Spotlight Modeler: Tom Knoll
As a founding member of the Brooklyn Plastic
Modelers Society, Tom Knoll still values the openness of our Club. “We all
learn,” he offered. “I have questioned people about modeling techniques, and I
think the people in our club are the most willing to share. I’ve never seen
another club where people were willing to take the time and explain to you a
certain technique.”
Growing up in East Flatbush,
Tom’s earliest modeling lesson came from his dad. “My introduction to the hobby
was in the mid-sixties when my father bought for me the Monogram 1/32-scale
F3F-3 Gulfhawk -- you retracted the landing gear by pulling the prop out and
turning it. My father and I started building it together. I went to bed that
night, and when I came down the next morning, my father had completed it. I was
probably 11 or 12.”
Tom soon built his own models. “I would go down
into my basement and spend, in some instances, eight to ten hours a day down
there. I built a 1/35 scale Panther and a British SAS Jeep. I used to torment
my sister and ask her if the finish was realistic.” With few diversions, Tom
held his armor focus. “I got interested in armored vehicles because they looked
cool. I was drawn to them because of the rivets -- I love rivets.” He added, “I
do like airplanes and cars, but not as much as tanks. I do like to look at
other people’s work.”
Brooklyn’s Avenue S Hobby Shop
provided an introduction to other modelers. “I was in high school. I used to
ride my bicycle all over Brooklyn, and I may
have discovered it by accident,” Tom recalled. BPMS co-founder and hobby shop
part-timer Joe Turner invited Tom to the earliest model meetings. “I was
attending meetings with Bert Berg and Joe Turner every Tuesday night at Bert’s
house in Canarsie. Bert and Joe had discussed forming a club. It started above
Bert’s store, the Clothes Horse, on Kings
Highway.
The thriving Club moved to the Marcy Photo Studio
and later to Floyd Bennett Field. However, demands of a family and a career as
a Manhattan
building engineer kept Tom from meetings for a decade. He rejoined BPMS around
1995. “I have a lot of good memories of those Club members I met in the
beginning who have since passed away. I’m just glad that The Club still exists
from the efforts of Bert and Joe and all those officers who have served ‘til
now.”
New kits sustain Tom’s modeling inspiration. “The
most recent one that I liked was the Masterbox 1/72 scale Mk. 1 tank from WWI.
I’ve always liked rivets, and the Mk. 1 was covered with rivets.” His
most-wanted list has meanwhile dwindled. “The one kit that I really wanted and
just came out, finally after waiting years and years, was the
Panzerbefehlswagen III. It’s a German communications vehicle from WWII, and the
frame antenna on the back was just interesting.” Tom continues modeling in his
basement. “I have a nice workbench, and I have my stash right next to me so I
can ogle all my armor kits.”
~Frank Colucci