About "Plastic and plasters"

You want to know more, so here it is...

Confession time, I am a model maker and have the scars to prove it. Yes plastic, and a lot of plasters have graced these aged hands of 40+ years but I still have a lot to learn and still look in awe at fellow model makers work.

Been building plastic scale models while it was still fashionable way back in 70's with Airfix kits from my local shop just a few miles from where I lived (Closed down ages ago).

I have drifted in & out of various scales starting with small 1/25 & 1/72 scales, but now tend to be larger scale projects to test my skills and also my wife's patience.

One class of model I love doing are the Gundam and Anime kits which are hard to find in the UK and expensive to ship from Japan and other countries ouitside the UK. They are designed to be unpainted and snap-fix so can be built within hours, but I like to  sand, fill, sand, fill and then paint either back to the original colour or just go freestyle with an airbrush with whatever theme takes my fancy. I used to make a lot of aircraft, but now my other kit stash consists mainly of Sci-Fi, ships, the larger 1/12 scale cars and a couple of 1/16 armour.  

Sadly my hobby is not a small one and have taken over our so called spare bedroom with unbuilt kit boxes stacked erratically like a chaos version of Jenga. Apologies to my wife here for nicking her ironing board, dining table, pegs, cloths & anything else I need when making them. 

 I try using my electronic skills by seeing where I can enhance a model by fitting lights etc., I have also started to get more into airbrushing so can do better finishes, mess with metallic shades and add weathering to the models. Luckily with work we sell airbrushes, spray booths  & tools, so all I have to buy are the paints. Would like to have a go at doing some detailed stencil work, but will be trying on sample pieces before venturing onto actual kits.  

I can be found lurking behind a stall at some shows like our local one in Crewe that's held in late February and the large Scale Model World show held at Telford in November. Thde wife's very happy as instead of being able to go round spending cash, I now have to stay put running the stall. Still try to grab a quick escape when I can to see what's on offer, but usually my wallet stays shut!! 

I already have model making information on our joint personal website at www.msrigby.co.uk , together with my other interests, and I do the blog pages for our companies website, so I thought it would be time to tie the whole lot in with all the other social media platforms out there and collate the text and pictures into hopefully one neat area.

The build guides that will appear on this website will be shortened versions of the blogs I have done in past and will be doing, so feel free to bookmark the links to these for full details if you wish.

 

Well thanks for reading and time to start modelling...