Keith Edney

This is a father and son story, with Keith Edney, always into motor cars and motor bikes, following his father into the family model making business just 4 years after he left school.

Keith’s father had always worked on model boats for another company, but left to form his own business, RAE Models, in 1975. He used his own initials, Robert Alan Edney, to name the business, and began by working on specialist furniture and fittings for kitchens, some years before companies such as MFI came into being. However, it wasn’t long before some of his previous customers came to him asking him to continue to work on boats and other models. Individual commissions also included model aircraft and model hovercraft.

Subject ID: 82842

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This is a father and son story, with Keith Edney, always into motor cars and motor bikes, following his father into the family model making business just 4 years after he left school.

Keith’s father had always worked on model boats for another company, but left to form his own business, RAE Models, in 1975. He used his own initials, Robert Alan Edney, to name the business, and began by working on specialist furniture and fittings for kitchens, some years before companies such as MFI came into being. However, it wasn’t long before some of his previous customers came to him asking him to continue to work on boats and other models. Individual commissions also included model aircraft and model hovercraft.

Keith left school to join British Aerospace, working on Concorde. He served a four year apprenticeship, in which he moved around in every department of the works. This even included the guillotine shop, in which all unwanted metal was cut up. Keith learnt his welding and woodworking skills over this time, and then, apprenticeship over, he joined his father’s business in 1975, shortly after it had been established.

At this time, neither Keith nor his father had any interest in model cars, but a number of factors came together to change all that. Firstly, they were using a white metal casting company to create the fittings for the display and promotional models they specialised in. These included models of the hovercraft, the APT and HST trains, and Brush locomotive prototypes.

This white metal casting company decided to diversify into making printed circuit boards, which in a common production area, do not sit comfortably beside dusty white metal working! The result was that they decided to opt out of white metal casting, and offered the casting equipment to RAE.

Keith was then approached by an individual who was keen to make a Morgan pedal car, and also supplied Keith with a set of plans for an MGTF. His proposal was to make both from glass fibre. This project did not come to fruition, and the necessary equipment and plans for the project sat dormant in his loft for seven years.

He was then approached by Tony Bellm, a millionaire, who wanted to start a 1:20 scale range called Bellini Models. He owned a pharmaceutical factory in Guernsey, and firmly believed that his current workforce there could build the models! This was not a successful venture, not least because 1:20 was an unknown scale.

However, the Piccolino range, in 1:76 was more marketable. Tony chose the full range of cars that his son had driven in his racing career, right up to 2010 and the Ford GT40.  Keith recalls that Tony Bellm had spent well over £1m on his model collection before he died, and was indeed a truly addicted collector.

Tony Bellm had commissioned Michael Wall and another pattern maker to produce the Bellini range, but Keith undertook the patterns for almost all of the Piccolino models, in brass.  Each of these was costed at £400 to produce, but when Keith entered production, clearly economies of scale in tyres, wheels and other parts helped.  These ranges enabled Keith to develop his experience and understanding of the world of white metal model cars.  He realised that the racing cars in the Piccolino range did not suit model railways, and that 1:43 scale was achieving the most popularity amongst collectors.

It was with this realisation, that such models commanded prices of £75.00 upwards, that he decided to utilise the MG TF drawings, and go into 1:43 production.  He was unable to give a lot of time to the first pattern of the MG TF, and he acknowledges that he didn’t fully understand the market, but the model was relatively popular, and kick started the range of RAE MG models. All the subsequent patterns were created in house, latterly by a friend of Keith’s, Gary Sheldon, who had previously worked on stretched limousines and armoured cars.  He also produced all of the patterns for a range of Jaguars, and became the full time pattern maker for RAE.

At the high spot in the buoyant market for white metal cars, Keith was employing 20 people, but this was never solely on model cars, as the industrial side was maintained as well. Production runs ranged from the usual 300 – 500 for an average run, to up to 2000 in all for the ever popular MGB roadster.  A tour round the MG factory when the MG RV8 was being built resulted in unique assistance with the details of this car, for another MG in the range.

During his attendance at ModeleX, Keith always reserved the right to sell direct to the public, as he was wary of retailers buying his newest releases and then selling on to customers.

During the 1990s, the diecast makers began to have a big effect on his business, but Keith feels that the increasing demands by specialist retailers for more stock, followed by ceasing their repeat orders, due to over stocking, caused serious difficulties for the white metal industry.   

As the market declined, Keith diversified into 1:8 scale models.  The first model was the Jaguar XK120, of which 300 were made, and a similar number followed with the Porsche 356. An American collector then approached him to create a 1:5 scale range; a million dollar collection!  This included the Ferrari pictured here. Keith continued with this project for 3 years, producing models that were costed at £5,000 each.

Keith feels that this project could have been very successful, if it had been a fully developed product, a range carefully created, and the promotion and marketing undertaken. However, he found that wealthy customers require the product immediately, and he was not in a position to supply in any quantity. Eventually, Keith offered the 1:8 scale line to two employees to take on as their own business, complete with free workshop facilities. They took it on, but wanted to set up on their own, and after three years, the range was closed. Keith agreed not to resume manufacture in 1:8 scale for 5 years, but this deadline will soon pass, and he has some ideas.

As for the future, Keith is still considering new models, and feels there is a market for a 1:8 scale AC Cobra. He would prefer to supply this in kit form, feeling that customers would be mostly kit car builders, well versed in building and customising. Keith still owns all his master patterns from the RAE range, and occasionally he will cast a few and sell them via eBay. 

He fondly recalls the story of the Mikansue patterns. There had been advertisements in the trade press offering them for sale, for £12,000, and Tony Bellm came into Keith’s workshop one day, having seen them. He gave Keith a signed open cheque for £10,000, and told him to go and view them. Keith took up the challenge, and although there was not every Mikansue master present, the lot comprised approximately 80 – 100 masters. Transfers, tyres, and instruction sheets were all included, and so Keith’s ceiling of £10,000 was agreed. Only later did he realise that there were some missing, but he found them in good repair and only 10 – 15 of them needed re-mastering.

Keith did some work on the Mikansue patterns, and used many in his range, including the Triumph GT6, Dolomite Roadster, and BMWs. Keith still owns them all. Other ventures have included expanding the Piccolino range to include 1:76 scale Land Speed Record cars, and then some in 1:43 scale in resin. There was a possibility of collaboration with SMTS on a motor cycle project, for John Hodder, called the Stratford Collection, but with the advent of the Minichamps range, this was not viable.

Subject ID: 82842

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