My name is René Hieronymus and with this website I have finally the chance to get in contact with model-builders all over the world and show them my hobby. I started to build models when I was about 9 years old and and since then I never stopped with this. In the mid 1970’s I got in contact with some other people and we finally founded this little group here in Salzburg which we call “Interessensgemeinschaft US. Navy Salzburg“. While my first models were of course pretty simple and definitely not very accurate or beautiful, I stayed with the hobby and over the years it became more and more important to me. My dedication for ships and aircrafts of the US. Navy started when I found a book about US. Navy aircraft carrier which fascinated me, after this I specialized myself on these subjects. Today I live here in Austria near the city of Salzburg and meanwhile this hobby has quite some significance for me. Over the years I got in contact with several other people which share the same hobby as I do. In 1977 I met Gottfried Wiwod during a little model-show here in Salzburg and I was very impressed by his knowledge about the ships of the US. Navy, this was the beginning for our little group and during the coming years, some other other people joined our team.

My activities for this hobby became more and more interesting. Today I travel frequently to air shows and museums all over Europe and every few years to the United States as well. Due to my hobby and some of these trips, I made a couple of friends all over the planet. Model building is my main activity for this hobby, since the very beginning I build models only in the scale of 1:72. This is simply because when I started to build my first model this was the most prominent scale and even today I think that this particular scale is the most interesting if you are planning to have a somewhat bigger collection. If I had to describe the way I like to build my models I would have to say that I am definitely not a “rivet-counter”. As long as the size and the proportion of a model look all right to me I will not change anything at all and I will not care if a model is perhaps 1 or 2mm to wide or to long, if it looks good I will leave it that way. Aftermarket parts are not my favourites as well. Sure I use them but I prefer to do my own conversions and bits and pieces. Maybe this is because when I started with this hobby there simply were no such things like photo-etched parts or resin engines. If you wanted to make something look better, well you had only one chance, do it yourself and that’s what I tried and after some, or should I say quite a few attempts it worked and my “own” aftermarket parts got better. Today I like to build models completely scratch, which does not mean that I do not like to build any more kit’s I only made the experience that actually building a model all by yourself cannot only be very demanding but very satisfactory too!

When building a model I like to build them in a very authentic way, I do not like those idealized models which you can see some museums or exhibitions. I really like to show those models just like an original, most of these aircrafts and ships were used, they were exposed to the elements and that’s what I want to show too. You will see that I concentratemyself on the original and not the kit itself. So in most cases you will not find any comments about the pro’s and con’s for this kit or it’s manufacturer, for me the history of the “real” thing is the more important factor. I really hope that you will enjoy your visit at my little website here and if you have any questions, please feel free to get in contact with me. Keep on modelling, René Hieronymus