Saturday, June 12, 2010

Back to the 70's (part 2)

Pola bungalowI'm sure this building was in the Hornby Railways 1978 catalogue. I remember it well be cause it inspire to me to do some real model making.

In case you don't recognise it, this is a modern bungalow manufactured by Pola and re-sold by Hornby. There were several models in the range including a very un-British coaling stage with bucket crane. Despite being HO I doubt anyone cared much as we didn't have much choice in those days. Apart from a few Airfix models, plastic kit buildings were something Johnny foreigner enjoyed. We Brits had Superquick or scratchbuilding. Every so often someone would write a magazine article showing how you could bash a continental kit into a reasonable looking UK station.

None of this mattered to me. My pocket money didn't stretch to anything as exotic as a plastic kit like this. What I did have was a sharp knife and cornflake packets. As I recall my version was the same colour and, to my eyes, every bit as good as the one in the catalogue. That's not to say I wouldn't have loved to take the trip to the local toyshop and buy the plastic version but in the end the experience was character building and helped get me where I am today.

Please note: This is my 1500th post to this blog. That means I've either assembled a terrific body of work, or been wasting far too much of my time ! Now as a thank you, how about you all club together and buy me a Tamya Sand Scorcher. Go on. Pleeeaase !

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