About me

Name:: Michal Mietelski
Nickname:: KRK4m
Country:: Poland
Town:: Kraków
Member since:: January 6, 2019
Communities:: scalemates.com (Plastic modeling)
railwaymates.com (Train modeling)
gundammates.com (Gundam modeling)
diecastmates.com (Diecast collector)
rcmates.net (RC modeling)
papermates.net (Paper modeling)
slotcarmates.com (Slot racing)
wargamemates.com (War gaming)

Aviation, vehicle and military historian. Author and translator (mostly from English) of several books. Ex-rally driver and former director of the Polish Aviation Museum...

A lifelong modeler, I built my first models (1:100 airliners) at the age of 8 (1965). Since then, there have been many directions: warships in 1:600, then 1:700, cars in 1:24, then 1:32, military aircraft and AFVs always in 1:72. Airliners changed to 1:144, there was even a 1:25 spaceship.
In total, I must have built over 400 of them, about 150 of which still sit in my display cabinets – the rest I sold during several subsequent "purges." And as a morbid shopaholic, I kept buying new kits by the dozen. Finally, 10 years ago, I realized that a stash of 1,000 kits would last 30-40 years of building, and I certainly didn't have that many left. Ebay helped, and today I have about 200 kits in my stash – maybe I can manage that many 🙂
And in parallel, there were die-cast minicars (both 1:43 and Matchbox/Corgi Juniors) and railways (first 0, then H0).
Yeah, 60 years is a lot of time...