These would appear to have no connection but the kits are made by three of the exhibitors at the Halton show last year.

The Martello tower is made by David Hathaway. I have a suspicion that he made a building rather than one of his fine ships because he knows I don't make ships. But I'm sure that this is not the reason. This kit comes with some of the smallest parts I've seen for a long time. The instructions are clear and the fit is very good. The interior is basically 8 formers that support the outer wall. I built the formers and then made the outer wall and slipped it over the formers. I used the smallest amount of glue, just to "tack" the wall to the formers at the top. This kept the sides smooth. The gun and flag are the smallest parts but with the help of a large magnifying glass I succeeded in putting the whole thing together. This would make an excellent feature for anyone who wants to add something different to their card navy.

The Cornish Tin Mine is one of Roger Pattendens neat buildings (I actually bought this before I had the pleasure of knowing Roger). Like all of his kits, this one went together very easily and as the graphics are hand painted (more a work of art), tidying up the edges is quick and easy. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants something different in their collection.

Apologies to Ray Morris, I've only made one half of his miniature Lion. This is no reflection on his models rather a reflection on my narrow subject matter. This is a small kit that I downloaded. Like the other two Halton model makers, Ray has produced a fine model of an old steam train which goes together very well. One of the parts is particularly small and Ray suggests using a small piece of wood to replace the paper item. I used a trick I used some time ago. I laid on several layers of PVA glue on the back of the sheet and once the glue dried I cut out the parts. The glue hold the piece together and also gives a little "depth" to the part. Ray should be congratulated for dragging me away from houses for a while.

This is the Governors house in Williamsburg and is made by Kenilworth. Lou at PMI can give more details on the history of these kits.

The kit looks very similar to an enlarged micromodel, there are almost no tabs and I felt it needed some internal supports to keep it all square. There was nothing too difficult but having to make all the dormer windows took quite a time. I enjoyed making this straightforward model and found it a worthwhile interlude from the bigger kits that I generally (try) to make.

This was just for a bit of fun, followers of the list will be familiar with the downloadable fish.

I printed this out at work where our colour printers use wax for the colours, no good for printing buildings but just right for fish! It gives the fish a nice glossy finish. I mounted the fish in front of a sheet of paper designed to fit on the back of an aquarium.

This kit deserves a government health warning!

This is a kit of Jasna Gora (Bright Mountain) the fortified cathedral is the centre of the catholic religion in Poland. The main point for the pilgrims is the icon called the Black Madonna.

We visited the cathedral while we were on holiday and have some very good memories of some of the people we met there. For this reason I had to complete the kit.

This was not the easiest of tasks. The first problem was that nothing (well, almost nothing fits!). Square buildings have walls of different lengths and domes have pieces that are too wide. Numbering is also interesting. Some of the taps have the number of the part to glue to it, but some times the wrong number is printed on the tab. This gets even more confusing when you realise that some of the parts show the wrong number on the instructions or the printed piece.

The instructions are a series of exploded diagrams and in many cases it is difficult to see where pieces are supposed to go, also the pieces on the diagram are not always to scale, I spent ages looking for piece "a" which looked as if it was longer than piece "b". Only to find that piece "a" was much smaller than "b".

However, I had to persevere and once completed I was quite impressed with the finished article. The base is about 2feet by 2 feet and the tower stands about 18 inches tall.

An interesting change from the more "gothic" castles and churches but I would only recommend it if you really have a lot of patience.

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This page was created by:
Saul H. Jacobs M.Ed.
Avionics Specialist, United States Air Force (Retired)
Microcomputer Technology, Pima Community College (Retired)
Tucson Arizona