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[Tug-Kenny RIP]

Hi everyone.

Well, I've gorn 'n done it now.

I went to Westbourne Models as promised, and am pleased to report the excellent service I received from Barry  at the shop.

I was going for the model called the 'Yorkshireman' but was finally swayed by the larger 'Aziz'. Barry kindly led this newbie through the maze of bits needed, right down to the miniature nuts and bolts for the fittings, so that I could start making it when I got home.

We talked about the internet and he showed me the stock which had arrived and been sorted on Sunday, still laid out ready to be put away.
I must speak on his behalf to say how busy they were. I can quite see how the input from the net could swamp them. I would have liked to work for them, but the travelling time from Wales would have been too much  javascript:void(0);
Cheesy

I opened it all up and had a look at all the bits'n'pieces when I got home. My goodness, the kit looked very professional. I shall have some fun putting all this together. I expect I'll be back with masses of questions.

Thank you for listening

Cheers.....ken

[wombat]

Hi Ken,

I am in the process of building an Aziz myself - I am 4.5 months into the process. It will be interesting to compare experiences. I am running a blog on the process with a build manual - feel free to comment with your experiences. If it helps you avoid making the same mistakes I have. You can probably show me where I have gone wrong.

Tim the Wombat

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

That sounds great. You have a head start on me. This weekend see's the Stanley knife coming out. All very tense stuff. I don't doubt that I shall be in touch. I have re-read the instructions many times just to be sure, cause my dad said years ago, to measure three times and cut once.

To change the subject, can I ask a question to everyone please.  How do you get the 'smileys' onto the letter. I did 'drag and drop'  and only the code appeared.

Cheer....ken

[Colin Bishop]

To change the subject, can I ask a question to everyone please.  How do you get the 'smileys' onto the letter. I did 'drag and drop'  and only the code appeared.

Only the code appears in your draft reply but it will show as a smiley on the actual post.   :)

[wombat]

Hi Ken,

You will have fun I am sure

To get the smilies into the post click on smiley you want and it puts the code in which will be a bit of text. It only appears as the actual smiley when you preview or post the message

Tim

[Tug-Kenny RIP]

 

                   

Thanks guys, another hobby      :-[



cheers...ken

[MTB]

Hear what you are saying about how busy they are Kenny but thats no excuse for not answering emails after 4 days about supply of bits to finish projects. Good job I'm not in a rush. Might have to ask Mayhem regulars where is the best place to get a winch for the Wotan restoration I'm doing.
Roy

[cbr900]

Try the Servo hut in the states, he sells winches 30 dollars american posted, and they work well Have bought 12 all up so far....



Roy

[Malc Reade]

MTB

but thats no excuse for not answering emails after 4 days about supply of bits to finish projects

Enough of this please.  I'm sure (hope) that Martin at Westbourne Models wouldn't mind me letting you know that he has just returned from holiday, his first for some years.  I suspect that it is he who usually answers the E-mails?  Barry looks after a million and one other things at the shop, and probably hasn't had time with the increased workload during Martin's absence.

Westbourne Models are one of the best and longest established model retail outlets in the UK (my dad used to buy materials there when he was a model maker stationed at Bovington during WW2), and I'm sure that they will play catch-up as soon as they can?

Regards, Malcolm


 

[MTB]

Er........ still doesn't answer my original gripe malc no matter how nice a bloke he is..........either he's in business or he's not, keeping people waiting too long too often usually means too much business goes elsewhere.........result, end of Barry's business. What really gets my goat is these companies set up email addresses for rapid communication and then don'y communicate rapidly so what was the point to start with he might just as well have stuck to the old system.......snail mail or am I still missing something?

[Malc Reade]

mtb

The point I was trying to make is that Martin probably didn't have access to a computer where he was on holiday?  Barry (Martin's dad) probably doesn't, maybe even can't, do e-mail?

Please give the guys a break.

Malc

[MTB]

Try the Servo hut in the states, he sells winches 30 dollars american posted, and they work well Have bought 12 all up so far....

Think you might have misunderstood the type of winch I need Roy. I need a trawler deck net winch as seen in pictures in "Wanted" by MTB.

Roy (London)

[kayem]

Westbourne Models are one of the best and longest established model retail outlets in the UK (my dad used to buy materials there when he was a model maker stationed at Bovington during WW2), and I'm sure that they will play catch-up as soon as they can?

Regards, Malcolm

[/quote]

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Where do I start?

Westbourne Model Centre first opened sometime in the late 1970s or early 80s, rather a long time after the end of WW2 by most peoples' standards. The shop was at 59 Seamoor Road, and the original owner was Stuart Spetch, who prior to that was a dairy farm manager in deepest Somerset. The business was bought some time in the late 80s by Barry Shanks, mainly as gainful employment for his two wastrel sons Martin & Duncan. I lost contact with Stuart some time after that, and as far as I know, he eventually went back to milking Friesians. After outgrowing the original premises, WMC moved to their present address at 41 Seamoor Road in 1992. To put right something else Malcolm said, up to now almost all the e-mails have been handled by Barry, whose work load is not one that I envy, he's much older than me, and most weeks he's at his desk for something like 6½ days. I know he regards me as a gentleman of leisure, and in comparison to what Barry and to a slightly lesser extent Martin and Duncan do, I probably am. They carry vast stocks of modelling items, and as I'm constantly advising my own customers, if you can't get something from Westbourne, it's unlikely that you'll find it anywhere else. Sure, they are open to criticism, I'd say that in the main MTB's last post is fair comment, and they'll probably be the first to admit that standards have slipped considerably in recent months, but how many better model shops are there in the UK? Criticise them if you like, but you wouldn't half miss them if they weren't there. I have no connection with the business, other than an occasional supplier and Barry's sometime drinking companion, and they aren't even bribing me to do this Max Clifford type PR job for them.

[Malc Reade]

Hi kayem

Just spoken to my dad.  The shop that he used to source his materials for making recognition models for the army was owned by a retired Lieut. Colonel.  Dad is now desperately trying to remember his name?  The business was called Westbourne Models, and was in Westbourne Road next to the ice rink.  Dad seems to think that the ice rink may no longer be there?  Dad's are like that!

The Westbourne Models that we know today is obviously either a later iteration of this original business, or something else entirely?

Barry and Martin are good customers of ours, place regular orders and pay their bills promptly - I have no gripe with them.

Regards, Malcolm

[kayem]

Definitely no connection of any kind between the two shops Malcolm, and your Dad has almost certainly got the name of his old supplier wrong. If it was next to an ice rink, it would have been in Westover Road, which is several miles from Westbourne and right in the centre of Bournemouth, so the name would have been Westover Models or something like that. Long before my time of course, and probably yours as well.

PS I suppose the name Colonel Bowden doesn't ring any bells with your Dad does it?

[Malc Reade]

Hi Kayem

I'll give him a call this evening and ask. He is in his 80's now, and it was a long time ago....

The Col. Bowden that you refer to rings bells with me.  I'm pretty sure that this was the name that dad mentioned to me when he told me the story originally.  He didn't have two heads did he?

Regards, Malcolm

[kayem]

This probably won't be of much interest to anyone but Malcolm Reade, but I've just had a long chat with Phil Smith who was the designer of almost all the Veron model kits, and he told me a few things about Colonel Bowden. The late Colonel's shop, as frequented by Malc's father was called BM Models, and it was in Westover Road next to the Westover Cinema in Bournemouth for some years following WW2. Tell that to your father Malc, it will probably bring the memories flooding back.

On Phil Smith, he's probably my oldest friend in every sense of the word. He had his 90th birthday last month, and almost 100 people turned up for the celebration, from all over the Country. Phil Smith is, together with Vic Smeed, one of the all-time modelling greats. I see Phil as often as I can, and he's still one of the best modellers I know. Some of his designs, mostly planes, but some boats as well, are classics. Anyone remember his Veronica yacht, the Police Launch, Titan tug, Fairey Huntsman 28 and others?

[Colin Bishop]

The Titan tug was the first or second model I built. I was about 10 at the time and didn't make a very good job of it but we all have to start somewhere! Glad to hear Phil is still going strong. He must have given a lot of pleasure to a great many people.

[Wetwater]

       One of the first model boats I built was the Veron RTTL. I seem to remember buying it just after parting from my first
       serious girl friend over 45 years ago as a "Think of something else" present to myself.  Yes, I am a GOG.  ::)

       I also remember, and built, a lot of Phil's designs. Most of my modelling was aircraft in those days. Cardinal, Deacon, FW190 etc.

       I could say that I was almost brought up on Phil Smith and Vic Smeed designs.

       Gosh, I must be older than I thought.   :'(

       Alan.

[Malc Reade]

This probably won't be of much interest to anyone but Malcolm Reade, but I've just had a long chat with Phil Smith who was the designer of almost all the Veron model kits, and he told me a few things about Colonel Bowden. The late Colonel's shop, as frequented by Malc's father was called BM Models, and it was in Westover Road next to the Westover Cinema in Bournemouth for some years following WW2. Tell that to your father Malc, it will probably bring the memories flooding back.

On Phil Smith, he's probably my oldest friend in every sense of the word. He had his 90th birthday last month, and almost 100 people turned up for the celebration, from all over the Country. Phil Smith is, together with Vic Smeed, one of the all-time modelling greats. I see Phil as often as I can, and he's still one of the best modellers I know. Some of his designs, mostly planes, but some boats as well, are classics. Anyone remember his Veronica yacht, the Police Launch, Titan tug, Fairey Huntsman 28 and others?

Hi kayem

Great to hear that Phil Smith is doing well.  He called me some time ago to discuss the moulds that we still have for a lot of his Veron kits, the Police Launch etc.  We also still have the mould for the original Veron 'Tom-Tit' bi-plane radial engine cylinder.  These are still popular and in some demand, often as replacements on refurbished models, and also by some of the high speed boat modellers who use them as dummy engine cylinders.  They make up into an awesome looking V6/8/12 configuration.  We also have some other moulds, nose bushes, undercarriage brackets, rubber motor anchor hooks etc. none of which get much use these days.

Apparently Phil still kindly refers his customers to us to source these fittings.  I think that I've mentioned elsewhere that Phil has the rights to a lot of the plans for the Veron kits and still sells them.  Unfortunately, I either didn't have, or have misplaced his telephone number.  Is there any chance that you could PM it to me please Kayem?

I did mention Col. Bowden to dad - it brought back a flood of memories.  Thank you very much.

Regards, Malc

[tobyker]

"Let us now praise famous men and our fathers who begat us." Nice to see lots of parent-respect here. My dad couldn't wire a plug, but he had private soldiers to do that sort of thing for him. I've still got my Veron Titan tug - it's in the process of being turned from a sort of puffer (the boiler would have burnt the superstructure) into a paddle tug. I built it so long ago that I could buy asbetos sheets to insulate the balsa from the boiler room heat! Wasn't Col Bowden something to do with the Taplin Twin and  early radio control? Though I seem to remember that the TT was made in Kent - Birchington engineering? I still have a water screw and fabric U/J for a TT somewhere. Its a long memory lane that has no turning.

[kayem]

Martin, any chance of separating all this Veron reminiscence stuff into a thread of it's own?

[Malc Reade]

Martin

No need to move the thread on my account...

I've only being responding to posts by others, I won't bother in future.

Malc

[kayem]

I fear I may have been misunderstood here, I was only suggesting that Veron was more than worthy of a thread of it's own, it seems a bit of a waste to have an interesting and very worthwhile discussion hidden deep inside another one, something that began on a completely different and quite unrelated subject. How about a new sub-section called something like 'The Nostalgia Forum' ?

[Martin (Admin)]

I've just changed the thread Subject line to make for easier searches....