CanDid

Born the day after my parents visited an Air Show in the mid-70's I grew up reading just about everything W.E. Johns ever wrote about Biggles. It was with great interest I followed him and Erich von Stalheins adventures, all the way from the Great War to the Mig era. I think I have built just about everything they ever flew in the past, whilst looking out of the window to see the Draken and later the Viggen fighters from the nearby Fighter Wing roaring through the sky above my childhood home.

When I was about 15 years old I spent a couple of weeks at the SAAB factory in Linköping for a school project. That was a great place to be and I got to see and fly everything SAAB made at the time, except for JAS Gripen. I cuddled with the 2nd prototype though. Did I dream of becoming a pilot, yes in deed. Though, mother nature had other plans though and I grew and grew ending up just above 200cm tall, not exactly the perfect size for a pilot.

After a few years the plastic and and enamel colours had to give way for sports and girls, leaving a few kits behind at my parents house. As pilot was out of the question I went into the Army for a couple of years and later transferred to the Air Force, working as an Officer at Jämtlands Flygflottilj (Jämtland Wing) F4. When the Wing was closed in 2006, I returned my weapon and changed career.

In the spring of 2008 I had an accident breaking my spine and pelvis. The full recovery took me a couple of years of repeated surgery. Being bored to death from the thought of reading yet another book, or even worse, watching day time TV, I needed to find a hobby. And there it was, stored in the attic. From 2010 and on I have been modelling.

I like making vignettes and small dioramas for both vehicles and planes as that in my opinion makes the model come alive a little. I also try to put a little history into my builds, not claiming them to be photo accurate, but at least some research has gone into every build so far. I also like to make builds with not so common camouflages. Most of my builds has been vehicles or planes either in Swedish or Finnish use. Those countries has camouflage schemes that are made to match the northern tundra and the camouflage colours used are not so common in the rest of the world. Those countries also have been using quite a wide variation of materiel from different manufacturers from different countries through the years, giving a nice variety of Allied, Axis, East and West materials to chose from.

Thanks for looking and happy modelling!
/Fred