Stuart Bell - Port Appin
I modelled Scottish vehicles and locations after a visit to Fort William in 1964! I first used the destinations Port Appin and later Otter Ferry on scratch built models built in 1969/70 and ever since. Though the two locations aren’t particularly close by I liked the names and eventually a diorama based on Port Appin started to materialise. Over the years, mainly 1995 - 2007 it’s been modelled as a railway terminal, a pier head and MacBraynes diorama although only a few of those early pics exist. Most of the buildings and buses have been binned as they weren’t that good. The repainted EFE and OOC diecasts always looked like repaints and I was never convinced by them. My model buildings were awful as I was too lazy/busy to learn new skills.
In 2007 I resurrected the Port Appin diorama idea again and though I didn’t have time to start scratch building buses I went onto resin kit building and that lead to modifying many of them. As that developed I needed better scenery, houses, garages and shops for the new diorama so the overdue ‘new skills’ were developed.
These pics will give a glimpse of the various stages of my early modelling, the later Port Appin dioramas and the growth of my West Coast Motors fleet.
Port Appin is more than a fixed diorama and it is continually changing because it is designed to be photographed. Eras change as do locations.
