Welcome to Fireball Modelworks! My name is Joseph Osborn and my Mission is to bring interesting and overlooked subjects to the scale modeling community, with realistic prices and exceptional customer service.
I've been a scale modeler for practically my whole life. When I was a toddler, my older brothers would give me car and truck models, which they would have to "put together for me." That was a pretty good grift. The first model I can remember putting together was an Aurora Batman. I learned two things from that experience: boxart illustrations are always better than the model, and white glue is terrible at holding styrene parts together.
So how did a hobby make the jump to job? It started way back in 2004. I had been scratchbuilding some pieces to build a more accurate AH-1G HueyCobra and I thought, "Hey, maybe other people would like to have these parts, too." So I made up some sets and offered them for sale on the old Heli-Kit News internet forum. For several years, my product line was based around my love of helicopters and helicopter modeling, and I produced many decals, resin, and photoetched items for the helicopter modeling community.
But as the "forever war" dragged on in southwest Asia and affected the lives of my family, my love of those military subjects began to wane. I considered leaving the hobby business to concentrate on my Information Technology career. Friends suggested I pivot to automobile models since I also had a passion for musclecars and owned a 1969 Pontiac GTO. At about this time (2013), I learned 3D modeling as a way to accelerate my product development. After attempting to use Shapeways to distribute my new 3D-generated items (a mistake), I got myself a huge, hulking resin 3D printer with a DLP-projector and started making my own casting masters. Resin 3D printer technology grew by leaps and bounds over just a few years, and it was finally possible to get affordable printers and UV resins that had much of the same quality as polyurethane casting resin. Now there's a proliferation of 3D-printing outfits servicing the scale model community, but I'm proud to say that I was one of the first.
My only regret is that the hobby business leaves little time for the hobby itself, but that's okay. As long as I can help other modelers turn their visions into reality, I'm very satisfied!
...and this is Fireball. The sweetest kitty ever. 2001-2013
