Hi, my name is Patrick Selitrenny, a 70 year old retired stage actor and director stemming from Switzerland who has worked in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
My passion though not only encompassed drama, classic literature and history but also scale modeling since a very tender age.
My first works were disastrous but I loved them anyway.
Unfortunately for years I collected so many models in hope to occasionally build some, but my crazy schedules always thwarted my efforts to do so and therefore the boxes kept piling up to almost having a model shop of my own.
Now that I am finally in my retirement and have no other distractions or duties I have restarted my hobby at full strength, but before doing anything I had to relearn everything from scratch, since many techniques have changed and many more tools are now available that one could only dream of only 30 or 40 years ago.
Currently i have taken upon myself the building of a set of 1:35 scale World War II dioramas, starting from D-Day operations, going on to the Netherlands, then to the Battle of Aachen and the Battle in Hurtgen Forest, stretching my efforts to the Battle of the Bulge and finishing at Remagen.
I just started the first one which is a medium sized project called “The Last Warning”, which is not an action driven diorama, but rather a sort of introduction to D-Day seen through the eyes of the German High Command during an inspection of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in April 1944 to the defenses of Omaha Beach. The entire scene is on top of the Eastern side of Pointe-du-Hoc in a secured area with a small communication bunker nearby. I plan to post pictures of my progress in this space to receive some feedback and even some suggestions about my progress.
I thank you all for your attention and wish you a very happy modeling.
Welcome to FSM,sounds like an ambitious project.
Indeed it is. And every time I add something to it i can only scratch my head, but so far I haven’t had major problems with it, but one thing is for sure, it is rather time consuming and time intense.
Welcome to FSM. Looking forward to seeing your work. 
I will try to post all my pictures of the current project by phase of progress on the Kalmbach site. There are so many that I deem it more useful to publish them there by also describing the steps that I took to build it all up. Thank you for your kind comment.
Welcome to the forum!!!
Thank you Cbowling. I hope I won’t make a nonsense of myself around here…
Welcome to the forum Crazy-Creator-5601. You have a very ambitious build schedule ahead of you and I can’t wait to be along for the ride!
Thank you mrb865, I am glad to be here. Actually, I am returning into the fray after years of silence, but now that I have rejoined my hobby at full thrust I aim to share my experiences with you all. And yes, absolutely, welcome to the ride!
Welcome to the forums. Your work does sound ambitious. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Welcome. It is good to have a plan…and yours is certainly ambitious. I am sure many on the Forums will provide helpful comments and advice as needed. I look forward to seeing your progress.
Welcome, you’ve a very ambitious plan, Armor of WW2 in 1/35 is my second favorite subject. I look forward to seeing your efforts - I’ll check out your post “The Last Warning” next.
Thank you JoeSMG. It will certainly be a journey of a lifetime and not just for this one. Many more will follow after this build will be completed, but don’t hold your breath because it will be a bit slow going due to the historical detail I want to pay attention upon. Be well until my next post and let me know about your own progress as well.
Thank you PaulC, very kind of you, and yes indeed, it is a very ambitious and who knows, also a risky endeavor I have tackled with, but at least now I have the time of my life to do so since I am retired. It has always been my dream to one day do something of value with my own hands and now those days are here, but make no mistake, I am still learning from the true professionals. So please, continue following my progress if you will and let me know what you think.
Thank you Aggieman, and indeed you are right. Not only does it sound ambitious but it really is that, but whether or not I will succeed in my long journey there remains to be seen. So far everything went fine, but along the way I may stumble on a few things (it’s inevitable 'cause no one is really perfect 
). Still, for me it represents a long sought dream and I simply love to create something out of nothing, possibly also sticking to some realism whenever possible.
So please, wheneve you have some time glimpse in and tell me what you frankly think.
Compliments are welcome, but a keen eye on detail is by far more preferred.
Welcome to fsm. I recently retired also and cant wait to enjoy more modeling time!
Welcome and as a guy who has never built a diorama but really appreciates a good one, I look forward to seeing your project.