Hello from Seattle. Growing up, I loved building tank, plane, and ship models, mostly from the WWII era. I’ve recently rejoined the hobby after 30+ years, after a friend gave me a surprise birthday present – a 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109G-10 model! It was quite a schock but a cool gift.
Although I’ve long since thrown away my Xacto knives and paint brushes, I resolved to build the Gustav and do it justice with a nice build and paint job. I checked online references, bought glue, paints and supplies, and set to work. I was disappointed in the end result, but was also amazed at the state of the art and how much the hobby has progressed (at least for me). Gone are the days of a slapping on a coat of paint (or not), applying decals and being done.
So over the last 11 models since that first 109, I’ve progressed from brush painting with enamels, airbrushing enamels, to airbrushing with acrylics and am still trying new techniques with every build. I’m getting happier with the results but I still have a long way to go.
The bottom line is that modeling is fun! I love learning the history of a particular plane or pilot, studying photos and trying to recreate a lifelike machine from over 75 years ago.
That’s my story.
I really appreciate the articles, photos and posts that I’ve come across on this site when trying to solve a problem (antenna wire, canopy masking, seam filling, matt coating, orange peel, airbrush cleaning, etc.).
Thanks for all the help and I look forward to contributing.