Ian Burkinshaw
Designer
From building the inevitable Airfix kits as a child, whilst living in Wakefield, Ian Burkinshaw visited a swapmeet at York Racecourse in the mid 1980s, and spotted various white metal and early resin kits for sale on the stall of Ralph Foster of Pandora Models fame. Kits were purchased and a friendship developed with Ralph. Ian was bitten by the bug.
Following a motor cycle accident in 1979, Ian’s career in the motor trade was affected by being unable to drive manual cars anymore. Ralph had heard on the grapevine that Minimarque43 were looking for model builders and suggested a trip down to see Richard Briggs. Ian came away from the meeting with a box of models to build. Thus followed a 17 year friendship with the big man!
Subject ID: 82839
MoreFrom building the inevitable Airfix kits as a child, whilst living in Wakefield, Ian Burkinshaw visited a swapmeet at York Racecourse in the mid 1980s, and spotted various white metal and early resin kits for sale on the stall of Ralph Foster of Pandora Models fame. Kits were purchased and a friendship developed with Ralph. Ian was bitten by the bug.
Following a motor cycle accident in 1979, Ian’s career in the motor trade was affected by being unable to drive manual cars anymore. Ralph had heard on the grapevine that Minimarque43 were looking for model builders and suggested a trip down to see Richard Briggs. Ian came away from the meeting with a box of models to build. Thus followed a 17 year friendship with the big man!
Ian recalls his first impressions of Richard Briggs as a bit of an oddball, but they laid down the ground rules between them. From then on Ian felt that Richard would helpfully give him constructive criticism when he took his built models back to Richard, which was taken in good heart. Ian converted his garage into a workshop, and they were in business. To begin with Ian used aerosol cans, but soon progressed to using a compressor and spray guns, and automotive paints as his production line developed to 50 – 60 cars at a time.
Ian built many of Minimarque43’s models, including the 3½ litre Mk IV Jaguar drophead, and in later years continued his association with Jaguar by building models for Gary Oxley, who founded the Jaguar Model Club. This also entailed modifying existing patterns to create a different version of the same car, such as racing MkII Jaguars of Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jack Sears, and on a few occasions even full patterns for models. Charles Barnett also features amongst his customers.
Subject ID: 82839
Subject ID: 82839
