What got you started in modeling?

[Eddy Matthews]

So what started you off with modeling?

For me, it started at about the age of 7, with Airfix aircraft kits - I had dozens of them hanging from my bedroom ceiling.

Once I became a teenager and had a bit of pocket money, I progressed onto building own design balsa free flight gliders. It was such a pleasure to see something I'd created actually take to the sky and fly! And surprisingly, most of them flew pretty well.

Then I started work and could afford to spend a bit more, so I moved onto radio controlled aircraft. But the sad fact is that I was never a very good pilot, and most of them ended up being carried home in a plastic bin bag

So, time to look for something a bit less expensive to do, and that's when I got into model boats - Not much danger of them crashing and going home in bits! I could never see why people would all build the same old kits though, and wanted something just that bit out of the ordinary - I started with World Water Speed Record boats and built quite a few of the boats which at one time or another held the WWSR. Then Walter Snowdon got me hooked on paddlers, again something that's just that bit different.... Obviously I still have a passion for paddlers now, hence this website! But I still go off on a tangent every now and then and try to build things that no-one else has modelled, and that consists of a Griffon 2000TDX hovercraft, a Griffon 3000 hovercraft, SRN1 hovercraft (still not finished!), Ross Winans cigar ship, a couple of American towboats (pusher tugs), an American sternwheel towboat called Suter, Crusader (John Cobbs Ill fated WWSR boat), Spirit of Australia WWSR boat. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea?

So, how did YOU get started?

Regards
Eddy

[sandystrone]

When you live out in the sticks, with no television, you get a bit fed up with jigsaws and listening to the Light programme, so its on to making bits of wood with a feather as a sail, proceed down the nearest stream.  Later, the bigger ones sailed on the Loch, I think some are still sailng yet, into the sunset!
 
My mother being a war widow, money was tight but she did stretch to buying me a block of balsa on a visit to Glasgow  (remember Clyde Model Dockyard in the Argyle Arcade!) and that started me carving boats.

Next, to naval college in Liverpool, which started on me putting a motor in the next upgrade of models.

Marriage and a move to Tyneside  brought me to the delights of single channel radio.
I splurged out the grand sum of £90,  yes £90,  of my shore leave money on a Futaba press button single channel.
Then progression up the ladder to MacGregor 1 + 1.  Oh the joys of semi proportional radio!
By now I had joined Tynemouth model boat club and had never looked back, but my models always have a Scottish theme.
I am now building no.118th powered model, I keep records of all my boats, and have a very understanding wife!        Sandy Thomson

[scotfriend]

Hi PD,s

my story starts like Eddy`s,

first i have build a lot of Airfix, Revell and similar aircraft kits, most were from WWII. In 1982 i bought my first RC model a Graupner kit Piper PA18 SuperCup it never really flew but i continued with this kind of models. After some try and error a model plane crash into my car (no it wasn't my model ) and a final loss i stoped this project`.

I turned to plastic car kits for some years, i spend a lot of money, i have build a lot of models and i have collected many kits 150 or so

In 1995 a friend of mine forced me into model boats, first i tryed to keep this idea away, but another friend offered me a wreck of the PS Hohentwiel at a good price so i stepped into model boats. During the rebuild of the paddler i bought an model of the Robbe Bussard this was lost after two years. Then came the CalderCraft Cumbrae no1 i turned this model into a yacht of a Scottish lord with the name Star of Argyll. Then i came across the PS Jeanie Deans and started to build this model, this is so far a never ending story. Later i had some Graupner Glasgow 5 or six in different stages............ only one is complete and ready to sail. In my model shop are also a few other kitslike, Hijejlen, City of Bath, Westbourne, Lorelei ans some forgotten things

This is my story so far.....................................

[Bob Golder]

My first build was a joint effort with some friends in a church youth club when I was about 10.  It was a towline glider with a wing span as wide as I was tall and it worked   until it landed one day in barshaw park pond and was decimated by some swans      I graduated to a kit model of the Avro 707A, a forerunner of the Vulcan, with a JETEX motor borrowed from the club chest and only fired up when my pocket money allowed.  It flew, only just, and eventually crashed   After that I gave up flying crashy things and moved on to Meccanno.  Being a cool scot    with my priorities in the right order Girls came next    Eventually the lure of the Clyde Steamers led me to model boats, much easier to repair if they crash    Incidentally Sandy I do remember Clyde Model Dockyard as a place nice to visit by bus and tram and drool over but seldom within my price range in early days

[Stuart Badger]

I had a model railway  - Hornby '0' gauge clockwork inherited from an uncle when I was about 5 years old. Then my parents SOLD IT! and got me a nasty Triang  thing. But My mother started making Bilteezi card buildings for the layout which I suppose got me interested in making things. Meccano followed and then a Keil Kraft flying scale Spitfire bought at the Schooboys and School girls exhibition at Olympia ( the one the guy had on the stand flew) - mine alas was burnt in the back garden to simulate a plane crash!
After this ir was Airfix kits galore and control line model aircraft.
At about age 13 i started work in the model shop that was to be my employment on and off for the next 20 years - and then moved into professional model making. An interest in engineering and industrial history has always been a thread in my modelling especially mid nineteenth to early 20th century ships.
I worked for a time as advertising director of Radio Modeller magazine, and was instrumental in the set up of PBM models - one of the first companies to produce a model paddle steamer kit.
I suppose the first spark of interest in ships was generated by a family visit to the Cutty Sark and ther National Maritime Museum at Greenwich - before the place turned into an electronic theme park! I can't remember how old I was but I do remember being absolutely fascinated by these (to me) enormous and beautiful models in huge glass cases.

All the best

Stuart

[Mercury]

I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time during my childhood sailing on the Clyde and my Gran had a flat on the front at largs looking out over the firth. This gave me the bug and I've never looked back. Next stoke of luck was to find that the local park was the home of the home of the Model Steamer Club. Copeous amounts of help and encouragement followed leading up to my first Clyde Steamer model - PS Mercury. Since then I've moved around a bit, Sweden, Aberdeen, London, Azerbaijan and back to Aberdeen but have always kept in touch with the Model Steamer Club which is celebrating it's 40th Anniversary this year. I'm trying to get my son interested but, as ever, the call of railways appears to be winning. I'll just have to keep persevering with the Waverley and Balmoral trips!

[Peter Webster]

Again, like Eddy I started out with 1/72 plastic kits that I hung from the ceiling, then at 10 years old I graduated to a Hearns Hobbies "Hot Rod" control line aircraft, which most ozzies of my era (1960) will remember from there after 5 years, I moved to Free Flight Scale mainly pre ww1, Unorthodox and Old Timers, now I are one, from thereI progressed to radio control Old Timers but F/F O/T was still the best for me. In the interim I married a very understanding women http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/Smileys/default/41.gif:41, a pre-requisite for any modeler, I was also modeling N scale Railways at this time then another n scaler got me into boats and I have never looked back except I still model N scale but have recently started in On30 Railways also but Paddlers will always remain    http://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/Smileys/default/respect4.gif      KING
Peter Webster
where the weather is greathttp://www.paddleducks.co.uk/smf/Smileys/default/vacat.gif

[Roderick Smith]

I am not really a modeller, but I did assemble lots of Airfix kits in my youth, including sailing ship Cutty Sark (with no rigging) and Brunel's PS Great Western.  Airfix also had a lot of great plastic structure kits for HO-scale railways.  Revell (a higher-priced plastic kit) produced kits of UK steam locos in HO.  IIRC, I assembled three, also a Revell Ford model A coupe.
Much of my interest came from reading.  Along with Airfix kits, there was the wonderful Meccano Magazine: packed with good articles from top authors, pitched at technically-curious boys over a wide/vast range of topics.  One of the best gifts of my life was an annual subscription from my uncle when I was 11.  Today, they are available free online.  Airfix and Meccano: two of the best influences for a 1950s boy (I was 1949).
Is polystyrene glue even legal nowadays?

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Red_Hamish]

Hello all
in answer to this question 

Is polystyrene glue even legal nowadays?

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Yes, my son aged 10 is heavily into these sci-fi war gaming heroes and the amount of time that he is exposed to the polycement is slightly alarmng to me. I know we all used to get absolutley covered in the stuff while doing the plastic kits. Sure our parents  probably worried too but did it do us any harm other than sticking (pun intended) with modelling. My preference was for 1/35 scale armour primarily from Tamiya and I still think that these are pretty good value kits even now. It is a  pity that I can't get Ramsay into this proper modelling, maybe one day  As it stands now I'm not building any boats (a severe lack of drive as no interest locally to form a club) so have moved my allegiance to the Railroad in H0 American and hope to get the hobby room done ready for building in Autumn / Winter. I would love to get the last of the boats which are on the building board finished, one was supposed to be completed for four years ago  and I feel ashamed to say that it may take another four to get there.

cheers

Jim

[Dinosaursoupman]

I think it was my stunning figure and my devilish good looks.

Oh, you mean building ship models. Been building plastic kits as far back as I can remember. Started with planes then cars. Took a hiatus from building when my girlfriend's mother said I should get a hobby like building ships. Built every kit I could find then decided to scratchbuild. After getting married (not to aforementioned girlfriend) took another hiatus. Finally realized how much I enjoyed scratchbuilding model ships and got back into it.

Randy

[Roderick Smith]

There is a common thread: start with plastic kits, then grow beyond into complete diy.
We owe an immense debt to Nicholas Kove: a man of his era, or a man who created an era.
See www.airfix.com/about-airfix.

I have had no luck tracing the chemistry of polystyrene glue.  I't can't be straight acetone, used to melt and fuse.
www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem98.htm
is unclassfied, and requires a brute-force search through the index.

http://faculty.sdmiramar.edu/fgarces/ChemProj/Ch100_Sp2001/J_Pacioles/polystyrene.pdf explains polystyrene, but not the glue.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Stuart Badger]

Hi Roderick

The active ingredient in polystyrene cement is usually Methylene Chloride or Methyl Ethyl Chloride. That's what gives it that charicteristic heavy vapour smell. In the old days Chloroform  was often used as a cement and the early plastics were sometimes bonded with acetone.

All the best

Stuarty

[Roderick Smith]

Thanks Stuart, that gave me the simple entry.
AFAIK the use of the name 'ethylene choride' is wrong: the ene requires a double bond, which it doesn't have.
It simply one of a chain in the series CH4, CH3Cl, CH2Cl2, CHCl3 (chloroform) and CCl4 (carbon tetrachloride)
The related fluorine series includes Teflon.

In the model railway hobby, polystyrene glue gave way to methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), which was more versatile and less messy.

I loved organic chemistry in secondary school, and also in first year university.  That was helped by a very wise decision: the dean of the faculty gave the first-year lectures; they were brilliant.  I had considered chemical engineering as a career, but didn't pursue it.

I have been poring through family photo albums, with no success so far, to find the photos of my young-teenage bedroom, showing the shelves on which my plastic models were sitting.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[andy]

I started with a little model of the Kon- Tiki, all parts made by myself of balsa wood. I have this model still in my collection- like Dagobert Duck his first Penny.
Then, came a self made plastic motorboat with a outborder engine (electric) from Graupner, hull and house of the ship made myself of plastic plates, with the help of my father.
Some little balsa ships.
NO AIRFIX MODELS
Then I bought a propelled tug from a friend in school, he needed some new trousers, very slim, and so he ordered 28,50 DM for the model. Made of tin, and with my father I renewed it and then integrated a first radio control.
Now I started to built my ships in tin plates (brass), first was the paddle steamer ZAEHRINGEN according to a ROBBE plan (bad). No good swimming, so it´s only a museum model.
Next step was a paddle tug like John Amos according to a plan from GB. Running fine with electric engine.
Some models for friends like COMMODORE from Graupner, 1 day construction time from buying to finished ship.
ALBATROS from Robbe, wooden made hull and decks, houses. Still in this world in the house of my brother.
Now came the biggest and craziest model, the paddle steamer DIESSEN from the Ammersee- see Avatar. With completed furnishing inside the cabins, real running boiler and engine made of inox, radio control....

Some day when shipping with my paddle tug, one member in our model club said something like "... Andreas and his slow models...." (they all had race boats with fuel engines). So id decided to make a race boat, went to VALERINO and asked for the fastest model hull and the biggest engine. He said, impossible, to combine!!! I ignored this, bought it and got it! Made with 5 chromed exhausts every side, running about 180 km/h on the water. In the next model exhibition, nobody did say anything more about my models and their speed!

During the next years I hat to start my profession, family...

Beginning from 2004 I started to make a model of steamer SCHONDORF, which now is finished and ready for maiden journey on the Ammersee this spring.

Andreas

[R.G.Y.]

I started with rubber powered aircraft, what a mess when the rubber broke!!
But paddle steamers started when I was about ten. I had a yacht my father had made me, I was sailing on holiday in Devon there was an old man with a steam powered paddler. Was I green with envy I said to myself I want one. It only took me 50 years. R.G.Y.