What Is WinCol.com? Way back in 1979 I had an ambition, (and promised the readers of my books) to make available to them copies of the scale plans and data photographs that I use in
building my own work. Now with the availability of comparatively inexpensive home digital equipment, a powerful Apple Mac Computer, and the Internet, I think we have at long last got all of the pieces together
to fulfill my original ambition.
The model ship, model aircraft and model steam enthusiast has long been catered for with regard to scale plans of an
endless variety of subjects. While those interested in scale carriage building have a limited range, the car enthusiast has almost nothing to choose from. He is obliged to either modify manufactured kits,
or collect his own data and draft his own plans as I have done. The former choice means that you are restricted to what the manufacturer is prepared to offer in kit form, the latter means that you might have
many months work collecting together the data and drafting the plans before actually getting down to building the model, that is if you can locate the subject of your desire in the first place. The IF is a very
big one, because almost all of the most desirable subjects were built in very limited numbers, are now valued in the millions of dollars bracket, and held in private collections, not open or available to
the general public.
After more than thirty years of model making and data collecting, Phyllis and I have now amassed an enormous
photographic archive. Although we have had to travel up to 12,000 miles to collect a lot of this material, it has been freely provided. We have always been given the most generous of assistance of unrestricted
access to priceless vehicles by their owners or keepers, at no cost to us, for which we thank them most sincerely. I wish now to make these available to whoever can make use of them.
Data photographs are like gold dust, invaluable to the person working with a given subject, but can cost ten or
twenty Dollars 'EACH' from Museums and Archives. In my work I consider them as important as the scale plans themselves. As we were allowed to take them without cost, so we pass them on with the
Portfolios without specific charge.
Those familiar with our work will know of my 'Books', some 60,000 copies of which have now gone around the
world to aspiring model makers. Here at long last we are making available the plans and data photographs to go with these. This Internet site is for you, to provide you with as much of my original data as
you may want, to answer queries on problems you may have with the techniques set out in my books, and for a few, to offer one to one tuition on these techniques in my workshop at some future date.
This of course does not mean that you have to own a 'Wingrove' book before you can qualify for access to
this data store. There have been several cases over the years of people making use of this data to assist them in restoring and/or building replica automobiles. If you can make use of it, it is here for
you.
I have given much thought on the pricing for this material, and sent out a 'round robin' via the Internet to
a number of people in several countries who have, over the years, either expressed an interest in acquiring this data, and/or are into scratch building themselves, to seek their views. Suggestions ranged from
$20. to $200, to $700. per portfolio, the latter from someone seeking data on a particular car that he found was impossible to gain access to.
The criteria that I have used to arrive at a price is that it should cover the cost of material, labour, airmail
post, packing and insurance, and an amount that will allow me to continue drafting plans and adding Portfolio to the list. The price paid is for the plans of a 'Subject', the sheets of which may vary in
number from Portfolio to Portfolio, as will the number of pages of detail photos. To put it another way, I am suggesting that as a subject for modeling with regard to the cost of the data required, a Curved Dash
Oldsmobile, should be no more or less than that for a Bugatti Royale.
Each Plans Portfolio is made up of a number of A3 sheets of 1/15th scale drawings of the subject together with up to
fifteen A4 pages of detail photographs, (with 1 to 4 photos per sheet) most of which will be black and white, but including at least one colour illustration, together with brief notes on the colour scheme and
points of interest on the subject. As we have well over a hundred photos of some subjects, we are also making available to those seeking additional data and who already have the 'Plans Portfolio', a
'Supplementary Portfolio' of further detailed photos at a reduced price. If they still need more information on a particular point, maybe the left side of the carburetor or spring shackle for example, if
we have the photos on file, then we will supply one further single A4 page of photos of these free of charge. Although we ourselves have taken well over 10.000 detail photographs of these vehicles, we have also
been given, for use in our plans books (Portfolios), a number of unique, and in many cases, original factory photograph, of some subjects. However the agreement for our free use was given back in the 1970s when
this project was first conceived. Because of the time lapse between then and now I have endeavoured to make contact again with these most generous individuals and organisations. Unfortunately many of them have
now passed on and it is all but impossible to determine who or where the new owners of these photos, if any, may be. "
