CultTVman’s Fantastic Modeling – Volume 5

$11.95 USD (plus shipping); available through CultTVman’s Hobby Shop.
About 100 minutes long.

By Ward Shrake

Another great disc in the CultTVman DVD series. This one, along with volume seven, are my hands-down favorites. (And I have a model featured on volume nine!)

David Merriman’s meticulous build-up and super-detailing of a “Flying Sub” model kit is bound to appeal to fans of Sci-Fi vehicular models, as well as fans of practical radio-controlled submarines.

Quoting CultTVman’s site: “Master Modeler David Merriman details the Rick Teskey Flying Sub Model, creating a functional radio controlled submarine. This DVD demonstrates scratchbuilding, molding and casting, metalworking, and much more.”

As is the norm with every David Merriman “live” how-to I am aware of, there’s much more than meets the eye/ear on a first viewing. I’m on roughly my sixty-gazillionth (well, almost) viewing of my copy of volume five, and I keep being surprised at all the cool little nuances I pick up, every new time I plunk it into the DVD player and really study what’s there. I’m not saying this is the case, mind you, but it wouldn’t surprise me oodles if even Steve “CultTVman” Iverson (who edited hours of raw footage to produce these DVD’s) has missed a few subtle “Oh my gawd, that’s just such a massively cool / efficient / smart way to do that particular scratch-building task” tid-bits, here or there.

Not everyone’s as die-hard nerdy as I am: which is where the entertainment factor comes in. This is a nicely done disc, with a lot of potential value even for those folks who wouldn’t mind casually watching a pro do their thing. In other words, even those who just like the Flying Sub subject, but have no intention of ever trying to duplicate a pro’s work, should get their money’s worth out of this disc.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to my wallet for the review sample.