Welcome to KLP Publishing!

Genesis

KLP Publishing was born out of my desire to somehow capture and preserve Eric Galliers’ amazing build of K.J. “Brick” Bricknell’s CAC Sabre, including the terrific commentaries from Brick himself. The build thread on the Large Scale Planes forum remains a classic, but like many forum threads, is full of diversions, tangents, off-topic banter, and general noise. I wanted to distil Eric’s scale tribute to Brick into an easily-digestible format, and so came the impetus for our first eBook title, Building Brick’s Sabre in 1/32 Scale: A Scale Tribute to K.J. “Brick” Bricknell.

This book is in its final stages of development, and should be available in the next few weeks (though there’s no official ETA yet).

Why eBooks?

I knew when I started this venture that one of the first and most common questions I would be asked would be some variation of, but can I buy a print version? Many of us prefer the tactile nature of physical books, no doubt. But if you’re anything like me, your bookshelves are already bulging at their metaphorical seams, and space for any more is at a premium. As scale modellers, we all know the constant battle to find room for our burgeoning collections of books, magazines, and unbuilt kits, not to mention the display space for our precious finished models.

For this reason, I made the switch to digital versions for most of my own book and magazine purchases some time ago, but quickly became frustrated at the lack of modelling-related digital book content. Sure, most of the well-known modelling magazines now have digital versions available, and I partake of them with wallet-stripping regularity. But where are all the build guides? Some of the recent, heavyweight tomes on modelling techniques are indeed available as digital editions, but these are generally derived from the print versions, and are not designed from the outset to suit small electronic screens. Focussing on eBooks allows us to take a different approach.

Without the cost-driven page-count limitations imposed by the printing process, we’re free to use larger type sizes that are friendlier on aging eyes, and to make images larger than typically found in print. In fact, Eric’s Sabre book features no more than three photos on any given page, making them large enough to avoid having to zoom in to see them properly.

That said, if you run a print shop and can offer cost-effective printing solutions, I’m happy to consider it. Please feel free to contact me!

The Future

With our debut title imminent, more titles are being planned and developed, though most are not far enough along to confirm publicly. We’re planning three separate book series: a Build series, a Technique series, and a Build Special series. Eric Galliers’ Building Brick’s Sabre in 1/32 Scale will be the first in the Build Special series.

Build Series

The Build Series will effectively consist of build guides, and focus on less mainstream kits and subjects, such as resin kits, short-run kits, and esoteric subjects. But don’t worry if that’s not your bag; mainstream injection-moulded kits of interest will also be covered.

Build Special Series

The difference with the Build Special Series is that the featured builds take things further in some way. For example, Eric’s Sabre book includes Brick’s biography, and many of his anecdotes. It’s as much a tribute to Brick as it is about how to build the Italeri Sabre. While we don’t have any more of this series planned yet, suitable topics would cover major conversions, kit-bashing, scratch-builds, and anything that goes beyond a straightforward kit build with a sprinkling of aftermarket products.

Technique Series

The Technique Series seems self-explanatory, but the aim is to take small elements of the hobby that many of us struggle with, and provide detailed guides and solutions that are as comprehensive as possible, and cover every practical angle and approach. Each of us tends to prefer to do things in our own way, so the goal here is to provide plenty of options, and no guesswork.

No matter which series the book belongs to, our aim is to work with word-class modellers to bring you the best in scale aircraft modelling. If you have any ideas, requests, or proposals, I’d love to hear from you!

And So It Begins…

I hope you’ll check out our first publication when it launches in a few weeks, and perhaps hang around to see what else we have in store. You can create an account with us in readiness at any time, though we’ll support guest checkouts too. You can also follow us on Facebook if you’re a member. I look forward to your company!

Kevin Futter
Founder & Publisher