About Me

I am originally from South Manchester in the UK but my home is now in a beautiful rural island location by the beach in North Wales.

 

The mid 1970's is where model making all began for me. I loved Lego as a child, so I suspect this was just a natural progression, only this time I got to cover myself in glue😁 The first kit I built was a 1/76 scale Matchbox Lysander purchased whilst on a beach holiday. I used to read regularly published comics like Warlord and Battle (remember Charlies War?) along with the handy pocket-sized Commando books on our lengthy family holiday journeys over to North Wales (UK)  I was always fascinated by the artwork. So, on one occasion the opportunity to build an aircraft that featured regularly in these comics must have been eagerly taken up.

After a short while I figured AFV's captured my interest far more than aircraft. I think it was a combination of them being easier to display; remember how completely useless the undercarriages were, so you had to use their clear plastic ‘Star Trek shaped’ display stands, and the fact my local shop stocked mainly Matchbox 1/76 tanks.  Amazingly I still have a few Airfix 1/32 figures and the bulk of a 1970’s 1/35 Tamiya Tiger I.

3cm M.K. 103 Zwilling Flakpanzer IV "Kugelblitz"

Cyber-Hobby's re-released Panzer IV Flakpanzer Kugelblitz

Although very few photographs survive of this prototype it still makes into a very pleasing model. A review can be found below

http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/german/dml9109reviewcs_1.html

Finished with the Vallejo Dunkengelb modulation set, Abteilung oils and Mig pigments, I completed this in 2014

 

My model making journey starts (2010)

It's late 2010. After starting the Tamiya Steyr kit I found a bunch of old modelling stuff at my parents. These included some quite well preserved figures, paints, and even the old but battered 1970's Tamiya Tiger I. What surprised me most of all though was that some of the Tamiya paint's were still usable!

I figured the Tiger I would be a great guinea pig so I set about trying out some of the latest techniques I had read about. One thing that I picked up early on is that the large Tamiya spray tins are not really suitable for 1/35 scale kits, and I would have to get my hands on an airbrush. I did some research and soon acquired an Iwata HP-C-Plus and compressor.

The Panzerwreck books really appealed to me so from the very start I was attempting to convey some wrecks. Scratchmod's site was a great inspiration and I soon set about destroying brand new but very cheap kit's, in my attempt to display wrecked vehicles.