I’ve been concentrating on my early days….the first ship models I remember were smaller than 1/1200, and came from Woolworths. They were a sort of shiny grey plastic and the range was a Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship and Aircraft Carrier. This must have been between 1952 and 1956, and I played out every Naval Action from WWI and WWII with my grandfather on his “sitting room” table – until cleared away by my nan for tea.
As soon as Triang and Eagle came on the scene (1958?), I was there. A (primarily) bike shop in far-off Moreton (about four miles away) started selling them. I had a paper round, saved up for a very second-hand bike, then used the bike to go and buy Triangs and Eagles whenever I could. I collected pretty well a full set of the RN ships and laid them out on a blackboard – which slid under my bed.
My then GP was ex-RN, having served in destroyers through WWII, and when visiting anybody in my family would always spend 15 mins “playing” with the Triang fleet.