A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: A NEW LEGACY COLLECTION BECKONS…

With our holiday coming to an end, thoughts are turning to new projects, both for work and my personal collection.

Much of my work life is pretty much mapped out for the next few months, so I can, time allowing, consider what I would like to build rather than having decisions made for me. If the last few days of daydreaming are anything like a guide, that will mean a new Legacy Collection, which, if you have been following along over the last month or so, I mentioned in a previous post, not that long ago.

Part of the driver for this is the collection of older Tamiya armour kits that I built up during the pandemic and my desire to reinvigorate the display that we put on at Scale Model World (in collaboration with The Hobby Company). Three years of seeing pretty much the same thing on their stand has made me keen to reveal newer dioramas, and though I’m not that keen to create anything grandiose, I do think it worthwhile to build a new cluster of set-pieces that can show off what is possible from these older kits, even if simple and compact in nature.

Of course, the dioramas don’t have to be around Tamiya kits. We have plenty of Italeri and Monogram offerings as well and although the latter don’t fit in with The Hobby Company’s lineup of wares, I plan to not ignore them for too long. Indeed, if the original collection was based around François Verlinden’s work, I can see some of those Monogram kits and scenes built around them, being inspired by Shep Paine’s groundbreaking dioramas.

There are no concrete plans with regards to subject matter, though I am thinking of some Panzer IV variants including perhaps the Lang and STüG IV, with more modern types working their way into my thoughts, the Bradley being top of the list.

One thing that I will be doing though is building them quickly. Those that I built during COVID were each done over a week or so, so I see no reason to make the newer scenes more complex and time-consuming. Beginners’ kits, beginners’ ideas and budget prices will all be on the path I’ll take once more: I just have to settle on some individual subjects and I can start work. I wonder what the first will look like?

See you tomorrow.