A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: FRIENDS, DECORATORS AND THE HUNT FOR PERFECTION…

Normally, I would build everything as far as possible and then paint it all in one go. This one though is being built following the instructions and painted as I go along.

1st of December 2025

Wow, is it really the start of December?! Maybe it’s the amount of work I’ve done this year, the trips we’ve been on, time spent with friends and family, or just the way time speeds up as you get older, but this year really has flown by.

It seems only yesterday that I was looking forward to the clocks going forward for the summer and here we are, mired in the dull, cold and dark months of winter that I dislike so much. It’s not really the cold that I hold in such disdain, it’s the dull daytime light and the shortened days. Liz loves it, but I have to say I’ve never understood that, the feeling of gloom that these autumn and winter months introduces into my psyche, being hard to shift. I hate to wish my life away, but roll on the spring!

Today has definitely been busy. It started off with the arrival of our decorator who, busy as always, finally found time to sort out our bedroom. This is the final part of an almost two year rebuild of the inside of our bungalow, a project that began at the start of last year. Ian is always really busy, so we actually booked him during the summer, this being the first day he could come over. It looks like this will only be a two day job, happily, as Liz really wants to put up the decorations! As soon as the furniture from the bedroom is moved out of the living room and put back in place, she can get on with it!

I also had a visit from my good friend Haris Ali this morning. Other than Telford, this was the first real opportunity to touch base since our trip to Eindhoven. Having announced that I have a Caudron to build, he brought over some much-needed references that will help me with my project.

Part of that will be the rigging so it was good to discuss a potential route to completion. We chatted about the use of turnbuckles for instance, but as the images showed them to be so small, I may leave them off and create something I feel to be a little more in scale. We will see.

Work has continued on my retro build of the Tamiya Messerschmitt Bf109G-6. So far, I’m really enjoying the construction and painting of this model, my wholly different approach to its completion offering challenges that I’m happy to embrace. One of those challenges, is the need for my painting and assembly to be as flawless as possible. Without additional flourishes over the surface of the model, any mistakes will have to be very carefully corrected, there being no way to hide those mistakes with weathering or other surface effects. It’s all feeling rather like the motorcycles that I build on occasion, the stress being caused by that hunt for perfection, rather than a desire to recreate a miniature that’s absolutely in keeping with reality.

I’m also enjoying the way that I’m approaching the model. Normally, I would build everything as far as possible and then paint it all in one go. This one though is being built following the instructions and painted as I go along. I honestly cannot remember the last time I did that, other than perhaps during the construction of a car, or one of those bikes. It’s all rather relaxing to be fair, allowing me to both settle into this project without feeling I need to rush it, as well as reminding myself just how I used to build models before speed and efficiency, replaced a slower, more relaxed pace.

See you tomorrow.