A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: PODCASTS, HISTORICAL HUNTS AND A RESTORED HARRIER…

I guess it just goes to show that we all start somewhere and with tenacity and the desire to constantly improve, we can reach heights we never think possible.

9th October 2025

BEYOND THE BOX ART PODCAST

It’s been quite some time since I’ve been on a podcast, so I hope you will enjoy hearing me discuss a whole host of topics with the boys from the ‘Beyond The Box Art’ podcast. We covered plenty of topics as well, so I think you will get a real sense of how I approach the hobby, my job and the models that I build skipping between the two. This was a lot of fun to record, so I really hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to the guys for inviting me on!

To listen to the pod, click the following link:

https://beyondtheboxart.com/episode/episode-11-spencer-pollard-ipms-smw-telford-news

Along with the exciting release of the BTBA podcast, today has been a mixed day of trying to get the house in some sort of order, and then completing the renovation of my 1/24 Harrier, the former still needing work, the latter now complete.

As mentioned yesterday, the Harrier was an unwelcome distraction, but now that it’s finished and back to being complete, I have to say that the work was indeed worth it. Essentially refinished with a brand-new coat of varnish and some repainted details, the model actually looks better today than it did when I completed it in 2016. The paintwork is certainly smoother and blemish-free, something that I felt was not the case previously. Looking at it even under that coat of unpleasant dust, the model looked to have been rushed to complete it for that year’s SMW, some small details being almost totally ignored. It has therefore been a pleasure to rework it to a level I’m now happy with and I look forward to seeing int on display once more.

With my mind firmly on the Harrier conversion I was taken back to where it all started,. an early edition of Airfix Magazine and a build of an Australian Winjeel from the Matchbox Percival Provost kit.

Though I plan on discussing this in far great detail in a future update, I thought I mention that that was the very first conversion that I attempted and now, thanks to Jonathan Mock who has ordered a copy of that particular edition for me to read once more, I will be able to revisit ground zero for all modelling conversions that have since followed. If someone had suggested back then that from that incredibly basic conversion (that frankly, was never completed) I would, forty-odd years later have enough skill to complete a 1/24 Harrier T.2 I would have thought them mad and yet here we are. I guess it just goes to show that we all start somewhere and with tenacity and the desire to constantly improve, we can reach heights we never think possible.

See you tomorrow.