In which we settle down in Amsterdam – I start to make models. Water Rat Models is born.
For many years I had a hobby, which was making model tanks. I have long had a fascination with tanks, not as killing machines, but more as a sort of mechanised dinosaur. There is something curiously animal like about tanks, the way they can go anywhere they want, the way they move, are immensely powerful and when moving in battle order, all buttoned up, there is no indication that they are actually under the control of a human being.. They have a life of their own.
Anyhow, I had made hundreds of models of these beasts, and a friend of mine, Tim knew of this hobby of mine, so when a Dutch architect he worked for ran into problems with his normal model maker, Tim suggested that I might like to have a go at finishing the model house that the model-maker had started but not finished.
As we needed money, I felt that it would at least be worth giving it a go, and so it happened. I was given the half finished model, and set about finishing it.
The model that started it all……..
OZTHOUGHTS 