My very first model development trip took me to London in October 1990. Revell wanted to release a Ferrari 250 GTO as a finished model in the large scale of 1:16. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason owned an extensive collection of Ferrari sports cars at the time, including a 250 GTO. We got in touch with his company Ten Tens and arranged a photo session. So I flew out in the morning and back in the late afternoon, with plenty of photos of Nick's 250 GTO in my luggage.
Unfortunately he wasn't there himself that day. As a Pink Floyd fan, I would have loved to meet him. An employee parked the car outside on a turning area, so I could photograph the Ferrari in full. Later we drove to a garage where the GTO was put on a lift and I was able to photograph the entire underbody. This photo was taken by a passing bobby.
No, no, I was not the designer of the Audi TT when it was developed in Ingolstadt in 1998. Revell wanted to release a model of this sports car, and it was supposed to be available just in time for the delivery of the original. Developing and producing such a model takes quite some time, so we needed a head start. I kept my camera running almost all day, shooting one film after another of the pre-production car standing on a turntable.
Once I had everything in the can, I had to hand over all the films to Audi. The people in Ingolstadt had them developed at their own expense and checked every shot. They wanted to make sure I hadn't photographed anything that was not meant for the public at that time. A few days later, the complete set of pictures arrived in Bünde.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Schnelsen volunteer fire brigade, someone came up with the idea of converting a BMW Isetta into a fire engine. That was in 1978, and 15 years later Revell produced this "mini fire engine" as a finished model in 1:18 scale as part of a large-scale Isetta campaign. I visited the owners of the "Löschi" back then to photograph the little one and to take measurements of the add-on parts.
In the 1950s and 1960s, this BMW Isetta served the police as an inexpensive means of getting around. It mainly appeared in the fleets of rural police stations, where it often replaced motorcycles. That way, investigating officers could travel across the country to their next call with dry feet, even in rain and snow. This Isetta was acquired and restored by the Hessian Police Academy in the 1980s. In 1993, the then Hessian Minister of the Interior, Dr. Herbert Günther, handed the vehicle over to the collection of the PMC Marburg.
A visit to the Thurn & Taxis brewery in Ravensburg. Moving this Kenworth truck and trailer would have been no problem at all for me, since I held the class 2 driver's licence from my military service. For Revell, I had developed this combination from the existing Kenworth W900 and a new trailer.
During my trips through several US states I also travelled through Pennsylvania and visited Mack Trucks in Allentown. There I had the pleasure of taking a factory tour and watching the heavy trucks being built. Of course, in their shop I also bought the original Bulldog and two models of the Mack B.
This photo was taken when I was at Fred Viohl's in Haverstraw to photograph his Kenworth tow truck. The local fire station was about 200 m from his property, and of course I had to go there to see what vehicles they had. Besides a vintage American LaFrance tiller, I got to see an ALF pumper and this beautiful Mack B oldie.
And here it is, the American LaFrance Century 2000 from 1986. The guys from the Haverstraw Fire Department always parked the pumper so that I could photograph it from every side. We also shot driving footage with the video camera back then.
On the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco I not only stopped at several truck stops but also visited a number of fire departments. Besides the San Jose Fire Department, I also went to Bakersfield. The firefighters there showed me all their vehicles and even took me once around the block in a TDA. A photo with an ALF 900 series pumper was a must.
I have been to New York City twice, in 1996 and 2016. On my first visit, Bertus Backer and I also went over to Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty stands. And in 1996 the 400 m high twin towers of the World Trade Center were still standing. It is unbelievable that they were destroyed on 11 September 2001.
When I was on the road in California for Revell for 18 days, I took a break at almost every major truck stop and went looking for interesting subjects with my camera. I could have taken thousands of photos, as there were trucks galore. This shot was taken when I drove from Sacramento back to Los Angeles and on to Las Vegas.
California's largest truck stop is near Los Angeles, on Interstate 10 at the Milliken Avenue exit. I stood at the junction by the truck stop with my video camera for a long time and filmed endless trucks coming off the highway. Right next to the junction there was also a railway line, on which extremely long freight trains kept rolling past at intervals.
I can no longer say where this photo was taken. During my travels in the USA I visited many fire stations. It could have been the fire department of the town of Conover, where I photographed the Kenworth W900 with Squrt.
On the way to Las Vegas I left Interstate 10 to take a look at the vehicles of the Montclair Fire Department, and took plenty of photos there as well.
