Tiffy’s Workshop - Marine Models From Scratch By Graham Castle A self-confessed ‘boat daft’ schoolboy to this day, Graham Castle became infused with all things nautical whilst growing up in Bristol where he began whittling small hulls from broomstick-handles and scratch-building working models.
Running away to sea at fifteen as an Artificer Apprentice led to service on an aircraft-carrier in the Far East and the inspiration to apply for a commission as a helicopter pilot in the Fleet Air Arm with subsequent tours on Destroyers and Frigates operating from Iceland to Malaya – ‘plastic’ modelling meanwhile.
After many years as a flying instructor and keen yachtsman he eventually ‘taught’ flying in the classroom as Head of the navy’s training school at RNAS Culdrose – by which time the models had grown to 1:1 scale. Fortunately retirement presented the opportunity for an extended cruise to the Mediterranean in one of them (model-making now by oil-lamp), an Honours Degree in Technology, and service with HM Coastguard at Falmouth.
Graham and his wife Tilly live in Cornwall where the days are far too short to accommodate ship-modelling, writing, ‘life-stuff’, and cosseting the family’s fifty-year old half-timbered Morris Minor.
His interest in building and exhibiting ship-models that illustrate the evolution of nineteenth-century maritime technology derives from admiration for the skilled and innovative craftsmen of The Industrial Revolution who ‘contrived, devised, or constructed …’ – the real scratch-building Tiffies of their day.
Running away to sea at fifteen as an Artificer Apprentice led to service on an aircraft-carrier in the Far East and the inspiration to apply for a commission as a helicopter pilot in the Fleet Air Arm with subsequent tours on Destroyers and Frigates operating from Iceland to Malaya – ‘plastic’ modelling meanwhile.
After many years as a flying instructor and keen yachtsman he eventually ‘taught’ flying in the classroom as Head of the navy’s training school at RNAS Culdrose – by which time the models had grown to 1:1 scale. Fortunately retirement presented the opportunity for an extended cruise to the Mediterranean in one of them (model-making now by oil-lamp), an Honours Degree in Technology, and service with HM Coastguard at Falmouth.
Graham and his wife Tilly live in Cornwall where the days are far too short to accommodate ship-modelling, writing, ‘life-stuff’, and cosseting the family’s fifty-year old half-timbered Morris Minor.
His interest in building and exhibiting ship-models that illustrate the evolution of nineteenth-century maritime technology derives from admiration for the skilled and innovative craftsmen of The Industrial Revolution who ‘contrived, devised, or constructed …’ – the real scratch-building Tiffies of their day.
