When I was a wee boy,a story about my room.

[wonwinglo]

As long as I can remember,in fact when my knees barely reached above the long grass we used to use for testing both mine and dads models,there was some sort of room used to build models in,the first such room was a very old brickbuilt Victorian washouse which just happened to be in the garden where my childhood days were spent,why is it that the sun always seemed to shine in those days ? can you imagine a large grassy flying field right at the bottom of the garden,within a few yards of that delightful old washroom where the models were built and stored,the distinct smell of dope,cement,rubber lubricant and the rack of yellowing balsa wood in the corner,dads old treasured tools lying on the bench in the corner,it all added up to an evocative atmosphere that is now transported in my memory with time.As you can see my life has always been surrounded with scale models,they are almost part of me and despite whatever the circumstances there has never been a time when I did not have a model room or den of some sort,when we finally left that rather damp but nostalgic old house for a new housing estate in the fifties it felt as if a big hole had left my life,this was because now we had lost that wonderful field at the bottom of the garden,there was no brick built workhouse to shave balsawood,so I had to find a new place to build,one day when looking through an old copy of 'Exchange & Mart' magazine ( is it still going ?) there was an advert for shiplap sheds built in Wales,the grand heady price of £15.5/- included delivery up to the Midlands and setting up provided that you purchased a base from them as well ! in those days very few people made sheds and they were not available in every builders yard in the land as today,the question was could I afford to buy one ? after raiding my money box it seemed doubtful ? however within a few years when I started my first job and started to receive my first pay-packets it then became a reality,I bought one of those cute little ship-laps and it stood proudly in the garden right next to the back door,electrics were duly added and the inside was padded with first silver foil and then polystyrene ceiling tiles,boy was it warm in the winter ! the insulation worked really well,over the next fifteen years as the ship-laps became more and more twisted the shed had been the building room for scores and scores of aeroplane models ! in fact when I became involved in designing and making kits commercially it was also the main development building !! as the years progressed a move to a two room flat ( the upper floor was to become a very large Hornby O-Gauge layout ) would mean that I left behind my dear shed and started to look for somewhere else to do my building,this time I had the resource of a spare room,more like a broom cupboard actually where I set up my little workshop once again,it is amazing how modellers adapt to their circumstances and make the most of what they have,this would last until I got married and moved again into an house with a somewhat dilapidated tumbling down garage,once again at the bottom of the garden,this was duly rebuilt and served as not only a place to build models but this time to restore old Lambretta scooters,after outgrowing this I ordered yet another shed which arrived minus its roof,this took six weeks to arrive and it was once again time to set up another workshop,then came along the model shop business where I had the full run of the shop to build models even on the counter,something the punters loved as they chatted,watched and purchased items to build their own masterpieces,the building became an emporium,more like a museum in fact with aircraft strung from the ceiling,even when closed people peered through the windows fascinated by the models on display,take my word for it if you have a model shop,then the models do sell kits and materials,unlike todays shops were you never see anything on display,that is the ones that are still in existance ?

When we closed the shop after some 14 years of hard work and once again uprooted to pastures new,the search was on again for a workshop,by this time there was a need for storage,to keep the many larger models as the new house was quite small by comparison with anything else that we had lived in,and that is how the hangars started to breed ! first a workshop,then a small extension,then another shed..and so it went on,so you can see that like many people I just love my shed workshop,a retreat where small replicas can be whittled out and the joy of model building pursued,what more does anyone want ? Hope that you liked the story?

PS-The young girl in the picture above could just as well have been my sister,she would be commandeered to assist in holding the model aircraft as the rubber was wound up,and expected to know different types of aeroplanes after being given aircraft recognition tests !