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US Rail Gun (1960s)
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Howitzer & Transporter (1960s)
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Control line aircraft (1970s)
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Glider (1990s)
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Looking back I think I must have started building models with possibly the best toy ever invented - Meccano. By the time I was coming into my teens Airfix started to appear and I certainly remember having many different model planes suspended from my bedroom ceiling, which I would have bought from Woolworths for around 2 shillings (10p), that being the only place in Swanage which would have sold them. I do not remember painting theses early attempts but I did learn to identify a Lysander from a Stuka, but I never could remember which the Wellington was and which was the Lancaster.
My choice of models was not governed by any specific interest just what looked nice. Hence why I built the New York Harbour Tug and a Viking Long Boat. With the arrival of the sixties and the race to the moon I, like many, built the Gemini capsule and the launch rocket. When Revell started making model kits I would have to get them from Bournemouth. I cannot remember everything I built but US Battleships, 1/8 Knights in Armour, a large US Railway Gun pictured here on the right in front of Swanage bay, and a working eight cylinder engine with visible moving parts were just some of the many kits I built.
Work then became a part of my life and whilst working in the Middle East I built a wire-controlled model aeroplane which I immediately crashed when learning to fly it. Somewhere in the garage is a radio controlled glider which I have never flown, this could be down to me taking up model yachting and building a ‘10 Rater’ yacht which I sailed with the Poole Model Yacht Club for a number of years.
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'10 Rater'
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'A-Class' yacht |
Currently I am re-building an ‘A Class’ yacht, which is a scaled down version of a ‘J Class’ yacht. (For those of you who are interested the yacht measures 72” from bow to stern). In 2015 I finished the stand, whilst in 2016 I stripped the boat down and started re-fixing the beams – I have no idea what 2017 will bring as I have a number of plastic kits to build and paint, golf to play and the garden to look after – Thank heavens I am retired otherwise I would not have the time.
I joined Earley Risers so that in my retirement I could restart building models, but this time learn how to paint them, as this was something that was not done very much in the early years. Currently I have started building a few 1/75 model airplanes, not yet fully painted, and a British Soldier from the Napoleonic wars.
In keeping with tradition, that is more than one model on the go at any one time, I am also working on a model of a 1/35 Sherman tank which has taught me a number of things. Firstly, read the outside of the box as I failed to notice that this kit was a working model and came with an electric motor, still it has given me plenty of practice in filling in unwanted holes and slots. Secondly it reminded me of one important thing, something I would tell my customers RT*M, though in this case it needs to be RT*I, and at least twice !!
RLH - 1st April 2017