Who or what have been your greatest influences?
Thanks Jay…
I recently had an invitation from a fellow editor, Jay at Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine to answer a questionnaire about my background and what has influenced me over the years in my modelling. I’m sure that some of you take that paper mag but I have to thank Jay for the opportunity to think about all the questions in his questionnaire and I’ve sent him back a full reply so I hope that you see it in due course over there.
Meanwhile… over here that opportunity certainly got me thinking about whom and what has influenced me over the years…
How did I get into scale modelling in the first instance?
I will always remember it – my Gran, sadly long since departed, but she visited our house when I was about 7 and brought me a Revell Albatros DV in 1:72 scale – I remember it as if it was yesterday – the red plastic and the parts for what looked like a kit – a miniature of the real aeroplane that was shown on the packet front – wow! An opportunity to make a replica (the term is used somewhat loosely here!) of a real aeroplane, corrr, how good is that. Gran had even thought of a tube of plastic cement – I could get started. Well, in theory at least, but the parts wouldn’t snap off the frame…oh, how can I get them off? I know, get some scissors from the kitchen and duly armed I set about cutting all the parts off the (what I later realised was called a sprue tree) frame.
Armed with a pile of bits and my tube of cement I set about sticking everything together – ah, well that’s not quite how it worked out, was it… more glue on my fingers and fingers stuck to parts, but I eventually managed to get the wings and fuselage together. The only real problem of course was that this was a bi-plane, the wings have stick things that seem to join the wings together and to the body – blimey, it doesn’t line up and I haven’t got enough hands…oh, how am I ever going to get the top wing to stay in one place long enough for the whole thing to stay together? Enter Dad! Back to him later…
…and so started the first of what was to become a lot of very odd, but semi-complete WWI biplanes and other planes (I hadn’t yet seen Reach for the Sky and that famous line: “It’s an aeroplane Bader, aeroplane…” ) on my shelf.
No need for paint…
Get the decals on as fast as possible and she’ll be finished and I can see if I can get another one.
First, get the transfer sheet (that’s what everyone called decals in those days) into a cereal bowl full of water, yes that’s it… hey, they are coming off, better get it out, yes, haven’t lost too many – no, get the crosses on the wings first, then some small ones on the sides – hey this looks like a real aeroplane, I love it… in fact could I get more of these kits at the local toy shop?
Down to the toy shop on my bike with brother Chris and my other mates, all in a posse with our playing cards pegged to our back frame near the spokes and so as we went along the cards made a great ‘clacking’ noise so we sounded like we were on motor bikes – how cool was that back then? Believe me, everyone was doing it and it sounded great!
The Airfix catalogue…
It was brilliant too and worth every penny of my pocket money. Now kits were 2/- (Two shillings) and came in bags with fantastic pictures on the tabs and on the boxes. The best bit was ticking off the models as each one was completed, I began to close in on a set, or nearly all the models (as I thought then), most were hanging from my ceiling! I have always kept that first catalogue and here are a few pics to show you what I did then…
We moved, but they all came too!
Another house move and my models started to get hung from two lines of string from the ceiling, corner to corner – fantastic! Each aeroplane hung there, suspended by cotton thread from the line and boy was that good to see. As I lay in my bunk nodding off to sleep the first and last thing I always saw were those models, hanging – flying above me and my mind soon turned to my next project. Will I ever be able to afford that Airfix B-29? Doubt it.
Dad – how patient was he?
I’ll never forget it, there we were, I had just had a birthday a couple of years on and everyone had brought me an Airfix, Revell or Monogram kit. Chris Johnson had bought me the new Airfix 1:72 Heinkel He 111 and this was an amazing kit, resplendent in lovely light blue plastic. I had no idea where to start, there were so many parts, so much ‘glass’, I didn’t know what to do when dad saw me looking perplexed and being a real DIY enthusiast, he offered to help. The hours passed, dad patiently gluing all the parts together with me, so that, eventually I had a fully complete Heinkel bomber that just needed transfers. Well, they went on in a jiff and she was done, and not a spot of paint in sight – brilliant!
So, to today… my next project?
Yes, you guessed it, an Heinkel He 111, ok not 1:72 scale, not Airfix but Revell and their impressive new release – funny that, it seems like I’ve re-lived all my past modelling in a flash.
I just wanted to share this with you here. I hope that it may stir some great, fond memories for you too, so let me finish as I started with a thank you, thanks Jay, you’ve re-kindled some great memories for me and I feel inspired to go on and do even better now, and as that man Les V would say, raise the bar!
See you very soon
Geoff
