it as well, since it's so highly recommended here! Now I'm all excited to watch it and see all the new techniques and tricks of the trade. Weee!

 

Good tip about micromark... Amazon won't ship it to New Zealand and S&H fees direct from Fon's site were an extra $25 :eek.

With micromark I can order a bunch of other useful stuff + the DVD and still only pay $13 for shipping

 

Last week I was just asking about videos in this thread:

http://www.therpf.com/f11/looking-informative-educational-videos-painting-139775/

I hope this covers some of thing things I'm looking for and to see performed. I just bought one a few moments ago too. He's probably getting overwhelmed and wondering why increased sales all of the sudden! :lol

Are there any other good videos out there?

 

Got my copy and watched most of it. Very informative. I did start getting annoyed the first time I saw a time lapsed section thinking, "Gee, sure would be nice if I knew what he was doing", but then he went back and described it. I am really looking forward to trying some of the techniques I saw. One right away is going to save me a lot of trouble.

 

just ordered mine on amazon

 

got the video today, some very cool techniques. i to wished they didnt speed up the footage in some spots. i would have never thought of doing the double layer vacuum forming, very cool trick

 

I just ordered my DVD as well today from Amazon. It was recommended on the SS Betty build thread.

 

I know I'm way late on this but I just saw this and I thought I should could give a little input (I go to school for model making). I haven't ordered the video so if I'm saying things that are already in the video sorry.

If you guys would like a nice, free source for advice on molding check out smooth-on's website. Smooth-On, Inc. - Mold Making & Casting Materials Rubber, Plastic, Lifecasting, and More. They have tons of videos on cool things you can make with their products, and they sell starter/sample kits to for stuff. They are a great source for hobbyists.

I also recognize that red foam he's using. I take it he called it model board or tooling board or something of the sort? I use A LOT of that stuff on my projects at school. If you actually want some for yourself you can get it from BCC products. BCC Products. At least, that's where our school gets ours from

 

i wish we had a model builing class around here.....

 

It's not just a class, it's a program, Prototype and design. If you go visit the APMM (association of professional model makers) website Thanks for visiting the APMM! I believe they have a thing listing all the colleges that have model making programs.

 

Next best thing Aces Wild

Most model building clubs are pretty newbie-friendly and are more than willing to share tips and tricks about building, painting and weathering.

-Fred

 

They are great, especially for a beginner. Another good resource is one of my personal faves, scaleautomag and fine scale modeler. They are magazines all about model kits and finishing and sanding techniques. Great resources.


The best thing that you can do though is ask people how to do things, most of my program is just learning little tips and tricks and shortcuts. I had an internship with a very high end model shop and I'm asking them questions all the time of how does this material machine, how does this paint spray, what is the advantage of x cast material over y material.

Oh and I found the link for model schools if anyones interested in professional model making as a career path.
http://www.modelmakers.org/colleges--universities-list

 

i went to the ones in vancouver wa. several years ago, but then moved here to spokane, i would love to start a group here, there just seems to be no interest around here.

 

What do you mean no interest?

"Aces Wild is an IPMS Chapter located in Spokane, Washington."

There's already a club lol

 

ah see, i went right to events page. i have to the THREE model shops we have here and all three know nothing of a local chapter. i didn't see the location on the aces wild page, guess i should have read it a little more before racing off to the events

thanks for walking me through this ...ive had a rough day, i think it's time for a nappy :unsure

 

To get back to the Fonco video for a sec - I got mine a couple of weeks ago and watched it several times now. For $30 I would definitely recommend it! There's a lot of neat tricks, time saving techniques, and great advice at all levels of production in here - from design to running electronics. The sped up footage didn't really bother me so much as the tacky music they use LOL.

Overall definitely worth it imo.

 

Fon's going to be doing an evening of quick model-related demos (about 2 hrs total) at 32Ten in a couple of weeks if anyone's interested.