I visited Salcombe last week and had the pleasure of looking over the Tamar lifeboat "Baltic Exchange III"
Many thanks to Andy for his hospitality. I was like a kid in a candy shop and got the pictures I needed and more. What an amazing boat. He also introduced me to a master model maker Malcolm Darch and I spent a couple of hours with him in his Salcombe studio. He made the models in the lifeboat station and makes commissions worldwide. He was in a different class to any model maker I've ever met. To experts like Neil (who I have the greatest respect for) - call in and see him - he'll welcome you and entertain you with his many skills. What a fantastic day.
Cabman........I talked to him many years ago when he had his upstairs studio down near the port at Salcome..when I look at his work I am a mere pimple on the bum of the elephant experience wise........
His work makes mine look like an 8 year old has knocked something up from fish boxes.
At the time.......august (I think) 1983 he was putting the finishing touches to a model called Mushulu which had been commissioned for a chap over in San Francisco Bay where the real ship lies.........I cheekily asked him what he was charging them to which he replied
(1983) "oh! this one's fifteen thousand pounds....but it's taken me fifteen months to get to this.A thousand pounds a month........at the time I was on around £650 a month as a teacher.............where did I go wrong.
he must be getting on though now............what was he building when you met him.......a great and unassuming guy who was ready to pass on the tricks of the trade.
remember him showing me that he was using HO OO railway tracking (single rail) cut into short lengths and crimped closer and embedded into the masts to allow the spars to slide up and down the masts when a pin head or rivet is put into the spar and slides down the slot in the rail....
a great idea that he was willing to pass on..............sadly I have never yet been able to incorporate it into my models of any kind........but the knowledge is still there for when I can, lol
as you say well worth seeking out.....but his work will blow your mind and make any modeller feel totally inadequate,
