Chris Mobley, IPMS/USA # 42891
IPMS /Georgia Mountain Modelers
Dahlonega , GA

     After meeting up with a DUI drive head on in the spring of 2003 and winding up spending the summer on crutches, I needed something to keep me busy instead of watching Judge Judy all day, so I decided to pick up a model kit after some years break from the models of childhood. And that was all it took. At that time I discovered that there were armor models and built those pretty exclusively for a while. But being a firefighter, I had another vehicle that is near and dear to me, fire trucks. The more I looked though the more I found out that there is a big hole in the model world that emergency vehicles could fill. Not only with kits but online resources as well. So I filled one and started the special interest group The Scale Firehouse. It has since turned into a whole other hobby trying to keep up with all the stuff I get sent from around the world. During the same time I was hoping to meet some local builders and there just so happened to be a new hobby shop opening not to far away, so me and Paul Cotcher got to emailing about starting a club there. It started off a bit slow but then gears changed and early 2005 The Georgia Mountain Modelers began taking shape. Who knew a year later we could be the Region 3 Chapter of the Year? Currently I am the Vice President and webmaster for the chapter. I also belong to the Reviewers Corps with IPMS.

    As far as building goes these days, I don’t build near as much as I did when I was on crutches for a year, but when I do it is primarily fire apparatus. Can’t really say I have favorite manufacturer since they are primarily scratch built.  I do still build some armor and won the Best Military Model in the Hobby Town 2006 National Contest.  There have also been a couple of builds in Fine Scale Modeler and a couple of articles in Model Car Magazine. If I had any real goals in the hobby it is to get the emergency vehicle crowd a bit more exposure and hopefully some more kits on the market.  One way I hope do that is thorough the special interest group I started about 3 years ago The Scale Firehouse ( www.scalefirehouse.com ). It has grown from a simple forum to a large web site with over 100 members.  That and helping my Chapter grow and continue to be something we can be proud of as we are now. As far as a most memorable model goes, it’s not one that got any awards, or published or even one that most folks would even look twice at. It is one of a 1940 Ford coupe done up as my grandfathers NASCAR car from the late 1940’s. I built it before I got back in the hobby full swing to give him for his birthday but he passed a couple of days before I could. It was displayed next to him with his folded flag and to this day is my most treasured build. Those are my favorite kind of builds though all of the time, ones you give away that remind someone of a time past in their life.

Chris Mobley Gallery
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