About Hugo

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Hi there!  My name is Hugo - although a lot of my friends call me "Huge".

I made my first model kit in about 1970 when I was seven years old.  I still recall what it was - an Airfix Trident airliner in what I now guess would have been 1/144 scale.  I still remember getting glue all over my fingers and losing the windscreen glass into the closed-up fuselage and hearing the thing rattling around inside.  Infuriating!

However I must have enjoyed it as my father bought me another kit - the ubiquitous 1/72 Spitfire that came in a plastic bag. At around the same stage I recall a 1/72 tank (maybe a Churchill tank) with so many tiny wheels (and so much glue) that the whole thing collapsed into a molten, plastic, mush!  Nevertheless, model kits were gradually becoming an important part of my life.  Perhaps my parents enjoyed the fact that having spent a few shillings on one, I would then disappear from their lives for a few hours leaving them to do whatever they wanted to do.  However sometimes this wasn't such a great idea.  I recall visiting the Short Sunderland at Pembroke (the very example now exhibited at Hendon) and seeing Airfix models of the Sunderland on sale beside the aeroplane.  My mother still recalls how loud I cried and what a scene I created when my parents said it was too big for me!  

I have so many memories related to my kits.  I recall our local shop in Bucklebury selling Matchbox kits and when I got one for the first time, being amazed with their sprues of differant colour plastics.  I recall sitting in the cafe section of Heelas in Reading gloating over a Revell Messerschmitt 109 (and my frustration that we werent going home straight away so that I could start it.)  I loved aeroplanes and desperately wanted to be a pilot.  I remember on holiday in West Wales asking to be left at the end of the runway at RAF Brawdy whilst my parents and sister went to beach nearby.  I recall packing my sketch pad, my sandwich, a can of coke into my satchel and Dad then opening a deck chair for me so I could simply sit and watch the Gannets, Hunters and Wessex helicopters come and go.  The bug had bitten it seems.

My preparatory School had a Model Club which meant that after lunch most days I could descend to the cellar (no Health and Safety to worry about in those days) and keep up progress on my Hercules or Phantom - always Airfix of course.  However at one point, a friend of mine called Michael Hammerson asked me to complete a racing car for him as he had run out of patience with it.  My eyes were on stalks as I opened my first Tamiya box - of the Lotus 49.  I was bowled over by its size, its crispness, details such as real springs and of course a really large driver figure was included.  I loved finishing it for Michael but I recall feeling I had let him down when he told me I had fitted the mirrors on the wrong way round.  I thought they were headlights...

Racing cars then started to take over my hobby and in those days, Tamiya was issuing a new 1/12 F1 car every year.  I particularly recall seeing a display of new Brabham BT44 kits at Beatties in Newbury (with that extraordinary shape and those Martini colours) for £14.99.  I remember being disappointed how far away Christmas seemed!  My enthusiasm was also fuelled by a love for the real sport and I will never forget being taken to my first Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1977.  When my hero, James Hunt, won I thought I would literally burst with joy.  (As it happens, it was also the first race for a Turbo F1 car - and a new driver called Villeneuve....)

After that, between the ages of 15 and 30, I obviously had to concentrate on O levels, A levels, University education at Exeter and my early professional career in London.  At that point, my leisure time tended to be dominated by F1, Golf, Cricket, Rock Music, Beer and, of course, Girls (but not necessarily in that order!)  However I never entirely lost my passion for glue, paint, plastic and decals.  I recall building the Tamiya Martini Porsche 935 in my room at university in 1984 and the Tamiya FW14B in my flat in London whilst watching the TV with my girlfriend in 1993.  However it was only after that girlfriend - Sheena - became my wife later that year and two children, Emma and Edward, were born in 1995 and 1997 that my hobby emerged once more into full view.  

Over the next decade, I found Ebay and with it, the opportunity to buy classic kit after kit which not only fuelled my interest, but also enabled me to hone whatever skills I have.  When we bought our present house in 2008 it was a total wreck and whilst restoring it, I was able to incorporate a designated model workshop - and a large display area.  This forms the basis of my exhibition today.  In 2014, we spent three weeks in Japan and I was lucky enough to be able to visit Tamiya's HQ in Shizuoka - with its Tyrrell P34 and other evocative racing cars and bikes in its foyer.  It also has a large display room and although I noticed some of the exhibits looked a little "tired", the room was so diverting I could probably have spent a whole day there.  At that point the idea started to grow within me to - virtually - create my own display.  

It took a few years for that germ to develop this far and for me to learn the rudiments of website design and to do all the necessary photography.  However lockdown has given me the time and the renewed energy to get on and do it.   

I hope you enjoy your visit!

Lupton, February 2021