A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: SKYHAWK BOOK DONE READY FOR THE PRINTERS…

It’s another job done and another nervous wait to see how it looks when the designs on my screen, translate into printed pages in my hands.

13th May 2025

With the second leg of the Play-Off semi final between Coventry City and Sunderland being played out in couple of hours, I’m writing this early, before going out to watch the game.

Today has been very much about the completion of my Skyhawk book and its delivery to the printers in the morning. That has meant a thorough check of the contents, making sure everything is designed properly and that there as few typos as possible.

This is such an important part of the project. Given that I build the models, write the text, take the photos, add the captions and then lay out all of the pages, I can sometimes become blind to what is on the page. I often read the text expecting it to be as written, skimming over almost entire paragraphs, missing obvious mistakes along the way. That being so, proofing is done slowly, with everything enlarged on the screen so that I only see what I have to see and I’m not distracted by areas I need to ignore.

Today, whilst proofing the Hasegawa Skyhawk chapter, I became aware that there weren’t so much a few typos that I’d missed but entire sections of text, almost 400 words from my original file being cut from the layout! Given that the surrounding pages were all finished and the text flowed from one page to another throughout the chapter, you can imagine how much work it was to insert the missing words and rebuild the pages! Yeah, I was not happy! 

So, the book is now checked, and any mistakes dealt with. In the morning I’ll take another look at it, scanning the PDF that I need for the printing, for any misplaced images and other design slips. It’s then off to the printers ready to be returned early next week. It’s another job done and another nervous wait to see how it looks when the designs on my screen, translate into printed pages in my hands.

See you tomorrow.