Like many modelers, I started making models as a child, then abandoned the hobby when I started to find out about computers, drinking and girls. In 1994 my then girlfriend (now wife) gave me a Matchbox Tempest that she had been given and had no conceivable use for. I made it (quite badly as I recall!), remembered those childhood days, and actually enjoyed the experience - I had got the modeling bug back. I started making 1/72 and 1/76 scale AFVs, mostly Matchbox, Fujimi and Hasegawa. After a year or so I bought a Matchbox 1/72nd scale Messerschmitt Bf110, and that switched me to aircraft. A couple of years later I went to the IMPS (UK) national championship, then held at Castle Donnington, and was astounded and inspired by the level of detail in the models. I was determined to create models as good as I had seen there.

I joined the IPMS at the next National meeting (the last at C.D.), and after a few months decided to join some SIGs (Special Interest Groups). Another six months and I joined a local club, the North Staffs Model Club, which was definitely one of the best moves I've made since starting modeling again. About a month later I became a reviewer for Scale Aviation Modeller International, which I think is the best English-language model aircraft magazine currently available (in the UK at least!). In 1998 the Nationals moved to Telford, in my humble opinion a great improvement over C.D. in all ways except the parking arrangements! In the last six months I've been to five shows with the club, displaying a selection of my aircraft on the stand. Over a year later and another National championship has just passed - I've still not reached the level of skill that I see in many of the models I see there, nor a level that I am personally happy with, but I do know that I'm getting better all the time, and am always open to new suggestions!