Team SF&F Biog

In the first of our team biographies meet David Campbell , whose amazing modelling was introduced in Volume 3…

I started making models seriously in 1995 after a trip to a sci-fi convention - after seeing what was on offer, I reckoned I could do better, so I made a small stock of internally lit space ships and Borg-style prosthetics and turned up the following year. I didn’t quite cover my costs, but I was hooked on making stuff. In 1999 I landed some part-time work for the earlier incarnation of this magazine after a call for submissions, and that lasted for three years giving me jobs as diverse as light-sabres and busts of The Beatles and Hellraiser’s Pinhead.

After the magazine folded in 2001 I put all of my spare time into making models for conventions, which by now were showing a profit, but soon I was wanting something more. I plagued everyone I could find until somebody caved in, giving me a model making job in a WWII documentary for a company called Rocket. A mechanical engineering background definitely gave me an advantage, but most of the small-scale techniques arose out of the magazine experience. Working from my kitchen and garden, by e-mail and with a borrowed digital camera that gave about six pictures from 4xAA batteries, I managed to meet their requirements. That one went on to win an Emmy for it’s special effects.

Since then I’ve had some work for more short films and adverts, mostly local but also from as far afield as Australia. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far it’s that you never know what’s coming up next, but I’m keeping my day-job - and the odd article for SF&F - for the moment!

Andy Pearson Biography

I’m a freelance writer by trade and an enthusiastic modeller by inclination, something I also get paid for on occasion. The paid for stuff tends to be advertising related in the form of mock-ups of vehicle liveries for presentations and even the odd prop for the TV commercials that I write.

This does give rise to the occasional accusation that I’ve only included the item in question in the script so that I can build it. These cruel remarks are often from the same people who suggest that proposing a location in the West Indies for an ad for cat food is just an excuse to go on the location shoot.

Lies, I tell you – all lies!

In terms of the models built by choice, the preference is for anything slightly (or even very) out of the ordinary with a distinct leaning toward the science fiction end of the spectrum.

I have a particular fondness for the kits originally released in the 1950s and 60s, based on the designs by Willie Ley and his chums, speculating on what space travel would be like in the near future. Now that was when spaceships really looked like spaceships: fire at one end and a pointy bit at the other.

In terms of kit type, I’ve no real bias and will tackle anything from vac formed to resin with an equal degree of blind enthusiasm and, often, an equal lack of success…but at least it’s fun and, as with the script and copy writing, it beats having a proper job.

Gary R. Welsh Biography

Gary has been building models since he was three years old and has always wanted them to look as realistic as possible.

"I remember vividly. I must have been about eight or maybe nine, drilling hundreds of holes with a small drill into an Airfix 1/72nd B-17 kit to represent bullet holes, painting flames coming from the engines and mangling up the prop for good measure. It had to look like the box art!"

He has always loved Sci-fi citing artists such as Peter Elson, Kelly Freas, Colin Hay and Chris Foss; pulp magazines, classic Hollywood 'B' movies and Ray Harryhausen flicks as major influences.

"As a kid I used to buy paperback books just for the covers. Who cared what the story was about? As long as it had a big lumpy spaceship on the cover!"

He plodded along building whatever he wanted until a friend, who also ran a model shop, asked him to build some models for a window display. This lead to a variety of private commissions which in turn lead to him being published as a regular contributor for various modelling magazines. Gary now writes for Happy Medium Press exclusively.

Now-a-days he divides his modelling time between publishing work, private commissions under 'Hector's House of Models & Miniatures' and his own flights of fancy.

"I always try to make my models as realistic as possible. If you can take a photo of one of my models and mistake it for a real object then I'm a happy guy. I don't follow modelling fads but use whatever technique works for the project. I hate it when you go to any model show and there are lines of models that all look as if they were built by the same person. Surely what we do is an art form? So, people should develop their own style."

Gary lives with his wife Andrea and cat Hector in Cromer on the north Norfolk coast.

"It's a really beautiful area in which to live - even in the depths of winter and the evening skies are the most dramatic you'll ever see. It gives me the inspiration for many a project."