Down Memory Lane: my early days as a modeller

There is something about miniatures which fascinates children. Though adults are often interested to see scale recreations of things, children in particular seem to be absolutely enthralled by the sight of real things captured in miniature. Of course, many children’s toys have traditionally been scaled-down versions of real-world things like cars, houses, guns, animals and so on. So it is probably not too surprising that when I first saw scale models, I was very impressed and wanted to make my own.

My childhood experiences of model making relate to my dad and my older brother, Ash. My dad has been a railway modeller since as long as I can remember, and Ash was into military aircraft and became a very respectable young aircraft modeller in his teenage years. Seeing my dad’s model railway layout made me familiar with the idea of creating a world in miniature from the word go. I also remember the fascination I felt as Ash removed the lid from a new aircraft kit and revealed all those grey plastic parts attached to frames, which I knew would eventually become a colourful and dramatic-looking miniature fighter plane. This being the early 1980s, our village was encircled by airbases from which RAF and USAF jets flew daily. My young friends and I were quite used to our peace being momentarily shattered by low-flying military jets, and I wanted to be able to build models of those thundering kings of the sky.

The first model kit I ever built was a Matchbox kit of the RAF’s Canberra bomber. Like many young modellers, I did not paint the plane – it remained in its plastic colours with the various RAF transfers (decals) being applied on top. I did not have a blade with which to cut parts from the frames, instead using a screwdriver to punch the parts loose! Still, I learned a lot even on that first build; the kit made me choose whether to make the bomb bay doors open or closed, and whether to build the landing gear down for landing or up for flying (I chose gear up and doors closed).

My memory is a bit clouded over my next build; I can recall building various planes and painting them with my dad’s old Humbrol paints, along with a Renault 5 police car (given to me by our neighbours) but the next kit I remember distinctly is an Airfix Stuka dive-bomber given to me by my grandma for Christmas. This one was painted by me in all-over olive green paint donated by my dad, and the transfers were applied, though they fell off later (I had much to learn…)

Once my family realised I liked building models, I regularly received model kits as presents – mostly plane kits – and soon built up a collection. It wasn’t long before I started building more car kits: I have been into cars since I was very young, so it was an obvious choice to build models of them, starting with the police Renault 5, followed by a 1979 Ford Mustang and then a 1956 Chevrolet. Again, the car bodies were left unpainted and any paints needed for the engine and interior were borrowed. However, it wasn’t long before I was buying glue and paints specifically for the models I was making, and at this point you could say I was taking model making seriously as a hobby.

To be continued