About me

Welcome.

As a fresh teenager, I built my very first static model in Islamabad in the year 1992. It was the Airfix Mirage 2000 in 1/72 scale. It was unpainted (no points for guessing); put together with the ever-famous trademark for glues – UHU – in just about an hour.

The next couple of years brought glamour & suffering in equal measure to my scale-model collection. Quantity, not quality. The transactional nature of my choices wasn’t very impressive, yet I assembled and brush-painted a whopping 30 models, displayed on hand-painted wooden bases.

Finally, the following years were to be stellar years for scale-modeling in Pakistan. Local modeling clubs embarked on organizing exhibitions and competitions in conjunction with the Government of Pakistan offering revival and renewal to the hobby in a single ticket. For the first time, the bureaucratic & cultural capitals of Pakistan – Islamabad & Lahore respectively – shone a spotlight on the unapologetic determination of independent modelers while presenting a platform to promote interaction amongst them.

And so, I also began pivoting successfully from one model to another, seemingly a good way to ease myself into the world of modeling. I bagged some awards and trophies over the next few years and the much-sought appreciation was all I needed to forge inroads. As my kindred experience with the hobby surfaced, I became a proud owner of a fine airbrush changing the entire ballgame for me. I was collecting ungodly amounts of scale models and building them too. By the end of 1990s I had – give or take – completed another 40.

Critique was scarce in those days. There was no internet and productivity stemmed solely from my imagination. Constructing models became a form of self-expression, mindfulness, and communication. This behavioral activation led me to build a fictitious B-737 crash site on a 2ft. x 2ft. wooden base. For a while there was a Big Bang! Competitions were abuzz with appreciation for my diorama, but critics were also rife. I started frequenting libraries and bookstores; and unapologetically asking for scores of reference books as birthday gifts (which, by the way were exorbitantly priced in those days).

Post 2000, there were only remnants of what once was. Working in Europe turned me into a tightly wound ball of anxiety. Yet I managed to build another detailed Tomcat touching down on carrier deck in 2003. It was by far the most authentic and glorified 1/72 scale model in my collection. A year later I separated my thoughts from my feelings and gifted it to my fiancée – now wife (along with a bouquet of gladiolus lilies and a bottle of fragrance). I do have a happy recount of the flowers and the scent, but sadly my emotional labor was greatly unsupported. Yes, the model broke down into a thousand tiny bits but that “sun-soaked” pause in my life, crammed with memories continues to be. Absolutely no regrets there!

Fast forward a few years, there was still a dearth of good quality model kits and accessories in Pakistan. It created a void in which I was throwing unmatched effort to make sure that I remained fundamental. Amid this daunting dilemma nature presented me with another silver lining on the cloud. I moved to the Netherlands to study further and my priorities were automatically realigned. I returned to Pakistan briefly, but PhD was my calling. I came to Hong Kong and spent the next few years researching for evolutionary survival. Stemming from a responsibility to speak accurately, my love for scale models neither diminished nor exaggerated during this hiatus!

Scale modeling is big in Hong Kong. Modelers and retail shops are in abundance. I fell in love with the city’s energy and decided to stay back in this colorful, chaotic, fantastic metropolitan. Friends and fellow modelers have made this place ever so livable. Flight of fantasy aside, seemingly my two children also seem to keep pace with the upgraded prospects of the hobby.

Together, we’re an ecosystem of our own.

Please do drop by often. I promise to continue sharing my personal journey with you all.