About JRH Scale Models
Fine automobiles and model building have both been life-long passions.
In the early 80’s I started building an Alfa Romeo Touring kit, but I never had the time to finish it and I wasn’t happy with the quality of my work. A decade later I quickly built another Pocher kit, this time a Ferrari F40. However, three or four household moves later it was in pretty poor shape so I decided to rebuild it. Thus began the journey.
Today, two Ferrari F40s … one of which is a ‘chassis-only’ version, three 1930s Rolls-Royce Phantom IIs, a 1935 Austin Seven and a 1936 Traction Avant are complete. They form the basis for this site. More models are in the wings.
Wherever possible the changes and additions are based on drawings, photographs and measurements of the full-size prototypes. From the beginning the goal has been to build historically accurate, highly detailed replicas of the original vehicles. A significant amount of scratch building is involved. Along the way, I started keeping notes and dimensions of components and other changes I was adding. These have now morphed into a series of Build Notes focused on some of the techniques I've used as well as super-detailing of the Rolls-Royce models. There are also Build Stories for the Gurney Nutting RR Phantom II and the Traction Avant. You may find them interesting and helpful.
All of the work is based on a simple philosophy; embrace the best and add to it!!
Welcome
JRH Scale Models is a series of photographs and notes on the building of super-detailed 1:8 scale model cars and planes. It’s an unfolding journey of discovery and development.
The goal is to not just provide photos, but also sketches, drawings and sources of information used in building the models. You may find the information to be useful and inspiring. It’s intended to complement, not compete with, the several fine sites that already provide information on building such models.
The Rolls-Royce and Ferrari models are based on the Pocher 1:8 scale kits which, sadly, went out of production in 2003. If you are interested, you can click on the button for a short PDF article on how Pocher became Pocher.
The Pocher kits are recognized as some of the most complex and detailed automobile kits ever made. Nevertheless compromises were inevitably made for production and commercial reasons. And that leaves the door open for the brave hearted to fix production quality issues, correct errors and, more importantly, add detail.
Check out the photo galleries and my own construction notes. Enjoy!
John Haddock
