P G Models Is Closing Down

Please note that P G Models is closing down on Sunday 31st May 2020.

My Internet Service Provider in Bridgend closed down in November, but agreed to honour my contract until it expired, which is the end of this month.   Since then I have thought long and hard about whether to keep P G Models going, or to stop.  The people in my ISP have been very helpful to me, and one suggestion was to switch to GoDaddy.  They have an on-line “chat” page where you can type in questions and answers to one of their advisers.

The trouble is that the person I dealt with might just as well have been from the planet Zog for the amount that I understood what he was saying to me.  One “offer” that they had was to switch to this company WordPress, using WooCommerce.  A couple of years ago I set up the MAFVA (Miniature Armoured Fighting Vehicle Association) on-line MAFVA Shop.  This took me several months of what were sheer hell for me.  I was just stumbling along from one problem to the next.  I have managed to get the MAFVA Shop working, but only after a bucket load of hard work. that was just for a range of half a dozen or so models.  In P G Models there are around 64 models in the range, so that would have meant a huge amount of work, that I do not particularly want to do.

There are other factors that make this the right time for P G Models to stop.  I have almost run out of the blister packs that I use to pack the models, and the company where I get them from in Manchester are in lockdown.  I have been using up what I have in stock, and only cleaning up and packaging models for orders as they come in, to keep the blister packs going for as long as I can.  This means that at present I only have a limited number of models in stock, which all points in the one direction.  P G Models will close down when the contract with my ISP runs out at the end of the month on Sunday 31st May 2020.

Going back 20 years ago, in 2000 I met up with a friend Ron Weatherall at the Bristol BMSS Show, that was in Bath at the time (now in Nailsea).  At that show Ron told me about some photos he had of military vehicles loading and unloading at Haverfordwest.  From there the idea grew, initially for a static 1/76th scale (OO gauge) diorama of the vehicles being unloaded from Warwells and Warflats, using the Genesis kits wagons.  In 1/76th scale this would have been over 24 ft long, so I thought of going down to N gauge, which would mean a layout 12ft long, which is how my Haverfordwest layout began.  No one did any of the vehicles that I wanted for it.  My original idea was to make master patterns of a Warrior, Spartan and Scorpion and to get one of my friends to cast them for me in resin, as solid models.  As that idea developed, going forward three years, in 2003 I was made redundant at work, much against what I wanted to do.

My previous boss, twice removed suggested how about making a business out of my models.  I have made loads of master patterns in both 1/35th scale and 1/76th scale (OO gauge) for various people over the years, so I was attracted to the idea of doing something completely different with models in 1/152nd scale, which was exactly half the scale of the 1/76th scale plans that I have for most of the models that I’ve made, which isn’t far off British N gauge of 1/148th scale.  So the idea grew.  Over the years, sometimes I spent so much time with P G Models that I only had a few weeks in the year to do any work on my Haverfordwest layout, which is why it took until 2011 before I took it to the Lord & Butler Model Show in Cardiff.  Some people have said that I built my Haverfordwest layout to demonstrate my little P G Models, but that is completely wrong.  I made the models for myself, for my layout, and not the layout to show off my models.

From the start with just six models in the range, it has grown to it current size of around 64 models.  In those 16 years, I have sold over 11,000 models, which is considerably more than I ever expected.  I feel that I have achieved as much as I could ever have imagined with these little models, and am pleased to have done them, but now it’s time for me to go back to have a look at my stash of unmade kits

Two days ago I had delivery of a 1/35th scale resin model of a Tucker Sno-Cat, which were used in a Trans-Antarctica Expedition in 1958-59.  I still have vivid memories of this in a book that I read back in 1962, so I just had to have the model of it.  Having got it, it refreshed my interest in 1/35th scale models.  I have got 1/35th scale model kits of both the Oshkosh and Antar Tank Transporters, each costing about £300.  It would be a shame to leave them as unmade kits, so now is the perfect time to dust them down and have another look at them.

Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me in this little venture over the years.  It’s been a fun time.

P.G. Models