Back to my roots

Despite recent dalliances with such as slot racing and large scale model railways, I find my interests consolidating back with where I started..scenery and model boats.

I suppose it all began with the twin draws of a train set when I was about 5 or 6 and an Uncle with a boat on the Essex coast when I was 7.

I soon learned that hand made model scenery for my train set was much better than Airfix kits, which had parts that didn't fit and that a model boat on Paglesham's oyster beds was a wonderful way to spend a weekend by the estuary. We also used to take the Uncle's boat out regularly and go fishing with with the Keeble brothers on their beautiful yacht-like trawler, Vanguard, (header picture)

The call of the mud and the fresh air with the sounds of an estuary life have been a massive pull on me ever since.

In this cold Winter weather, of which we have plenty to come, I'm sure, I can make small model boats on the dining table and avoid the cold of the workshop.

My plan is to make a series of 1/4"-1ft scale models of British inshore craft, like fishing boats and workboats, putting some of them into a scenic set-piece, which satisfies my other interest of scenic modelmaking.