Dorset man creates 1,600 matchstick models in 62 years

MATCHSTICK MODELS

Dorset man creates 1,600 matchstick models in 62 years

Here's a man who has spent an entire lifetime engrossed in the delightful hobby of matchstick model-making, with the result of many hundreds of examples of ship and aircraft design from down the years.

I love the painstaking details that chaps like Mr Warren, and the fellow in the above clip, take to ensure that the models are accurate scale copies of the real thing - and all with the use of everyday items that are matches and matchboxes!

I myself tried my hand at a matchstick model once, having cut my teeth on Airfix models before. However as I found to my cost the two are completely disparate and I soon realised how out of my depth I was (I had bitten off more than I could chew in picking a rather large model of a tram car - in hindsight I perhaps should have started with something smaller). Needless to say it soon left me in much the same state as it arrived and I resolved myself to stick to my little plastic kits in the future! My brief experience with matchstick models makes me appreciate all the more the great skill with which these modellers create these miniature masterpieces and how much of a passion it must be for them to create something so small and yet so detailed with nothing more than a tiny stick of wood. I hope Mr Warren continues to enjoy his fascinating pastime for many more years to come.