My formative years were spent drawing, painting and creating things from my imagination with anything that came to hand. I was generally outdoors as much as possible in those halcyon days, playing with my pals up on the hills behind my home town and building tree-houses in the local woods; this played a big part in what I do now. Little did I realize that Mother Nature was quietly planting her own seeds into my subconscious, and that all that playing was to give me a love of the countryside, and trees in particular.
My working life took me into carpentry and joinery, and during this period I worked and made friends with a woodman on the estate where I was working. What he showed and taught me about the life of a woodland has stood me in good stead ever since.
Modelling railways was a natural progression for me as – like so many of my contemporaries in those days – I had lain on the floor with a train set and imagined being on that little train, making an imaginary journey. In due course I had a family of my own, and at about my son’s third birthday I rekindled that love and built a train set for him. My enthusiasm didn’t stop and I soon joined the local model railway club. At the club I was quickly drawn to a group who were building a Welsh narrow-gauge layout. The scenery was a very attractive part for me, and I honed and refined my skills on that little railway.
Trees in those days were made mostly from lichen and wooden sticks. I did not like the look of that very much, and started to make improvements, which eventually led to demonstrating at model railway shows. At those shows people began to ask if I would like to make them a tree and how could they make a landscape on their railway? After two or three magazine articles my first book was born, added to which my own landscape model-making business has blossomed. Travelling the land and realizing customer’s dreams for them is perhaps the greatest gift that could have been given to me outside my family life. When I look back I can now see where all that playing up in the woods and on the hills has led me.
The aim of this book is to enthuse you and hopefully lead you to enjoy Mother Nature whilst creating it in model form.
Happy modelling.
Tony Hill