a question !! why the hobby and epitomise what it means to you ??

[AlanG]

I was introduced to the hobby by my father as i had a keen interest in WWII aircraft. He bought me a 1/72 Revell Lancaster 'Dambuster' and i was instantly hooked.

I found that making models allowed me space and time away from the regular beating i got from the bullies at school and my area. I then like others here gave up the hobby for a few years (decades) due to work. I travelled the world at the Queen and taxpayers expense and only got back into the hobby when i was settling down with SWMBO.

I now find that my time modelling is during those rare times i get away from the farm, the kids and life in general. I sit at my desk with Spotify playing in the background (often rock/metal music) whilst trying to de-stress from everything. My children have also taken an interest in model making and this now also gives me great satisfaction to see the smile on their faces when they complete a build.

[SimonT]

been building since somewhere around the mid 70's when I got an Airfix 1/24th Spitfire and a 1:48 WW1 biplane for Christmas.

Spent French 'O' level classes drooling over the Tamiya catalogue with a lad called Chris - kits we could not afford but it didn't stop us planning what we would do if we ever could afford them - also explains why I can't speak French

Things got more serious when Verlinden started up. There had always been the dio's in the catalogues plus the Italeri box art but there was a massive explosion of stuff with his books, figures and accessories and I made most of the early 120mm figures plus started trying to get better finishes and doing some scratch building.

It also started me off with the challenge of scratch built detailing and even making full models

Did reasonably well with various competition entries for a few years

Then I met Tom at Millicast at a show at Donnington race track - he gave me some pointers on the scratch building of full kits and then I made a few masters for him which was good fun. I think the basic models are still available all these years later although now ready assembled rather than as kits.

Still building all these years later - not very fast though

As a result stash has bee growing steadily for around the last 34yrs and must easily be over a thousand kits by now - which is ridiculous I know but buying and planning is part of what keep me happy. Mostly bought in sales - very rare that I pay full price for anything. Bit of an addiction really

I know the majority will never get built but what the hell

Over recent years the modelling was the only thing keeping me going in-between looking after my Dad and visiting him when he was in various hospitals and latterly in the care home - try and do a little each day as I find it relaxing

Now trying to improve my painting.....

[Peter Gillson]

Alan - great question, very nice reading everyones comments.

Like many I started at about 8 or 9 with Airfix. i remember the kits in plastic bags hanging up in a shop called Baker's Bazar, a strange shop which sold toys, model, Hornby trains and fishing gear!! Fortunately, and unusually, our main model shop on the island, called: The Model Shop, still exists, still run by the same family and just moved into bigger premises.

After Airfix I moved to Tamiay. The choice in those pre-internet days was really down to what the shop stocked so was likited to Airfix, Revell and Tamiya. In my late teens I did a little bit of 1/10 scale IC car racing and moved away from modelling to painting. Mainly airbrush work, inspired by the likes of Philip Castle, Tim White, Chris Achileos and Chris Foss. Check out their work on the WWW, if you do not know them.

Like many, carear and family took centre stage during the 1980's and 1990's. In the late 90's I returned to modelling, mainly 1/35 as a way to winding down from long hours at work. My weakness is jumping from subject to subject, sometimes armour, some figures - a bit of a jack of all trades. One big focus of my figures has been, and continues to be VC winners. With vehicles I loved Hetzers and Bren Carriers, so have a stash of unmade kits to build all of the variants of both in 1/35. I am probalby 3/4 of the way there with Hetzers and 1/4 of the way with Bren Carriers.

Throughout my modeling times I thing the pleasure has been 50% the researching history of the subject, being it a VC winner, a type of vehicle or the story of the action, and 50% the actual modeling.

Currently I am focussing on scratch building busts for my range, but with a King Tiger on the starting blocks.

One project I really would like to try is to build a 1/35 LCM, but a radio controlled version. I am sure that by scratchbuilding the right type of load enough space can be created for all of the radio gear - perhaps one day ...

Peter

[Gary MacKenzie]

I started making model kits when i was about 7 years old , one of the first was a HMS Victory , Airfix kit.
I made a lot of the small ( 1/76th ?? ) Matchbox AFV dioramas , and progressed to 1/32nd Airfix multipose soldiers , then Airfix 1/32nd Greif etc. ( think i may still have 17 pounder in stash )
I then found Tamiya , first one was a 1/35th Tiger in Fenwicks , Newcastle.
I made a Hornet R/C car at about 14 ?? and still have it in storage.

I came back to model making about 5 years ago, having had a mid life crisis , just turned 50 , lost my mother and decided i needed to do something to take my mind off recovery from my 2nd detached retina op.
Found all my kits in storage , and then added a new airbrush/compressor ( compressor bought from John via Amazon ) and new tools , undreamed of when i was young.

I tend to do a bit of a model , let it sit for a while , and start another , having approx 5 in reasonable level of construction/almost completed.
It helps me relax , any stress from the modelling is nothing compared to what i had in my life before this.

One project I really would like to try is to build a 1/35 LCM, but a radio controlled version. I am sure that by scratchbuilding the right type of load enough space can be created for all of the radio gear - perhaps one day ...

I have Italeri version , It is only 43.5 cm front to back , i have one sitting in my stash , staring at me. 13 cm x 10cm x 3cm for back cabin area.
Last r/c model i made would only fit the servos and motor plus if lucky receiver in space , no room for nicad for power
I think/hope newer tech is a lot smaller.

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Gary

i agree about the size of the cabin, my thinking is to place a false load (pilesof crates partly undeva tarp or even a tracked vehicle) right next to the cabin so that some of the radio gear can be under the false load, in this way some of the main area of the craftcan take the radio gear.

[Guest]

Great question.
Dad built the Airfix DH Comet, sat it on the windowsill sans paint, along came brat and duly broke it. One thick ear later and a tube of puncture repair glue it was back together crazed canopy and all. Up untill his death a few years ago we always had a laugh about that model - and that was it. A birthday/Xmas question was always answered with a model desired.
Later bit of a bigger brat at school, could not wait to leave, and when the time came went to work in a body shop as an apprentice/dogsbody, went into town one day and as i was having a beer incame the recruiting sergeant and that was me in the Guards (Coldstreams). First stop after training was Aden, UK, Germany then N Ireland and army found out that I could hide and shoot (you know how it goes - who can play the piano....) and duly sent me to one of the first sniper training courses for battalion members, and by then unknown to me PTSD had taken a strong hold and was not diagnosed untill 2001 after a heart attack. So no modelling for 12 years, came out and after a few false starts a friend started me back into modelling, joined a club, entered comps and this led to a short carreer as a professional modelmaker in the oil and gas industry, this is where the scratchbuilding came from. Then British Aerospace poached me to work in the mock up shop at Hatfield, untill they closed. And it was then a total change of carreer to driving trucks after starting work as a trainee truck mechanic, which lasted as long as it took to change a truck wheel at the bottom of the M1, it was comming down in sheets, I was soaked to the skin, I looked up at the driver all nice and dry with a cuppa in his hand and a smirk on his face - I never did find out if that tyre got changed. But there was some modelling being done and a lot of stash building going on, but aircraft related. After 30 odd years as a truck driver, most of it spent on the continent of Europe wit htrips to the old Eastern bloc and Russia, Turkey I spent my last four years working in the UK and on the odd occasion turning a scalpel or manipulating a brush, but when you are away for weeks/months at a time things get left behind.
But since my retirement nearly three years ago I have been totally corrupted, I now delve into the dark arts of soldering, casting and moulding, scratchbuilding - but my weathering still goes back to the days of a Raw or Burnt Umber wash, with a wipe off soft brush after , but soon to turn my attention to home brass etching - I will never be saved.
What do I get out of the hobby?
I am allowed to be my own companion - worst critic - never happy with the end product. BUT, I do get to converse with to me some of the best modellers in the world, it does not matter what the scale or what the subject, we learn off each other, and if the chat goes a bit off subject, so much the better, the odd gaffs are dropped, but appologies soon follow and we learn even more, after all we are only human. I do not want to stand in the grandstand or the terraces unless it is at a MOTO GP race or the end terrace at the Seahawks stadium, but I would much rather be on here yakking away, or better yet sitting round a table and just let the wind blow whichever way with the good friends I have made on the previous forum (MM) and this one, where to the consternation of the moderators we all emigrated, for which I can only say sorry and thank you it was not your fault, you did not realise just what riff-raff was untill we arrived.
And that is my short story, it is longer but by now you are asleep anyway....
Mike.

[boatman]

ah !! did you ever go to sp models at snetterton before it closed?? id seen hobbies at loddon i did an extension not so long ago there thats bout 25mins from me, are they just rc stuff or modelling in general ?? find getting into norwich bit of an issue sometimes due to traffic

HI Alan yes I used to go to the Snetterton model shop as my mother in law lives nrby in east harling so while the missus seein her mum I would sneak out an pop in said shop an look at that big enterprise model in there .Did you see it ? Alan it was about 20ft long an all lit up with led's an aircraft an it cost about so my m8's said about £40'000 an I see it in the paper sayin that's what it cost.I wonder where it is now ? .But I never bought much from there as it was to exspensive proberly why it shut an regards hobbies shop they do all sorts of big tank kits /an ships models r/c an deans marine kits /also big plastic ship models /an craft model for the missus like dolls house stuff an like you

say things in general but I only go there if I cant get what I want from Pegasus in Norwich an yes it can be a bit of a bugger getting through Norwich but im used to it as I have to take the missus to the car boot sale nr harford bridges evey sunday morn

chris

[Guest]

yes i remember the enterprise and the train track that ran round the ceiling, such a shame it shut but i think when the market closed a huge number of potential customers vanished overnight, what about the shop nr loddon is it any good for general modelling ?? thats prob my closest place or model junction in bury st eds

[Guest]

Tim White, […] and Chris Foss

Are those B.T. White, respectively Christopher Foss, the military vehicle book authors of the 1970s–’80s?

[Gary MacKenzie]

Christopher Foss, the military vehicle book authors of the 1970s–’80s?

Christopher Foss did fantastic Sci-Fi matte paintings.
My parents bought me this book the year it was published. ( he did concept art for Dune etc )

[Guest]

So not Christopher F. Foss, then, who I took him to be.

My knowledge of illustrators is mostly confined to people who worked on AD&D, Shadowrun, Deadlands, and a couple of other games in the 1980s–90s

[Peter Gillson]

Jakko

The Chris Foss I was referring to is the Sci Fi painter, here is a link to his Website Co-incidentally he was born and lives in Guernsey. Although mainly a SciFi artist he once told me that financially his best work was drawing all of the art work for the book The Joy of Sex!

Tim White is also a Sci Fi artist, mainly book jackets;

Philip Castle is an artist who painted a lot of aircraft and women, as well as book and album sleeves, but is best known for the posters for the films Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. See Here

All 3 are inspirational and really nice guys.

Peter

[RM6239]

Well like most here I made kits when I was a kid but all the distractions of farm boy took over. Years later when I came back to work on the farm , I brought a truck kit and made it on wet days, it went on a shelf and then I forgot about models again. Many years later I was made redundant at work and to pay the bills, I got a dead end, soul destroying job, then I happened to see the Midsommer Murders episode with the model village and remembered how much I liked making the models previously, so I took myself off to a newsagent and grabbed a few modelling magazines and I haven't looked back since.

cheers
Ross

[Guest]

a dead end, soul destroying job, then I happened to see the Midsommer Murders episode

Wasn’t the job bad enough already by itself?

[JR]

Wasn’t the job bad enough already by itself? :smiling3:

You mean you don't like England's most dangerous county :smiling3: can hardly be anyone there who hasn't suffered a murder in the family. !