Product Features and Details
...and God saw that is was good. According to a not entirely unfamiliar story, the Creator labored for six days to create heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested. This book is devoted to worlds in miniature, created by Josef Brandl in 30,000 conservatively estimated hours of work. Brandl, the professional's professional, builds these model railroad layouts, big toys for big boys, for customers all over Europe; he rearranges mountains and valleys, woods, rivers and lakes.
Markus Tiedtke not only photographed the extraordinarily impressive scenes for this book, he also takes us behind the scenes into the master's workshop: come with us on a voyage of discovery into the magical world of Brandl's landscapes.
Check Out a Beautiful Chapter From The Book
Almost Real book review by Bruce Metcalf:
I am fascinated by books about German HO layouts. Since I can't read German, I have to get my information visually. What did Germany look like in the 1930s? What rolling stock was used in Bavaria or Württemberg? While picture books of layouts are not completely reliable, they are helpful. Plus, a good model railroad is always an inspiration.
So, when a dealer offered me a book on Josef Brandl's layouts, I jumped at the chance. Brandl has already been featured in several Eisenbahn Journal "Super-Anlagen" publications. This book, Fast wie echt: Josef Brandl's Modellbahn-Anlagen/Almost real: Josef Brandl's astounding model railroads (by Marcus Tiedtke, Einsatz Creative Production Gmbh, Hamburg, 2003) is a compilation of Brandl's layouts through 2002 or so. Several have been published before. Still, a measure of familiarity hardly matters. The layouts are amazing.
A professional gardener, Brandl met "anlagenbaumeister" Bernhard Stein in 1981 and began making model railroad layouts. The book traces his development ever since he went pro in 1987. His early layouts used the typical array of straight-out-of-the box buildings and details, with only a few scratchbuilt structures. These layouts were clean and precise, but unexceptional. By 1991 he began to place a personal stamp on his designs. To start, he reduced the amount of railroad and expanded the amount of nature. Then, using the latest products from Heki and Silhouette (AKA Silflor or Mini-Natur), he could play to his strength: making evocative and incredibly convincing landscapes.
The book says that Brandl's motto is "less is more," but that's not quite accurate. Less trackage, yes. Fewer buildings, perhaps. But he expanded both the size and complexity of his scenery. Where pikers like me simply roll out the grass mat and glue it down, Brandl carefully plants every bunch of grass separately. Adding bits of natural material and highly realistic tress "every one made by hand" Brandl amasses textures and mixes colors until the illusion of actual plant material is complete. If he has a secret, it's a simple one: repeat details that normally fade into the background thousands of times. Brandl's method is time consuming (the author estimates some 30,000 hours have been expended on the layouts in the book), but effective. Other secrets: the best transitions are gradual, and a certain amount of schmutz is useful.
Anybody who has taken pictures of a layout knows that a good photograph makes all the difference in the world. Brandl's photographers must go to great pains: the pictures are expertly lit and beautifully framed. They even replicate the time of day. Some of the best photographs were illuminated with a warm raking light, simulating late afternoon. There's an amazing two-page spread of a field in the midst of a pine forest. Brandl's detailing, the backlighting seeping through the trees, and three deer stealing out into the meadow all combine to create a masterpiece of model photography.
Almost Real has parallel texts in German and English, and a useful index of manufacturers at the back of the book. And while the reader might be tempted to feel severely inadequate, it's useful to remember that Brandl farms out much of the work to specialists, including wiring, making buildings, and even laying track. The results speak for themselves. Anyone who loves great layouts will treasure this book.
