FLYING HEROES

Ever since being introduced to the work of Gerald Wingrove during my Art College years in the 70’s I had wanted to follow in his footsteps. For those who haven't heard of Gerald he is responsible for simply the most amazing automotive museum models. It soon became apparent however that I clearly had neither the patience nor the skill required to emulate his work (many of my incomplete attempts are on show in these pages). Very few - if any - could beat him but to my relief I discovered that actually I didn't have to be THAT good to make a living in the market. I found that in certain areas I could produce work of a pretty reasonable standard and through one or two connections, most noteably an old friend, Kevin Godfrey of Godfrey Design, managed to find enough work to do okay for a good few years in many model making, design and sculpting fields. I WAS lucky mind you. Mainly in that I entered the business early enough to temporarily avoid competition from the sea of talent that has more lately taken its place in the market from abroad. But the inevitable effect of this talent tidal wave was that work of the type I had most enjoyed was to become harder to acquire (and steadily to pay less) as the Far East became the new epicentre of the commercial model making and production world. As a result it seemed a good idea to return to a previous occupation and I’ve been teaching guitar ever since (see Flying Heroes section of this site).

So, represented here are projects undertaken over probably an eight year period, plus a few odds and ends from college days...such as the life drawings. Starting in the 90’s with the Trafalger Chess Set (for Danbury Mint), through the turn of the century with the Studebaker President and Labatt’s Streamliner masters (for Brooklin Models and DMP Studios) and on into the early naughties (and slightly before) with the Mack Aerial Ladder and several other fire related pre-production models (mainly for Corgi and Matchbox).
Along the way there were technical and soft sculpture projects for Franlin Mint, Vivid Imaginations, Mattel, Lledo, Leonardo, Lenox, Imprint Models and many others. Also a healthy bundle of design and general artwork, plus my own diecast box, comic book and poster/cd sleeve art production. It seemed sensible for my own benefit to gather as much of this together in one place as I could before I lose all reference to it, so here it is.

Hope you enjoy at least some of it.

Carl Seager