Interest	Scale	Specialty
Aircraft	1/48 & 1/72	WW1 thru WW2 (mostly British, some US)
Ground	1/35	Softskins, Arty, Engineer, Recovery (US & British)
Ships	whatever	WW2 & Fighting Sail (British & US)

I'm a retired US Army officer now living near the beach in Nags Head on the Outer Banks.

My first kit was a wooden stagecoach, gotten I think from Quaker Oats with some number of box tops. I was somewhere in the 5-7 year old range (1950-52), don't remember exactly.

But I was hooked and built anything I could afford -- box scale, 1/72, 1/48, whatever -- plastic -- Revell, Aurora, Hawk, Monogram, Lindberg, Airfix, Frog -- and flying, rubber & powered, free-flight & control-line, with a short excursion into RC -- Guillows, Berkeley, Monogram -- and things and manufacturers I probably will never remember. With this, I collected books, magazines, etc, etc -- anything about aircraft I could get my hands on (& afford). I did some military vehicle kits (I remember Renwal & Adams, not much else), some ships (including a scratchbuilt 4-piper). Paint was brushed on; markings sometimes also.

Over the years, real life has gotten in the way, my interests have changed, etc -- you know the story. Now I build mostly British, and a little US, and focus on WW1 thru WW2 although I'm moving more into 'tween wars aircraft. My subject selection is varied -- things I like or catch my fancy.

I am a member of IPMS, a qualified IPMS National Judge, a member of the IPMS Reviewer Corps, and the IPMS Associate Webmaster for Reviews. I'm also a member of AMPS, but not heavily involved.

Interests other than modeling include: military history (1700++ book library), 1:1 scale DIY (aka honey-do's), music (oldies, bluegrass, cajun, folk), flying (private pilot), beer (drinking), volunteering at the Dare County Airport Museum, and serving on various committees and boards in Nags Head.

MY WORKSHOP

This is my new, or better stated rebuilt in Nov 2005, workshop -- a spare bedroom which is also home to my 1700+ book military history library. Before I built the full-wall shelves, books were double stacked everywhere and my modeling was a hazard to these books and everything was a hazard to movement, etc. I could find nothing when I needed it.

Now my work bench top is cleaner as I moved stalled projects to a shelf that didn't exist before. I still did not end up with enough room to neatly store all the items under the bench. I do have a lot more room to work at the bench and at the spray booth behind it. I have recently upgraded all the lighting with Ott-lamps.

The NE & SE corners of the room.

<-- Thru this window I can see the UPS & mail trucks arrive.

My home-built down-draft spray booth vents out the window behind -->.

The NW & SW corners of the room.

<-- The castle door.

My stash is in the closet and atop a long, wide shelf. -->

The full-wall shelving is made of rails & brackets mounted 16-inches apart on each stud with 8-inch & 10-inch trim-pine shelves. The shelves have a good coat of polyurethane to eliminate direct contact between the books and the wood. Replacing the book shelves with my home-made ones also recovered about 6 inches floor space along two walls which really helped open up the room. My wife inherited the old book shelves, thereby scoring big points for me.

When I designed the shelves, I made an estimate of numbers of books by size, balanced by some partly-thought-out organizational scheme. That drove how many 8-inch & 10-inch shelves to make and the spacing between them. I designed them full-length and not shorter sections as I didn't want to loose space, but I did loose some flexibility to adjust height. I got it about 95% right and that's good enough. There is however precious little room for new books so I may have to go to a one-for-one swap scheme.

The books are fairly well organized by periods of interest to me. I had an inventory spreadsheet before, now I have locations assigned so I can actually find what I need. I was also able to move my modelling related books out of the stash closet, making them easier to get to and more room in the stash.

ARTICLES

AFV Club 1/35 155mm Long Tom
JMGT 1/35 Rolls Royce Armoured Car
Book Review -- Battle Over the Reich, Vol 1 & 2
Airfix 1/72 Lancaster B.I/B.III
Classic Airframes 1/48 Supermarine Walrus
Classic Airframes 1/48 B.P. Defiant TT.I
Classic Airframes 1/48 Avro Anson Mk.I
Tamiya 1/48 Fairey Swordfish Mk.II
Airfix 1/144 Boeing 314 Clipper
Bronco 1/35 Humber Scout Car Mk.I

Photos from Richmond's ODO 2007
Photos from the 2007 Region 12 Contest
Photos from the 2007 IPMS National Contest
Report & Photos from the 2007 Region 2 Contest
Photos from the 2008 Lynchburg Contest

GALLERY PHOTOS

More of John's models are in his Part 2 and Matchbox Madness Galleries.

SUBJECT Lancaster B.I MANUFACTURER Airfix SCALE 1/72	SUBJECT 155mm Gun M-2 Long Tom MANUFACTURER AFV Club SCALE 1/35	SUBJECT Rolls Royce Armoured Car MANUFACTURER JMGT SCALE 1/35
SUBJECT In progress - Ford F60L 2-lb gun portee MANUFACTURER Sovereign, Tamiya, Italeri, and scratchbuilt SCALE 1/35	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --
SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --	SUBJECT Swordfish Mk.II Cockpit MANUFACTURER Tamiya SCALE 1/48
SUBJECT Felixstowe F2A MANUFACTURER Roden (& Lego's) SCALE 1/72	SUBJECT Felixstowe MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --	SUBJECT Swordfish Mk.II Engine MANUFACTURER Tamiya SCALE 1/48
SUBJECT H.P Hampden MANUFACTURER Airfix SCALE 1/72	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --
SUBJECT Hurricane I (early) MANUFACTURER Airfix #2082 SCALE 1/72	SUBJECT Hurricane I (late) MANUFACTURER Airfix #2082 SCALE 1/72	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --
SUBJECT Boeing 314 Clipper MANUFACTURER Airfix SCALE 1/144	SUBJECT -- MANUFACTURER -- SCALE --