Modelling legends and inspiration....

[BarryW]

I noticed on another thread an announcement of the death of someone who was an inspiration to some modellers, someone who I am not aware of. I got thinking about those who inspired me in the olden days....

So, who inspired you?

For me, when I was 15 In 1970 I was bought, by my parents, this book below. I was, of course already into models, mainly Airfix aircraft but also Revell sailing ships and 1/72 armour. I dabbled in a few other areas as well. Back in those days all boys were into this hobby, for us it was the equivalent of todays X Box, we just all did it.

I read this book cover to cover and, as a result, I turned model building into something much more than what I did as a child. I found out about sanding seams and using filler. I remember that I used Fine Surface Polyfiller, the new fangled stuff that came ready mixed.... and much more..... Chris Ellis really upped my game. I remember though that he was not in favour of airbrushes and dismissed them as an expensive luxury and, back then, they were expensive. I still have this book on my shelf above the modelling bench and it’s fun to look back on what the hobby was then...

Then, years later, I bought Francoise Verlinden‘s, The Verlinden Way, on Plastic Wings. That is when I really found out about weathering and that upped my game again, but by then my modelling years were nearly over, well my ‘early modelling years’ anyway. I was married, had been elected as a District Councillor and was getting increasingly involved in politics while also earning a living....then kids.... life got complicated.... 20 years later I was widowed, after that I remarried, then divorced. Sadly my copy of this book fell apart and was disposed of in a house move but I see it’s still available and I am tempted....https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verlinden-Way-III-Plastic-Wings/dp/193060727X
Finally with my business a success and secure, kids grown up and off my hands and being by now largely out of politics, 9 years ago I came back to the hobby and joining this forum.....


So, over to you, who were your inspirations and tell us more about you? What got you into, or back into, this great hobby?

 

[AlanG]

To be honest i didn't know of anyone really (or took notice of) before the internet kicked off. I was just happy in my own little world building the way i wanted. I started building models when my father bought a 1/72 Revell Dambusters kit. That one survived a while until it crashed down the stairs. Built tons of kits after that, as and when i could afford one.

I left the hobby for over a decade or so whilst i was away going around the world with the RAF. Hard to find and build models when you're stuck in the middle of a desert.

Since i came back to the hobby i have taken notice of such modellers as Phil Flory, Plasmo, Harmas just to name a few. I think that Youtube has opened my eyes to a lot of talented people. I also am inspired by persons on this and a few other forums.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Barry
As a boy I built one or two Airfix kits but back then model making was not for me. After I retired I moved to the Outer Hebrides - fulfilling a dream. Winters on the Hebrides are long, wet and windy. I needed a hobby - the wife told me so! I picked up a modelling magazine, found it fascinating and joined the now defunct Military Modelling forum. This was back in 2010. John Prigent was a member of that forum and I bought his book. I was hooked.

Jim

 

[Isitme]

Inspiration...
My Father who boxed my ears when I broke his unpainted Airfix DH.88 moulded in red plastic. He made me glue it back together - used a whole tube of cement.
Others were Don Pitt, Malcolm Dawson who led me down the figure path, which I am ashamed to say I do very little off.
Bill Hearn, Harry Woodman for their scratch building. And Alan Hall for his support when building and converting aircraft for my magazine articles in Scale Aircraft Modelling.
There are others who through time I have forgotten, but I also get inspiration from what other modellers produce even today.
Mike.

 

[Steven000]

Hi Barry,
Back in 2016 I felt very inspired by a guy named 'Doug Cohen' from the U.S.
I don't know if he's still active but he produced some very nice models, figures and diorama's with a lovely painting-style.
He made a hole series of Bf109's in a lot of different schemes which I liked a lot.
Here's one of them;

(By Doug Cohen)

I got back into the hobby when I bought a 1/144 revell warbird in the local budget-shop for 0.99€, an Me262... I felt I had a lot more possibilities then my days as a kid and picked up the hobby again

The problem today is spare time though...
Cheers, Steven

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Roy Dilley, some time president of the British Model Soldier Society, introduced me to the concept of converting figures into something new in Airfix Magazine in the early seventies. The first ones I remember were using the Airfix 1/32 scale motor racing spectators. Then later he converted 1/32 German infantry into WWI trench raiders and used plasticine for extra detail. I was hooked from then on, eventually discovering that I could sculpt an entire figure if I wanted to. Thank you Roy

 

[scottie3158]

Pictures of Verlinden builds in the old Tamyia catalogues were my inspiration and what I wanted to achieve.

 

[minitnkr]

Verlinden, Zaloga, Dieter, Ian Simpson, & Simon. PaulE

 

[Dave Ward]

I can't say any particular books, or people have influenced me. I've tried most genres of model making, and picked up a little bit from each style. I've got a retentive memory, and I don't pigeonhole ideas, I will apply solutions from one discipline to another ( probably why I ended up as a design engineer ).
It did help that my father was a modelmaker - albeit mostly in the slope soarers/gliders type of things, he encouraged me a lot ( mostly to the disapproval of my mother ). I've never gone in for competitive model making or shows, I do it purely for my own pleasure, entertainment & satisfaction..............
Dave

 

[BarryW]

I have just read the fly-leaf of the Chris Ellis book. I quote,
‘’ Plastic kits are as much part of the modern environment as television, instant coffee, or refrigerators. Almost all small boys, nearly all their fathers, and literally millions of other people throughout the world make up plastic construction kits, initially perhaps as playthings but later-if the interest grows-as models perfect in every detail and which may take many hours of careful work to compete. ‘’

What a different world it was back then, you could not say that of today’s world. I cannot help but think that many children today would be better off if they ‘make up plastic construction kits’.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Mine were mostly railway related. I made many many Airfix kits as a kid, but I left the hobby when booze, girls and rock an roll came into my life. After I married and settled I needed a hobby, so started reading a new railway modelling magazine I found in Smiths called “Model Railway Journal “. It was a complete eye opener. The contributors all had the same approach, it wasn’t a model train set, it was a model railway. I learned so much from both the magazine and its spin off “how too” books that I use the same approach for all my modelling. Stand out writers were Guy Williams for loco scratch building, David Jenkinson for coach scratch building, Geoff Kent for wagon scratch building, and Iain Rice for building everything and anything using kits as a basis. There were many others though. I worked in the railway field for about twenty years until I decided to learn guitar properly.....After I had done that for ab ten years I got back in the military modelling field and was astonished by the jump forward in finishing techniques, learning what I could from wherever I could get it. One thing always struck me though. The modelling I liked best and wanted to emulate always had a basis in observation of the subject. They were making a model of “X” using model “Y” as a basis. Not just building a kit of “Y”. This holds true in whatever modelling discipline I try.

 

[Defiant911]

Like some others I don’t think I had any particular human inspiration unless my father counts as he as a kid also made models
,although he had long since stopped by the time I started.
I started back in early 80’s so like Barry we didn’t have mobiles Phones, consoles or more than three channels on the one small tv I’m the lounge.
As a kid I spent most my time Outdoors as was the way back then.
When it rained if I wasn’t playing manopoly with mates I would make model planes, usually 1:72 scale WW2.
The builds were always brush painted back then and I recall just as many trials and tribulations.
I think as I got into my teens other hobbies started to take over and sharing a room with a destructive younger brother was probably the final nail in the coffin.
In fact the final hurrah was the Lancaster 1:48 scale which I had as a Christmas present a d after almost completing it my brother got hold of it and played bang, bangs with it.
It didn’t fair well.
Moving forward over 30 years later and a spare room in the house it was time to give the hobby another shot. The first model I bought wa again the Lancaster 1:48 Scale Tamiya which I waited almost a year to build to make sure my skills weee satisfactory before trying this iconic plane again.
This time around I’m dabbling with a bit of everything. Just depends on what takes my fancy from one build to another.
off course something we didn’t have back then was forums which is a great way to get the tips and help one often needs.
It’s also a great way to boost ones passion with positive and constructive comments.
Anyway, that’s my pennies worth.
Carl

 

[dave]

I came at modelling via wargaming, about 8 I got hold of HG Wells book “Little Wars”, that started me painting those soft plastic 1/72nd figures from Airfix, then onto making their 1/72nd tanks for use and from there to aircraft and ships. During my teenage years modelling became terrain building for 25mm Napoleonics. Then like many along came work, wives and family. About 10 years ago we moved to Brussels and son set off on his own life. With time on my hands I came back to my old hobby.

 

[Ian M]

I too was impressed by the photos in the tamiya catalogs of my youth. Pre internet it was a challenge to find and magazines few and far between.

 

[stillp]

I used to mainly build model cars in the 1960s, some for slot racing and some just as static models. My hero was Gerald Wingrove.
Stopped modelling when I got married, then a few years ago while being dragged around charity shops I spotted a Revell 1/24 Ferrari, and I was hooked!
Pete

 

[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!

 

[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