Many of you may already know of Paul as the man who took the 3d printing world by storm a few years ago and who has moved from strength to strength with his beautiful 3d models, many of which have been seen gracing the tables created by TooFatLardies at shows here in the UK and, perhaps most memorably, at the Hartenstein Hotel in the Netherlands commemorating the Arnhem campaign.
But there’s a great deal more to the man that just creating STL files and cranking out plastic prints, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with Paul to get to know him better.
After discovering that we have similar tastes in literature and audiobooks, and that there’s a remarkable coincidence to do with a location in the Midlands, we talk about Paul’s life, career and entry into the hobby we all love.
Much about his youth has a familiar ring, although his first ‘toy soldier’ experience was with Action Man before Airfix, and his first wargames club experience at school resulted from seeing a 1/300 micro-armour game at a school fête, rather than 25mm Napoleonics. But along the way, Paul has tried a wide variety of games, including competitive ancients play that resulted in a telephone conversation with none other than Phil Barker, and the memorable remark from the great rules writer that “You can’t be slightly pregnant!”
I’m grateful to Paul, not only for our chat about the hobby and the world of 3d printing, but also because he has spoken very openly about the mental and physical health challenges he has faced over the years, and we both hope that you will perhaps be encouraged by his story of survival in difficult circumstances.
I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging discussion and that by the end, you’ll be swamping Paul with orders and leaving him a tip!
Henry
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