I wondered at first if I should review this compared to the Gundam Weapons as those are books made up of numerous specific builds allowing me to easily just display some images and list each build and what makes their presentation special. Gundam Scratch Build Manual 2 on the other hand is entirely another beast. While it does feature builds they are very few in number and their WIPs which are what the book is really about are intertwined to the point of confusion.

Unlike the first scratch build manual the first 100 or so pages mix the builds of all of the models so you get a seemly random mix of epoxy, tool crafting, putty sculpting, resin casting, vacuum-forming, and of course extensive pla plate work.

While each of these instances briefly show the process and the materials needed they quickly move on to the next effect. One problem with this is that the techniques aren’t grouped together in any sort of helpful way so you will be constantly scanning through the book in order to gather all the relevant information.

After the initial 100 pages you get to see the final builds that all the various WIPs were working towards, which surprisingly is only composed of 4 models.

Some real stand outs I would say are the various scratch built tools made in order to get specific effects on plastic, scratch built armor with male/female pegs, and a fully articulated scratch built inner frame.

The first scratch build manual I would recommend to anyone as it is a straight forward primer on how to take your builds to the next level and even if you weren’t planning on ever doing so seeing each model be extensively built one by one was fascinating enough to pick it up. Scratch build manual 2 on the other hand feels more catered to experienced builders, not only cause of the added difficulty but because the layout of the book really emphasizes techniques over the narrative of a start to finish build.