Some time back a member posted here about a Taschen book that featured De Espona models - I've been visiting the De Espona 3D Models Encyclopedia site regularly for quite some time, drooling over the selection of 500 superb 3DS for such great price, but kept putting off ordering, because $500 was just too big a chunk to bite on. Anyway, the book hadn't been released, yet, so I placed an advance order thru an online bookstore. - I just got it, and it was sell worth the 6 weeks wait. 2CD's with the entire 500 object library plus 2 books; 1 with intro & instructions in 6 languages plus index - and one thicker book with full-color images. The models are in a middle-type resolution (the full $500 library is in multiple resolutions up to a very hi-resolution of each model) but all are fully textured, in 3DS format. But even at middle-res, there's literally dozens of period ships, buildings, artifacts, vintage cars, planes, and even animals and tools that I'm delighted to get - worth many times the $40 I paid for it. Couple oddities - the 2 books & CD's come glued into a beautifully printed but poorly made cardboard wraparound about the size of a stack of 10 audio CD's in jewel cases. The glue wasn't holding well in my copy, so I tore that off & threw away. The publisher is Taschen - It's listed as being by the editor, Julius Weidemann in the catalogs, so it's not that easy to find unless you remember the title is "500 3D Objects" or the ISBN # is 3-8228-1621-3. I tried several places until I visited the Taschen site to get that info. Hope others find this info useful - I was really delighted to get it, and wanted to share... Cheers! Jerry B leather-guy

Thanks for the heads-up!

I have this book some time already. They advertise that only 40 models are really hires (mostly animals), the remainder is only useful as background stuff. But then Taschen is a publishing company for coffee-table books and the renderings of the hires models alone are worth the money. Those renderings are included on the CD (with alpha and shadow masks). The license of the book allows commercial renders.

BTW DeEspona sells a 9 CD set with 5000 HQ models for $495. But those models are in .MAX format, you can use them only with 3D studio max.

This is great news... I wasn't even aware this book existed! Leather-Guy (or Yuri), if it's not too much trouble, could you post a quick list of the names of the building models included in the book? I've been to Taschen's site and DeEspona's site, and though they both have writeups on the "500 Models" book they don't give a list of what models are actually included. There's some DeEspona buildings I'd love to have, even at a lower resolution, and I wonder if they're in there.

I second that request, this sounds great(if its available for Europe) but would like to know what before I sacrificed what I have laid down as my monthly spend nowadays.

Here is a list of the objects in the arctitecture folder:
BANKHAUS
BARN
COLI
DIESPOM
ESTACI
GUTENB
HANGAR
KEHL
LONIC
LOOKOUT
MEZROCA
MODERNHO
RIDEAU
SAWMILL
SIGNAL
SMOKEHOU
STORY
STUT_C
SUMMER
TALLER
TOWNHOU1
TOWNHOU2
TRANFCH
TWIN_S
TWOSTORY
T_PENS
VICTHOU
WATER_T2

The 3ds files range from 21kB to 12.7MB. Mostly town buildings, some industry or railroad stuff. I think half of the models are usable in Poser, the remainder doesn't import right or has strange render artefacts.

@chohole: This book is availabe at Amazon and other internet book resellers. I saw it at some normal book stores in Germany too.

Thank you very much for the info, Yuri!

how many vehicles are on the CD??

Yuri, you are an angel! The first time I saw a deEspona model, I practically drooled....and then I saw that the price was WAY out of my range. Now I can indulge myself AND get another cool Tauschen book for my collection (after next payday! ). Thank you.

The book is only 20 at Amazon uk :o)...got that baby ordered LOL.....Steve

"how many vehicles are on the CD?? " Planes - 65 cars - 45 civilian ships - 18 cycles - 18 copters - 18 military - 26 military ships - 35 trains/trucks - 33

in my rush i fogot to say thanks for the heads up..sorry about that and thanks :o)...Steve

Attached Link: http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/all_topics/new/facts/03804.htm

thanks for the info leather-guy. I just place my order on Amazon.com...

This looks very interestig...anyone have a quick heads-up on which animals are in the book? I can see it's another thing to add to my "Personal Christmas Present's " List..

I count 38 in all - includes Mtn Goat Bat Frog Chamelion Couple of DogsChimp Gorilla Cow Elephant flamingo galimimus (ornithosaur) T Rex Triceratops Komodo Giraffe killer Whale Rat lioness lobster prawn crab Octopus Salamander scorpion tarantula Zebra Turtle several bugs several fish Bear in mind they're not Poser-ready - they'd have to be imported and "boned" to be posable.

hmm - sounds interesting - will have a look if I can get this somehow in Germany ...