A MODELMAKER’S LIFE: PACKING MODELS FOR THE BOLTON SHOW…AND VERY LITTLE ELSE!

23rd January 2026

I’d like to say that I’ve had a very busy day filled with all manner of exciting and pressing tasks. I haven’t. I’ve not been off either, just had one of those days that kinda passed me by a little. But then, most tend to these days.

I started the day off with taking Liz’s car to check if it had developed an oil leak. I’d noticed a small patch of oil on the drive that only seemed to be apparent after it had rained. Liz hadn’t mentioned any warning lights so I wasn’t overly concerned, but even so, I gave my mate Andy a bell and asked if he would take a look…Which he did. When he then replied that the engine was as dry as a bone, I couldn’t help but feel a mixture of relief and confusion; relief that we didn’t need to have any work done, confusion, because I now have no idea where that oil came from!

Next job was to complete the Tomcat article and fire it over to Marcus. Having written the majority of it yesterday this involved little more than scribbling out my final thoughts and then checking the text for any typos. It always amazes me just how many mistakes I make when I write a feature. Given that I’ve been doing this full-time for 30 years, you would think I’d have a handle on it by now, but no. Cock-ups are still a predominant feature of my work, to a point where even I have no idea what the hell I’m going on about. How on earth you poor people are able to keep up is beyond me, so I can only thank you for showing dedication that is frankly, above and beyond what I can reasonably expect.

And so on to my preparations for the IPMS Bolton show on Sunday.

This is not only the curtain-raiser to the show season, it’s one of the few events that I display – along with my friend Haris Ali – a collection of models, almost all of which I’ve built over the last year or so. This year though will be a little different, my display being a little more themed than in previous years, offering visitors the chance to see some older work as well as the newer nonsense I’ve had the pleasure of building.

Given the number of models that I’m taking and the distance to the show, I wanted to make sure that everything is as well-packed as possible. A chunk of it I took to both Scale Model Challenge and Scale Model World so those boxes are still extant and could be reused. Other models needed to be packed afresh, which involved a rather chilly trip into the loft and the swapping of completed work from one box to another until I had what I needed. Given that our display stand is rather bijou in nature we aren’t taking masses of models, just enough we hope to please anyone keen to stop by, take them in and perhaps have a most welcome chat!

So that’s been my day, a mixed bag that actually wrapped up my week, nicely. Saturday will be a day of doing what I’ve becoming very good at recently i.e. nothing, and then it’s on to the shenanigans that will be the Bolton Show. If you are going, pop over and say hello, but if you see me eating a bacon barm, perhaps given me a few minutes as I do enjoy that particular part of the event and may not wish to be disturbed!

See you tomorrow.