Meet the Team

Gary Madgwick

Managing Director - Gary, The Big Cheese, has had a life long interest in aviation and modelling which he has continued to carry forward with him to the present day. His father helped him make models from Airfix Sherman tanks to the classic Airfix Dogfighter double sets as a child and he was immediately hooked.

Beginning his professional life, he was initially in the Army, serving a short service commission serving in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Belize and Rhodesia before training as an Architect. He is currently a Director of numerous Design and Project Management Practices working on many famous building around the world. He is also the building Development Director for Wantage Silver Band where he has designed a state of the art music centre. Having been associated with the band since 2003, Gary likes to nurture his passion for music through playing the Tenor Horn, alongside his son and wife who are also very capable musicians.

Gary established The Aviation Workshop, over a decade ago an importer of decals from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. No other company was distributing such stock in the UK at the time and in the knowledge that he wasn't the only interested party he decided to stock the limited run decals. The rest is now history as The Aviation Workshop is the largest decal producer in the UK.

Gary has written for many publishers over the years including IPMS (UK) Magazine, AirFrame, Combined Forces, Scale Aviation Modeller and many other magazines and publications around the world. He is also a keen photographer with over 400 hour logged in military aircraft as a photographer, from Chipmunk to Apache and Tornado F3. His writing and photographic library has been used to good effect since 1997, as in 2003 the first of the On-Target Publications was released and the company has now produced many more Profiles, Specials and Spotlight books with many new titles in production.

He has built a close and trusted team within the Aviation Workshop including decal and book artists, authors and photographers in his strive for accuracy and his passion for perfection.

Andy Donovan

Project Manager - Andy is currently acting as Project Manager for the Aviation Workshop around his full-time job in the General Aviation industry. He attended the University of Portsmouth from 2003 and graduated with a BSc Honours Degree in Physical Geography. During the course Andy passed selection for Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve service and spent several years undergoing Elementary Flying Training with Southampton UAS based at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. He also served a short period as OIC Flying Operations for the squadron and spent time in training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2005. Having developed a keen interest in competitive shooting Andy has also been a member of the RAF Target Rifle Team, and trained an extremely successful UAS team which went on to dominate the annual Skill-at-Arms meet of that year.

After leaving university he applied for commissioned service with the Royal Air Force and passed through the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre at RAF Cranwell. Unfortunately, despite an offer to return, Andy's first attempt was not a success and he is currently in the midst of his second application. He is an enthusiastic squash player and is also passionate about the ski slopes, despite not getting away as often as he might wish! He currently writes a semi-regular column for the monthly newspaper Flight Training News and even finds time for illustration, producing both profiles and front covers for TAW.

Beginning his association with the Aviation Workshop in 1999 Andy assumed the role of Project Manager in 2006 and alongside Gary is now directly responsible for the co-ordination and presentation of many of the company's major titles from books to decals. He also shares a number of responsibilities concerning general management of the company and has been at the centre of a number of logistical and organisational changes, including the redesign of the company's web site.

Mark Attrill

Editor-in-Chief (Spotlight Series) - Mark is a serving Officer in the Royal Air Force with a lifelong interest in military aviation and history. He attended the UK Staff College in 2002 and holds a Master's Degree in International Relations and Defence Studies from King's College, London. As a keen aviation photographer, Mark occasionally had his work published in UK aviation titles during the 1980s before his first full commission, for Airframe Magazine, in 1990. Since then, he has produced numerous photo-articles for the mainstream UK and International Aviation and Modelling Press.

After co-authoring several aviation book titles Mark produced his first solo book, Tiger! Tigre! Tigros! - The Squadrons of the NATO Tiger Association, which was published by Airlife in 1997. Mark has had a long affiliation with the NATO Tiger's and has been the official Press and Public Affairs Adviser to the Association for 10 years. Mark has also been a regular participant on the UK scale model scene, attending his first IPMS Nationals at Stoneleigh in 1987. He has also worked as a consultant or researcher on colour schemes and markings for a number of kit and decal manufacturers including Aeromaster, Hasegawa and Revell.

Mark formally joined the Aviation Workshop team in January 2004 and, with Mark Rolfe, helped to launch the Spotlight series with their first book, on a personal favourite, the Dassault Mirage F.1. As Editor-in-Chief, Mark is largely responsible for determining which titles will appear in this particular series but is also called upon to assist with the preparation of other TAW publications, such as the recently published Profile Plus on the 'legacy' variants of the Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) F/A-18 Hornet.

Jon Freeman

Illustrator - Jon started his personal company, Area 39 Design Studios, based in Sheffield, in 2002 and is now devoted to the specialist design of scale aircraft modelling decals and military aviation illustration. He has not only designed decals for Model Alliance but also for a number of other respected producers, such as Airfix, Eagle Strike, RAFDecs, HiPlanes (Australia) and many more.

Alongside his work as a decal artist Jon has also illustrated many publications for The Aviation Workshop, concentrating much of his time and efforts on the Profile series. He has also provided a massive contribution to the Special series, including titles such as Special 4: HMS Ark Royal which proved to be a massive success upon its release. As a freelance artist he also provides artwork for numerous magazines, including Scale Aircraft Modelling.

Mark Rolfe

Illustrator - Mark Rolfe has been a freelance technical artist since 1989. Operating as MRTA (Mark Rolfe Technical Art), he lists a variety of distinguished publishers and publications in the United Kingdom, United States and Japan to his clientele base.

Specialising mainly in aviation, military and automotive art, Mark added The Aviation Workshop to his list of freelance clients in April 2003, and although he is not employed by TAW, he often helps the company out at shows, having known Gary for many years. Mark specialises in full colour vector and bitmap artwork, cutaway artwork, photo restoration, and is also a trained draughtsman.

In his spare time, Mark is a very keen modeller, photographer, and has a deep interest in martial arts, notably Aikido, US rock music and also Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal movies. Mark hails from Bournemouth in the United Kingdom.

Glenn Sands

Author - Glenn has held an interest in aviation and modelling for as long as he can remember and blames his Dad on both counts! He has been a keen photographer from a young age with most of his shots focusing on wings or rotors. After completing his academic studies Glenn first began to work as a freelance photographer for the main city paper in Portsmouth, which gave him a taste for the rush and tear of the publishing world. In addition to photography he received further training on all aspects of the printed media. When an opportunity arose to work as an editor at Aerospace Publishing in London, the publishers of World Air Power Journal and Wings of Fame, the post seemed to be a natural next step for Glenn. He subsequently moved to IPC Media to work as a freelance feature writer supplying articles to magazines as varied as Woman's Own, Jets and Aeroplane Monthly, where he developed the original concept and idea for the Datafile reference section.

A large upheaval followed when he traversed the world to work in Australia as a freelance writer for a year. During this period he worked closely with the Royal Australian Air Force on a number of modern and historical articles, also becoming a temporary member of the SPASM model club in Melbourne. Now working as a freelance aviation and modelling journalist, Glenn has had features published over the years in Aircraft Illustrated, Air Forces Monthly, Scale Aircraft Modelling, Model Aircraft Monthly and ModelArt Australia. He is also a trusted member of the Aviation Workshop team and continues to support and contribute in any way that he can.

...and all of these guys too!

Information coming soon on:

• Denis J Calvert (Author)
• Andy Kime (Author)
• Mike Starmer (Author)
• Malcolm Lowe (Author)
• Jonathan Mock(Illustrator)
• Pete Freeman (Illustrator)
• Peter Scott (Illustrator)
• Gert Weckx (Illustrator)
• Mike Shackleton (Layout)
• Lucy Brooks (Dispatch & Logistics)
• Judith Chapman (Accounts & Office Management)