Modelling legends and inspiration....

[Peter Gillson]

I have two seperate periods of modelling; as a teenager in the 1970's, then I returned to modelling in the late 1990's.

i suppose my inspiration in the 1970's was not a single person,but a magazine - Military Modelling. In the 1990's it was Bill Horan and his excellent figures, or Tony Greenland for armour modelling..

Peter

[Gern]

I've found my inspiration from the guys and gals on here, and some of them are pretty legendary! :smiling3: :smiling3:

[David Lovell]

Like Neil M Roy Dilly ,who can remember Sid Hortons epic conversion of figures depicting the men after the charge of the light brigade taken from a famous painting, got me in to figure painting ,firms like Hinchliffe, phoenix,master sculptor Ray Lamb ,the chap that did all the zulu war stuff for hinchliffe ,forty odd years ago I belonged to the BMSS during this time I mucked about with plastic as well the master being shep pain but like so many sex drugs music (didn't like rock and roll)marriage kids work it fell by the way side ,some sixteen years ago a new partner a baby daughter life seemed good but then a operation and a spell in hospital left me thinking what to do ,the purchase of a couple of modeling mags and here I am today, even back on the old mm site our own Simon T was a constant source of inspiration and encouragement, other than that anyone who's work makes me think bloody hell look at that , i dont want to imitate their work but if it makes me want to get the tools out then yes they've inspired me. Dave

[skinflint]

There are two people who I inspire to in the hobby.

Previously, I built r/c models and Vic Smeed is the inspiration. His boat and aircraft designs are second to none. He was featured with Bob Symes in the 1970s TV series, Model World. For the programmes he designed two easy build balsa model, Sea Rider a balsa stand-off-scale Leander class frigate and a simple vane steered yacht. I compiled a list of his designs and wrote a couple of pages about him for the Model Boats magazine 65th anniversary special edition.

With the plastic kits, a person who I think deserves a mention is Royle Glaser, wife of Lew Glaser, founder of Revell kits. Lew was a workaholic and she helped him tirelessly, later being the inspiration for some of the kit designs. Following Lew's death, she took on and continued to manage the company.

Tony

[Dave Ward]

Oddly enough there are several people that inspired me, but they were totally negative characters. In my youth I was a member of an IPMS branch ( late 70's ). Several of the senior members ( self-styled ) liked to rule the roost, criticising models, telling people that they'd used the wrong colours/techniques/manufacturers, generally browbeating other members. They laid down the law on everything, and because they were 'senior' members, decreed that they were the best people to judge competitions. On enquiry, it was found that none of the 'judges' had entered competitions for many years. It was explained away by them claiming that they'd won so many times in the past, that it was unfair for them to enter now, to give other people a chance! I was in my late teens, and being a comparatively new member, thought that this was the way the IPMS was always run. I often wonder how many modellers were put off by all this petty behaviour. It was a pity that some of the longer serving members never stood up to the 'bullies'. I was so disillusioned by all this, that I decided never again to join any club/association/forum that was run in such an arbitrary way. Of course, a few well chosen arguments & lashings of sarcasm would have solved the problem, but hey, it's only a hobby!
Dave

[spanner570]

I've never read any model making books or watched videos, so nearly all the above, obviously great legends in the modelling world, I regret to write, I've never heard of.


I had but one 'inspirational' person, Emmerson R., my late dad. Miss you......

Ron

[Nicko]

I remember watching that Bob Symes series one the telly and also started buying modelling magazines in the 70s but never really felt the need to try and emulate the skills demonstrated, I just thought they would naturally come as I stuttered towards adulthood.

What got me to look more critically at my own efforts came from an unexpected source. My parents were having some work done on the house and the guy they got in spotted my efforts. Turned out he was an accomplished scratch builder and he gently encouraged me to work on my building technique through the use of more than just a craft knife and pair of tweezers. And improve my painting by masking rather than free-hand painting of stripes etc.

Sadly this was shortly before girls, motorcycles and loud music took over all my free time and spare cash. Not that I'm complaining about that!

Forty years later and I'm now trying to play catch-up. I wish that 'old' guy was still around, but this place is a good substitute.

Nick.

[rtfoe]

I would say inspiration in my early years would be my parents John and Margaret...I can still imagine both of them struggling to put together my first Fokker Friendship when I was just five. Somehow they knew I would love this hobby and to get my dexterity and creativity sorted out I was given a set of Lego to start off. In time my interest were stuff that looked the right shape with curves and didn't fall apart and I don't mean girls. My Dad's best friend had a display case of built models and he became my next inspiration with a Tiger Moth as a present. Back then I only knew Airfix which became my third source of inspiration.
We weren't well off but my parents managed to infuse my hobby with nearly all that was in the Airfix catalog perhaps because I was shy and not the badgering sort of kid but just built what was given. I could finish HMS Prince in a day and that stood proud above the TV set. Now I wished I could do that kit again and give it its due respect.
Bording school and sport took over for a while until I was introduced to Monogram and Tamiya by a school friend. Shep Paine's work in the leaflets that came with the Monogram kits became my fourth inspiration and the fifth that hit me was Tamiya's catalog of 1/35 armor and infantry kits. Obviously later catalogs featured Verlinden and I just wanted to do dios like him. I learned build techniques and skills just by looking at his dios. Won my first competition and I was hooked. I wanted more references and found Italeri catalogs with his builds and was introduced to their kits.
Disco and girls intervened in my late teens and plastic modeling wasn't cool for a while till I started working in Advertising and wanted a hobby to take the edge off pressure and deadlines. I turned to modeling and modeling magazines like FineScale, Military Modeling, Scale modeling and Tamiya modeling magazines helped fuel the interest back again. I noticed Tony Greenland for his armor, Steve Zaloga for his references in US tanks and Stan Catchpol for his dio gizmology and they got me into more detailing. For figures, Bill Horan inspired me with his "Last Stand at Gandamak". So armed with all these inspirations my approach to modeling is a hodgepodge in a pot.
Lately I have been following the works of Kazuya Yoshioka by accident seeing his works in many Japanese modeling magazines like "Passing Friendship". Obviously since I don't read Japanese I didn't know who he was but had one of the print outs from Tamiya's 1/48 promotional leaflets of his work of a downed P-47 and a troop of Shermans somewhere in Italy called "The Monster Has Landed". In Shizuoka I got to see not only Shep and Verlindens dios up close but also met Kazuya San and see his latest dio "Move, Move, Move". It's featured in Diorama The Perfection 2. I bought the book and got it autographed. There was someone who helped with the translation between us.
There are many other modelers that inspire me including some here and seriously there will always be inspiration just round the corner when you least expect it.

Cheers,
Richard