Bill Garner used to watch his dad build trains and houses. Eventually he would help his Dad and after getting some inspiration, began building on his own at about age seven. Among his early builds were a snap van of some sort ( Bill says he still has that one ), and a 72 Nova. Like most kids, he dropped the hobby in those middle years and picked it up again around 1996 when his wife's parents gave him a Porsche model for Christmas. Now Bill's inspiration comes from his job. Bill has been an auto body painter for twenty years and seeing cars everyday gives him some good reference. But that reference does not restrict him to assembly line shiny pride and joy's. Bill sees a lot of wrecks and has analyzed them over the years. This constant reference source, combined with heating and bending and cutting the styrene bodies, enables him to build some very convincing replicas of crunched vehicles caused by Happy Hour abusers and distracted cell phone gabbers.
While wrecks are Bill's specialty, he certainly can build some awesome factory stock and pro street models. And trucks (big & small) present no obstacle to his skills. Bill also has a good hand with specialty vehicles and his bizarre sense of humor adds some unique twists on otherwise ordinary subjects. One can only salivate with anticipation on what offbeat idea will appear on next month's display table.
In addition to using his full size spray equipment to paint models, Bill likes to analyze colors and can quite accurately predict how a finished paint job will look. Is this why he doesn't like pre-painted kits? "Modeling is modeling", he says and doesn't care for one group attacking another. "I enjoy meeting different people with different skills and modeling preferences, including, planes, armor, etc." he adds in his honest tone. He's won a modest amount of contest awards and accepts them humbly, like many of his peers. And like the rest of us, Bill is always seeking to improve his skills and add just a little more detail each time. His biggest challenge right now-----"figuring out Bare Metal Foil". With your talent Bill, it won't take much longer.