Welcome to Hal Sr.com

Hi all! This is just a short bio, with heavy accent on modeling.
I was born in Northfield, NJ on July 24, 1936. At the age of 1 year, moved to Chester, Pa, where I remained until 1942, when my family moved to Brockton, Ma. Spring of 1948 had me moved back to Pleasantville, NJ, but left there for Middleboro, Ma, after 3 months. Lived in Middleboro through my high school graduation, and a couple of years beyond. Married my first wife in 1955, and had 3 kids by her, Ruth, Karin, and David. Unfortunately, we were unable to get along, so we divorced. Next couple of years had me living in the South End of Boston. Met Alice Drysdale in late 1958, and we were married in June of 1960. We have 4 kids together, Hal JR, Karl, Lorri, and Amy. We now have a total of 16 grandkids.

From my earliest years, I loved airplanes, pilots, and aviation in general. That these early years took place during World War II ensured that military prop planes took first place. Once out of high school, I went into the local shoe factories, waiting for a chance to break into aviation work. Sept. of 57, I got my opportunity, and started with Eastern Air Lines as a reservations agent. Stayed with EAL until it shut down in Jan, 91. All but the first 5 years were spent as a freight agent, where I became well versed in international freight paperwork and finally computer data entry and retrieval. Also did weight and balance forms for Lockheed Connie and Boeing 727 freighters. This stood me in good stead, because when EAL folded, I was immediately picked up by Air General Inc, an air freight sub-contractor. As an employee of AGI, I've done freight work for Japan Air Lines, Midwest Express, TAP, Icelandair, US Airways, and Alaska Airlines. I've been lucky to have watched the growth of commercial aviation from the days when less than 10% of the population flew to now, when just about everyone flies at one time or another. It's been a fascinating ride.

At last, to model building. I did my first kit at about 10 yrs. old I remember it to have been a McDonnell Phantom (I). It was carved from solid balsa with a pen knife, the sheetwork cut out with a single edge razorblade. Paint was a kid's water color set. During the war years, I built several pre decorated paper airplanes from the cereal companies. By the time I moved to Middleboro, I was really rolling with Strombecker pre carved pine airplanes, and solid models carved from balsa. I also did stick and paper "flying" models. Notice, nothing said about plastic. Plastic models never really existed in Middleboro until the mid 50's when that infamous metallic red Aurora Me-109 showed up at the local Five and Dime Store. There had been a couple very basic plastic models before that, a Piper Super Cruiser and Republic Seabee, with windows cast into the fuselage, and painted black, light blue, or silver. Aurora broke the ice, and were followed by Monogram and Revell. I built everything, airplanes, tanks, cars, and if it was plastic, and came disassembled in a box, I built it. Won my first contest about 1952 or so, with a Monogram Speedee Built P-40. Marriage, kids, career, and modeling have filled the years, and here I am at 68, still working part time, enjoying my family, and still building. More slowly, but building. The Lord and contest judges have done very well by me, and I've been lucky enough to multiply that first trophy many times over. I love to experiment with techniques, and never stand still, but keep developing my methods. I have managed to amass an incredible amount of reference material over the years, and continually refer to it. The Internet has opened up new and vast vistas for me as regards references. Google forever! I am a member of Bay Colony IPMS, Southern Maine IPMS, and Wings and Wheels IPMS. As an adjunct to the hobby, I now write kit reviews, how to's, and general info articles for the above club's newsletters, plus the Seattle IPMS Newsletter. I check out Hyperscale, Modeling Madness, Aircraft Resource Center.

My advice to newbies? Use your imagination, good references mean nothing without a good imagination. Experiment, don't wait for someone to tell you how, and be willing to screw up a good kit in order to develop a technique. Trying to repair your goofs is a good learning experience. Lastly, practice, Practice, and PRACTICE!! Finally, always remember that Jugs rule!

This site was developed to provide an avenue to show my work to other like minded individuals. Take a look around and see what I've been up to. Use the menu on the left side of the page to navigate the site or feel free to visit the Meeting Room and participate in any current active topics. You are free to email me with questions about the models or the methods I use to build them. Any site problems or questions please email the Webmaster.

Best regards and good luck to all, Hal Marshman, Sr., Hal the P-47fan