Teaching Days

The club is very unusual when compared to other modelling clubs in encouraging both the teaching of new members and co-operative modelling. The former is done by several of the clubs more experienced modellers and the article below was written by one of the clubs newest members who asked for some tuition on the painting of a military vehicle and the numerous tricks that are often needed to get a flat finish etc.

When I turned up at one of the Essex MAFVA nights out of the blue at the beginning of October, I really did not know what to expect. I built mainly Airfix kits in my younger days, but never progressed beyond building them out of the box, with tubes of stringy glue, and brush painting them with enamel paints before slapping the 'transfers' on. I was young and happy with the results.

 Fast forward 30+ years and a short stay in hospital & convalescence at home. To relieve the boredom, I asked my brother to get me a model kit to put together, a nice little tank. I really enjoyed that build & so restarted my modelling hobby. But after buying a few magazines & attending the Euromilitare show at Folkestone, I realized that I had an awful lot to learn.

 I tried contacting another model group with branches in Southend & Essex, but was not even graced with a reply. So when I read a notice about the Essex Branch of the MAFVA in the Military Modelling magazine I thought I would go & see what they were about.

 When I walked in, I was warmly welcomed. No sign of a cold shoulder, or 'he's not good enough to be with us' attitude. I was quickly presented to Lee Lacey who answered my questions openly & honestly, and also explained what the Essex MAFVA group was all about. He told me of the show they are (not 'trying to') hosting shortly, about their theme projects, and about the pool of expertise that exists among the very talented members who can and are willing to share with each other & the beginners like myself. To be honest, I probably took in 10% of what I was presented with.

 During our conversations, I explained that I had trouble interpreting techniques that I read about in magazines & books, as they were seemingly written to keep the secret within some kind of magic circle. Lee told me that he had been given tuition by another member & was already 'teaching' another new member Chris. Lee also offered that I could join them if I wanted to. So I did.

 One fine Saturday morning found Chris & I in Lee's brick built shed. I brought along a couple of examples of what I had been building, and to Lees credit he didn't laugh out loud, but praised the good & overlooked the not so good. I also saw some of Chris's 1/72nd scale efforts & though to myself 'Wow, he's good'.

 I won't go into the details of the tricks, methods, & techniques that Lee showed us, but I will say that he explained with patience not only the 'how' but also the important 'why' he did things the way he did. He also showed us equipment he used, tools & how to use them, advise on what to look out for & what to avoid with compressors, airbrushes, paints etc.

 If a picture says a thousand words then practical demonstrations are worth no end of magazine 'how to' articles.
 The afternoon flew by far to quickly. When I left Lees, I didn't go away feeling deflated by what I had to learn, but actually inspired to step up a gear & try new things. If only my French teacher could have done that when I was a school.

 It is really something in this day & age to find people who will give openly of their time, materials & experience to amateurs like myself. There are too many who will not do this, but let aspirations flounder for the sake of encouragement.

 My thanks go out to Lee. I hope that in the future, my efforts will produce models good enough that they will grace the display tables of the club. If & when this happens, I will owe a great debt of gratitude to Lee, & probably other members as well.