I often wonder what got my brother and I into building models. Certainly when we were young, there was much more of a culture for doing so. There were hobby stores, dime stores and corner variety stores everywhere and they all had a section for models and supplies. I want to go into my influences. (I can’t speak for my brother here, he’ll have to post his own if he wants.)
I remember from a very early age, I scratchbuilt. I was influenced by the miniatures in movies especially the Gary Anderson ones like Thunderbirds, Supercar, Stingray etc. Being British, those models were not readily available and I didn’t have any money anyhow. so I would collect bits and pieces of bubble pack, wood and certainly cardboard and paper and with the wonder of Elmers glue, start sticking stuff together. (One early lesson of caution, Elmers is not good for submarines and boats). As I got older, I started carving shapes and working with foamboard (and Paper). I remember having rollerskate cases full of bit and pieces, motors, wires, sprue and unused plastic.
Here’s another weird memory thing, that I’m sure had an influence years later when we started CM. Our mom ws crazy for peel and stick decorative vinyl. She would cover everything with that stuff. There was a lot of plastic wood grain in our house. My dad built a faux building front on his basement work room complete with roof shingle eaves and plastic vinyl brick paper and it even had plastic vines on the fake brick wall.
Those of you who remember when we sold peel and stick brick paper will understand the flashback feeling I sometimes get wile reminiscing. As a family we made a lot of the stuff we wanted.
Of course there were train layouts, but what I want to share is the primal drive to build things.
I’d bet a lot of you have similar memories. I’m just continually amazed how many of those early experiences are directly linked to me today.
Ok, lets get on with it. It’s 2012.
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:03AM 
