Benedikt Wallisser

Born and raised in an artistic household, I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t creating, crafting or drawing. A small, but very well equipped, plastic aircraft scalemodel shop in my small hometown was the reason I got in touch with the hobby when I was about eight years old. It would become the place to spend my pocket money for the next eight years.

From my grandfather, who was a child in WWII, and my grandmother, who gave birth to her first child in 1945, I heard stories from the war time, to which I listened most attentively. My childish mind could not comprehend, that such a bad episode of history could have taken place right where I lived, and where my grandmother had lived back then. So at around ten years old I started to study every book about the war I could find. I wanted to understand what had happened.

My interest in WWII history, my love for the beauty of the aircrafts from that period, plus my constant will to create and to craft led me to focus on WWII aircraft scale modelling very early.

I spent my 20s self educating, starting a freelance career and starting a family. Seldomely thinking about the passion I once had. When covid first hit, and we found ourselves locked down in our flat, I first realised that I had made all my hobbies a business (which now was completely shut down). I was sitting there, anxiety gaining controle of me more and more, and for the first time in years I felt the need to do something just for myself. Something no customer would wait for, something without a deadline, something nobody would care about.

That’s when step by step I reconquered the scale modelling I once had spent a serious part of my childhood with. I never was into big scales, and indeed I had built 144th scale before, but it was then that I completely focused on that scale. It’s the perfect scale. And I will tell you why I am so strongly convinced of it:

It‘s cheap. Scale modelling is an expensive hobby. Most 144 kits only include one or two sprues and cost under 10 € a kit. Not much colour and glue is needed for a model … in 2020 that was important for me, as my business was doing catastrophically due to the covid situation.
It is limited. I believe in creativity growing from limitation. The market for 144th scale model kits is small, and international. You won’t get far if you are limited on local shops (unless you’re in Japan ;-)). That’s what makes every single release so precious. That’s why you can’t avoid building short-run kits if you like to build specific and rare subjects. You have to scratch-build if you want to super-detail. This scale forces you into being uncomfortable.
It offers limitless possibilities in a very limited space. The scale is big enough to get some details, but small enough to go into vignette or diorama direction, without owning a museum. It’s the scale of endless options for the less priviliged. That’s what inspires me a lot.

The community around this scale is so welcoming, warm and supportive, that it took no time for me to have friends all around the world. Friends I share works and thoughts with, friends to inspire and who inspire me. A dimension of the hobby I never experienced in my childhood days, nor did I expect it in 2020.

I created this website and the small scale history project, because I was searching for a place that didn’t seem to exist on the internet. A place that focuses on historical and aircraft interest the same way it concentrates on scale modelling and aesthetics.

This is my project devoted to small scale modelling and history which I hope to grow to a place of inspiration, beauty, passion and historical awareness. I hope you’re with us on that journey.

Cheers,

Benedikt

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