For over twenty five years now I have been painting and constructing just about every type of model or piece of scenery you could think of.

The list is almost endless, including little plastic soldiers, lead soldiers or more recently white metal figures, Buildings made from wood, card, plastic and even sheet metal. I’ve used many, many different kits and even turned my hand at scratch building my own, and not so very successfully making own figures from moulds.

Who is to blame for all of this?

Well that has to be well and truly laid at the feet of the BBC (Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven) in collusion with Airfix models!

Growing up it’s fair to say some of the biggest influences in my life have been from the list below;

J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (books, Collectable Card Game, and the three Peter Jackson movies along with the animated - Ralph Bakshi version)

Middle Earth Role-Play (MERP)

Doctor Who, mostly Daleks and Cybermen, but a few other monsters too (books, Annuals, TV and movies)

Star Wars (books, cartoons and movies)

Silent Death (Iron Crown Productions)

Bernard Cornwall's SHARPE character. (books and TV)

Hinchcliffe 25mm Napoleonic Lead figures

ALIENS (books and movies) particularly Steve Perry the Author

Model Railways 00 & N Gauge

Great Western Railway Locomotives (Steam & Diesel)

Subbuteo Table 'Soccer' (don't mind playing, quite like painting old teams)

IRONY: I first started painting 1:72 & 1:35 scale plastic AIRFIX figures of which I owned thousands, I always remember as an infant my Mother saying, 'Why do you buy so many of those things you'll never play with them all, and you will certainly never have enough time to paint them if you live for a thousand years'. Immortal words as some 30 years later my wife repeats that same sentence over and over again!