Iain Rice

[Paul Boyd]

I was quite shocked to read in the current issue of Railway Modeller that Iain Rice died in October this year. I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that if it wasn’t for him, I would never have got into finescale modelling, and in particular “An Approach to Building Finescale Track” is a seminal work with my copy being very well-thumbed. I can very definitely point to that book as being the realisation that there’s more to track than pinning down Peco track, which in turn led me to Templot in 2001.

I have most of his Wild Swan books, if not all, and the way he explained things gave me the confidence to have a go. Later on I may have decided that I’d prefer to do things differently, but it was he who gave me a very good starting point. Many of his layout suggestions feature in my Templot doodling, albeit some are rather fanciful!

 

[Pierre]

I was quite shocked to read in the current issue of Railway Modeller that Iain Rice died in October this year. I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that if it wasn’t for him, I would never have got into finescale modelling, and in particular “An Approach to Building Finescale Track” is a seminal work with my copy being very well-thumbed. I can very definitely point to that book as being the realisation that there’s more to track than pinning down Peco track, which in turn led me to Templot in 2001.

I have most of his Wild Swan books, if not all, and the way he explained things gave me the confidence to have a go. Later on I may have decided that I’d prefer to do things differently, but it was he who gave me a very good starting point. Many of his layout suggestions feature in my Templot doodling, albeit some are rather fanciful!

Thank you Paul for mentioning Ian's work, his originality and thinking outside the box layout ideas were what really got my attention. After coming across his work many years ago I was always interested to see what he was up to and how he was pushing the boundaries so to speak.

Regards,
Pierre

 

[Rob Manchester]

I hadn't caught the new news of Iain's passing. What a sad event. He was a great inspiration to me from way back in the 1970's and he leaves a considerable legacy in the world of finescale modelling. I have all of his books I think and I always found his writing style to be great. He will be sadly missed by many people.

Rob

 

[John S]

I was quite shocked to read in the current issue of Railway Modeller that Iain Rice died in October this year. I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that if it wasn’t for him, I would never have got into finescale modelling, and in particular “An Approach to Building Finescale Track” is a seminal work with my copy being very well-thumbed. I can very definitely point to that book as being the realisation that there’s more to track than pinning down Peco track, which in turn led me to Templot in 2001.

I have most of his Wild Swan books, if not all, and the way he explained things gave me the confidence to have a go. Later on I may have decided that I’d prefer to do things differently, but it was he who gave me a very good starting point. Many of his layout suggestions feature in my Templot doodling, albeit some are rather fanciful!

Iain could certainly be inspirational, the early years when he combined his talents with those of the late Bob Barlow come to mind. I always found his Wild Swan books easy reading. He will be missed.

John from 33820 St Ciers sur Gironde

 

[Paul Boyd]

Earlier today I randomly picked up his 1989 “Whitemetal Locos” book and started reading it. (Covid gives time for reading, once the energy is mustered to actually reach for a book!).
One tenet that I’d forgotten was Iain’s which really stuck in my mind years ago was the distinction between building a kit, and building a model using a kit. That’s stuck with me, and particularly with my plastic modelling I make a decision as to which approach I’m going to take. For my preferred choice of vintage Airfix and Matchbox kits, I just build the kit, even using original Airfix enamels where I can! For most, if not all, of my railway stuff the kit is just the raw material.

It’s also interesting how little the book has dated, although his use of a piddling 18W iron would have surely been updated to a 50W - 80W solder station by now! Mind you, he doesn’t really deal with chassis in that book, and that’s where things will have changed in the last 30+ years.