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Three things accompany and fascinate me throughout my life: history, the fine arts and the fascination of aeroplanes and ships. In the many aspects of model making, these fascinations come together quite happily.

In this respect, I take the freedom to build anything and in any scale that occupies me. In practice, these are mainly aircraft in 1:48 and 1:32 scale, but lately the 1:72 and even the 1:144 scale have developed a great fascination for me.

As a child of the 1970s, I am aware of the scale in which the offers, possibilities and demands in plastic modelling have developed: we are living in truly great times... aren't we?

How Khrushchev shot down an aeroplane with a single flippant remark, or: the remarkable story of the Tupolev Tu-91 ‘boot’

For an aircraft of which just one single prototype was built and which was never to go into series production, the Tu-91 has a considerable number of nicknames: ‘Byk’ (bull) was the official name, but the name ‘Botshka’ also became [...]

An unusual New Year's video: my 31 modelling projects of the year 2024 in book form!

I would like to send you a New Year's greeting of a rather unusual kind: If you take around four minutes of your time, I'll introduce you to my ‘Modelling Yearbook 2024’ in a short video clip! The ‘Yearbook 2024’ is a collection of [...]

"Hot as a '44' and twice as fast." Or: no country for old men. The Wedell-Williams Model 44/ NR536V “Miss Louisiana”

What associations come to mind when you hear the keyword ‘USA around 1930’? Do images of the Great Depression, Prohibition and gangsters like Al Capone or Bonnie and Clyde come to mind? Or are they happier images full of an affinity [...]

When boats fall from the sky: the B-17H/ SB-17G and the A1 Higgins rescue boat

When the crew of a B-17 “Flying Fortress” prepared for the final approach and the bombardier climbed forward to the glazed nose cockpit to bend over the bomb sight in concentration, the people on the ground below had to fear death and [...]

.... and now for something completely different: Richard Trevithick's “Pen-y-Darren Locomobile”, the world's first steam locomotive!

A short preface to Richard Trevithick's locomotive from 1804. Cornwall in the 18th century is described in the sources as a highly inhospitable region and, because of its barren landscape and harsh population, it is known from London as [...]

Mars attacks! Or, a little more peacefully, a flying boat in XXL: Martin Mars flying tanker

How can you start a report on the Martin Mars? The first obvious thought is to start with its size,,the opening by its size, because after all, the original of this modelling project is the largest flying boat ever built in series! A [...]

Ever heard of "Laird Aircraft Company"? Or of ‘Sky Buzzard’? But of ‘Jimmy Doolittle’! All three have written an amazing story: Laird Super Solution!

Jimmy Doolittle, Aemilia Earhart, Jaqueline Cochran, Paul Mantz... - there is a place and a time where all these greats of the ‘golden era’ of US aviation can be found: the races of the Bendix Trophy of the 1930s not only brought [...]

"High high high... like a rocket to the sky!" T-38A ‘The White Rocket’ in service with NASA

Elegant, beautifully curved shapes with a high recognition value, a brute performance that seems to stand in fascinating contrast to its graceful appearance and a long service history in which it has made itself indispensable in many areas [...]

The ‘rocket with a pilot’, well, ‘with two pilots’, in this case! TF-104G Starfighter, Aeronautica Militare

This model was created as a farewell gift for a long-time acquaintance: he is the owner of the penultimate pure modelling shop in my home town. He will be retiring in the foreseeable future and his modelling shop will be closing its doors [...]

Fairchild F.91 “Baby Clipper”: Adventure... wherever you look!

Although only seven examples of this extremely attractive and highly capable flying boat were built from the mid-1930s onwards, each of these flying boats, designed as “flying boat airliners”, was to have a short but all the more [...]