It’s all in the details: Steve Williams’ latest scale masterpiece

Anyone familiar with Steve Williams’ (@stewil) scale model car collection knows that, for him, a model rarely goes straight from the box to the display case.

Steve has long had a habit of taking an already impressive model and making it even better. That often means partially disassembling a Brooklin model so he can detail areas most people would never think to touch — especially the interior. He pays particular attention to the dashboards, adding chrome accents, switches, and hyper-detailed gauges to make the interiors look remarkably true to the originals. “Brooklin especially does such a wonderful job of making the details of the dash so crisply moulded that I cannot help myself,” he says.

That same obsession with the smallest details carries over to Steve’s aircraft collection that circles overhead his extensive 1:43 model displays. His latest project, a 1:32 scale Hansa-Brandenburg W.12 German biplane seaplane, is a perfect example. Built from a highly detailed Wingnut Wings kit, Steve began the model in April 2023. After a lengthy hiatus while other priorities intervened, he recently returned to the work and completed it.

The finished aircraft rewards a close look. Steve carefully rigged the biplane, following the original design of the rudder so it would not restrict the observer’s rear firing angles. He also admired the functional-looking engine louvers. “I’ve never seen such louvered accuracy modeled to scale,” shares Steve. The observer’s station includes a tiny navigation chart on the table used by the navigator, gunner and occasional bombardier. The rear-mounted gun itself required considerable patience to assemble and detail.

Other touches are equally convincing: a weathered, rusty exhaust; a laminated real-wood propeller with brass-protected edges; subtle differences between the aircraft’s left and right sides; and a compass mounted on the lower wing where both pilot and observer could see it.

It's that attention to the smallest features that makes Steve’s models so compelling. What begins as a collection of plastic, wood, wire, and paint gradually becomes a miniature aircraft with a sense of history and purpose.

The W.12 also adds another participant to the whimsical aerial pursuit taking place in Steve’s model room. Suspended from the ceiling is a growing formation of German aircraft, all seemingly chasing one particularly elusive adversary: Snoopy in his Sopwith Camel.

Steve has just one aircraft left to build to complete the chase, the Junkers D.1. For now, though, the newly finished seaplane has earned its place in the formation as another painstakingly detailed addition to an evolutionary collection of WWI aircraft from 1914 to 1918, where the fun is found as much in the tiny details of aircraft evolving year by year, as in the finished model.