Laurie Barr fixing a free flight indoor model propeller Laurie winning The Queens Cup in 1953 Our workshop in the 60's A Spitfire for the film "Battle of Britain" being prepared Our workshop in the 1960's An artist applying transfers to a model Production of scale model aircraft for the major airlines
Mastermodels has its roots back in the 1960’s when Laurie Barr started our parent company AGM Limited (Aeronautical and General Modelmakers Limited). Laurie started the company on the back of years of experience as a model maker and carpenter. He also had a passion for aeromodelling especially free flight and became National Champion in 1949 at the age of 22. With this in mind, he wanted to start a model making company but had limited funds. He saw an advertisement in the News Chronicle, calling for enterprising people who wanted to start their own business to appear on TV and offered £5000 to the winner. He appeared on the first show of “Get Ahead”, and won the first heat. He ended up coming second overall. This proved to be great publicity as he had a number of people writing to him wanting to form a business together. Laurie took an opportunity to become a 50/50 partner with Norman Fisher who had a highly successful pattern making business. With Norman providing the money to start up he left Laurie to create the new business and Mastermodels was born.
Mastermodels today make all sorts of models for many different organisations. We make satellite models, aircraft models, ship models, concept models of consumer devices, large display models for exhibitions and museums. We also make interactive models for museums and industrial clients.