Jamie's modeling story began practically on the day she was born. Her father, an avid model railroader, had the beginning of a small HO-Scale layout. She grew up around the model trains, and was operating them by the age of two. By the time she was five, her father had built her her own N-Scale layout. Her number one interest was always cars, though. While other young girls were playing with dolls and makeup, Jamie was playing with toy cars, and already dreaming about the real ones she might have when she grew up.
Always a creative child who loved to work with her hands, she started scratch-building "model"; cars at a young age. These consisted of nothing more than crude cardboard foldups she designed and put together. Some of her later ones took on more detail. One in particular featured a full interior, sunroof, spoiler and two-tone paint scheme with Testors paint. It was then that her father took note of her ability and bought her her first real plastic model car kit - a 1979 Ford Mustang Indy Pace Car. At the young age of seven, her love of modeling began.
Her first models, like most everyone else's, were nothing to brag about. The cars were simply glued together without painting or detailing. She measured her progress as a modeler by learning to put them together faster and faster. Quality was not a concern, but she was having fun. She used to show these cars with pride to friends, relatives and anyone who took the time to look at them. She had fun with these for a few years, but was stifled when her mother decided "no more models"; as she supposedly had "too many" of them.
Her interest was rekindled in her teenage years by an unlikely source. She became a fanatic about the television show "Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future". The show contained a newschopper for the ficticious "Network 23" television station. She decided it would be an interesting subject to build. She bought an Army Huey chopper, and after realizing it was too different from the show's chopper, she decided to build it anyway as the Army version. Not knowing much about helicopters, forced her to constantly refer to the box photographs for painting the small details. She also discovered a new found patience for painting and "getting things right". After completing the helicopter, she was anxious to return to the world of model cars to try her new skills there. She built steadily through high school, continually improving her skills and knowledge. Her primary interest was muscle cars, and she did some of her favorites like the Plymouth Barracuda and the Ford Mustang Boss 302. But when she started college in 1992, the models once again had to be put on the sidelines.
In 1996, she got back into model car building, this time for good. Now established in a full-time job, and living in her own house, she had the time and the space to re-enter the hobby. During this time, she became interested in foreign cars, particulary Japanese cars that were never imported to the US. Some of her favorites are the Toyota Carina ED Autopista and the Nissan Skyline.
In December of 1997, she joined theDelaware Valley Scale Modelers club, and met up with Jim Durso. It was here that she learned many new techniques such as airbrushing, polishing, and metal foiling, which allowed her to build award winning models such as the Opel Calibra Race Car. She also made many new friends in the hobby there.
In September of 1999, she and Jim decided to start the Philadelphia Area Car Modellers club to bring more car modelers together. She still has that 1979 Mustang pace car in her collections, and she eventually did build the replica of the Network 23 helicopter. She continues to build new cars and devotes much of her time to running the club's website.
When she's not building cars, she's at her full-time job of designing large commercial and industrial buildings.