Scale Models for fun

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Welcome to Small Wonder

Welcome to the home of Small Wonders. This website is a showcase of the work of just one-and-a-half model-makers - myself and my daughter. It covers all the models we made, past, present and future. Every Project is listed here with every aftermarket accessory, every decal and every book used as reference.

This web site started as a database for me to list what I had in my collection - something that I could easily access online anywhere in the world. Something I could share with other people. It sure helps to stop me from buying the same piece of aftermarket twice.

Facebook & Twitter are also handy little notes for me to keep track of where I am with each project as I usually have three or four knocking around the workbench at the same time. My work takes me far away from home for long periods of time so there can be quite large gaps in my builds and it is easy to lose place, forget what I am doing, lose heart & lose momentum. So I maintain the discipline of a post a day. The upside of my work life is that when I am home I can be at home for several months at a time so the projects sometimes surge ahead!

I build two kinds of models: the "canon" are the core masterpieces that you can see on this web site. Canon items are normally superdetailed, heavily researched, accurate and take three years to build! In addition there are other "quick-build" projects that I do with (& for) my daughter (who is currently nine years of age in 2016). I have no intention of brain-washing my little girl into being a model maker but having a go at Dad's hobbies are part of her naturally curious nature. It is healthy for any kid to have a go at this sort of hobby - plus it is good Daddy/Daughter quality time!

I remember learning to make models from my Dad at her age. Mostly I had to watch as he built and painted. After a while he handed the tools over to me and I had a go at what I had learnt. With my daughter the hobby is broader than just model aeroplanes as it includes building imaginary things out of Lego, making toys out of wood, snap-together models, different topics like Dinosaurs, Rockets, Space-ships, etc.

Mark & model making - a short introduction

I have been model making since childhood. Now in my late-forties I struggle to juggle hobbies with responsibilities to my wife lovely Liya, my children, my business and home. Hobbies now take a back seat but still I dabble when time allows. My Facebook page can be found here. I am a company Director of my own IT services business Krofire Enterprises Ltd (www.krofire.com) and I writes as Post-Carbon Man at my other web site www.post-carbon-living.com.

Nostalgia corner

I was born and raised on a Suffolk farm and am from a quiet rural background. In the 1970s a model aircraft would be 1/72nd scale and came in a plastic bag. Kits were made by Airfix and did not come packaged with paints, brushes or glue. Earliest memories were of watching Dad assemble a Gloster Galdiator and a Messerschmitt Me-262. The latter was painted by Dad who added the mottle camouflage with a piece of sponge. These were the days before the airbrush.

By the time I was spending my own money on kits they were often boxed Matchbox kits purchased from the local village newsagents. The village was too small for a toy or hobby store - the newsagent performed well as a general store. Old Matchbox kits then, as now, had multi-coloured sprues. Maybe we'll never know why but it gave them a bit of variety before the young modeller had learnt to paint. By the end of the 1970s I was painting my own kits but it would be a few years yet before they would be standing on their own undercarriage legs. Models back then were shown in flying mode: held up by string from a bedroom ceiling.

Skills accelerated through the teenage years with inspiration coming from Airfix magazine which could be borrowed from a local library. The 1980's saw an explosion in both the price of kits and the aftermarket add ons. PP Aeroparts photoetch metal ladders were the first aftermarket items I used. Now they are too numerous to mention. By the time I was packed off to University I was using a Humbrol Airbrush and my kits were being superdetailed with plasticard.... But model making for me was about to endure a ten year hiatus....

I returned to the hobby in 1998 with a backlog of unmade kits in 1/72 scale. By the early noughties these had been traded in for 1/48th scale... and here we are....

A Modelmaker's Diary

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