By Charles Lefebvre

Medicine Hat man eager to share passion for model building

Jun 24, 2019 | 5:13 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Whether it’s a classic car, a vintage airplane, or something from science fiction, model building has been a passion for people for many years, including here in Medicine Hat.

Robert Adams is one of those people. He recently rediscovered his passion for the hobby, and is hoping to share it with others.

Adams first became interested in building models as a child, after his dad brought home a 1958 Ford Thunderbird kit.

“My dad bought me a kit, and a bunch of paint, and some really smelly glue, and just let me go crazy on it,” he said. “It basically turned into a big pile of plastic by the time I was done.”

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While he built models as a child, he eventually moved away from the hobby. However, five years ago, he picked it up again, starting by building Mobile Suit Gundam models, noting they didn’t require as much work or patience as other models.

“It doesn’t require glue, it’s extremely articulated, so it was a lot quicker of a project,” he said. “That’s how I got into it again, by easing into something you could finish quickly, rather than months and months and months of work.”

Adams says patience is key in order to develop your skills at model building. While he has built everything from cars to jets, military equipment, especially items from the Second World War.

“You get to build stuff, you get to research things, you get to learn about history, all the various things that go with it,” he said. “They don’t come with instructions that tell you exactly how to do everything, so you have to research that. I like that part of it.”

Earlier in June, Adams took several of his models to the Rocky Mountain Model Club’s annual contest in Nanton. It was his first time at the contest, which drew more than 500 entries. Adams came home with four gold medals and one silver medal, a result he was not expecting.

However, Scott Mastel, a fellow model builder in Medicine Hat, says Adams should have expected the result.

“He’s very, very highly skilled, probably one of the best model makers I’ve ever seen, but incredibly humble and very very keen to teach others,” Mastel said. “I think we’re very like-minded in that regard.”

Mastel, like Adams, got back into model making as an adult, and says the level of detail in Adams’ work amazes him.

“Often times when you build a model, you just see the outside, and you put a lot of focus and energy in making it look good on the outside,” he said. “He does the same along the inside, even those areas you can’t really see or notice, he’s very, very keen to put in those very subtle details that take something that could look like a toy to actually looking a model that’s scaled down.”

Adams recently launched a Facebook group to connect with model building enthusiasts in Medicine Hat, and help ease newcomers into the hobby.

“I’ve got 44 people within the community now, so if even half of those people are willing to gather together, get together and do things, we can turn this into something pretty cool,” said Adams.

“They might look at someone’s piece of work and they might say, ‘I could never do that,’” said Mastel. “They stop and they put up these barriers before they even begin, so when they can meet someone that says, ‘Come in, we’ll show you how to do some of these things,’ the whole point is to have fun and enjoy.”