What kind of a modeler are you?

Modeling Subjects Armor
21

Well, I am 33 years old. I got interested in modeling when I was small. Back then I don’t have access to platic kits and all we have are models of trucks cut from tin cans. I had my first feel of a plastic kit when I was in 1st year in college (an A-10 by Academy) but never really pursued it because I can’t afford them. I decided to go seriously into the hobby late in 2002 and got deeply hooked eversince. I previously did A/C but now I am more interested in armor.

I am also a big video/pc games fanatic. He-he-he.

22

I know what you mean Frozen
One of my friends gets anger fits pretty much all of the time (he has anxiety). He was heavily into videogames, but is now running out of patience with them. I LOVE d2, played it for days on end.
Anyways, I’ve been trying to get him into it. It’s a much more affordable hobby (he spends upwards of 200 a month on games) plus I think he’ll benefit from the fact that he gets to enjoy his hard work afterwards.

23

I’m a 15 year old modeler from CANADA. I have been building models for the past few years and have been hooked since. I am a suscriber to FSM. I collect militaria mostly world war II, I love playing on the computer.
I’m me

24

LOL, I thought I was the youngest one on this form.

I’m a 16-year-old, started modeling since I was five. I tried to get my friends interested in the hobby then and now, but failed LOL… They were more interested in other things. They do admire the skills that go into one though, I imagine that’s a good thing.
I enjoy modeling a lot but I’m always overloaded with schoolwork and can never find time. Once in a while I’ll have time to glue a few parts together and that’s about it. At times it takes me a month to finish a simple kit! I also build models from scratch in my woodshop class …

My scratch built models are at this website ( website still under Construction) : http://www.geocities.com/sir_duke_one/wooverstone8.html

25

[quote]
Originally posted by Rob Gronovius

The reason why you see so many older males (late 30s and above) is because we were the last generation not to grow up with video game.

Yeah right, I am 14 and i didn,ty grow up wi video games, we put firecrackers in our models and throught themat stuff.[B)].

26

I’m a 40 yr. old engineer who got into modeling back in the 70’s. My dad was a modeler so I guess around the age I started working on his models he must have got tired of me getting glue everywhere and got me a model or two of my own to build. I had the simplest of tools and no airbrush. But I’d try any model that looked cool. I was a pretty heavy modeler right up until high school. Not sure why but I got out of modeling altogether.

From time to time I see models for sale on Ebay… ones that I built growing up. Its odd how your perspective changes. But I had a great deal of fun building them. I’lll probably buy a few of the kits just for nostalga sake. [;)]

I didn’t get back into plastic modeling until I got the bug to fly RC planes. Thats about 5 yrs ago. I had barely gotten into them. But I knew I’d enjoy building one then airbrushing it. But wait… oh thats right… I didn’t know how to airbrush. A lightbulb goes on over my head that I could practice on plastic models before I go trying it on an RC warbird.

I started off building WW2 warbirds… then built some modern fighters… started reading FSM… had a real itch to build some of the german armor and I got sucked right into the dark side.

I don’t build them as quick as I did when I was just a young pup but I finally learned how to airbrush so its a good tradeoff. Some types that I built as a kid but haven’t built since I got back into modeling are ships, subs, motorcycles, dragsters, sports cars and space stuff. I can still picture a lot of the models I built. And I’m hoping one of these days to build them all again… but probably not as many.

For me its really nice to see younger people getting into models. Its just a great hobby.

27

im 23 years old and i got into the hobby back in the 80s when i got the testors TOP GUN aircraft kit in 1/72 scale, with the three planes based off the movies, i helped my dad buld them and i still have them on display. i got serious into the hobby this summer when i put the money into it to get the necessary tools, but i suppose my specialty as a history major got me into it.
= chris

28

great topic. I am 47 years old and spent 20 years in the US military as an Infantry Officer. I have been modelling for most of 40 years. Even finding time in the military to build a kit now and then. I build any and all kits that strike my fancy. I seem to go through moods, Aircraft, armor, ships, cars, figures. I have soemwhat concentrated on figures and armor as of late. Usually large scale figs unless using for a diorama.
One problem I see with kids getting involved in the hobby is the price of kits these days. I don’t mean to start any discussions on pricing, but the days of the .98 cent kit are gone. We have much better kits but it seems most are targeted towards boomers, those of us with at least minimal disposable income. That said, there are some great starter kits out there and I continually see fantastic work by ‘juniors’ in the shows. The way I look at it, whatever it takes to get someone ‘hooked’! Be it diecast or prepainted plastic kits, a level 1 snap together or a standard Monogram 1/48 P-51 picked up at a yard sale for a buck. It is a great hobby and we should all do our part to impress that fact on anyone we know, no matter what the age of the ‘kid’ is…

29

I’m a 26 year old Electrician who got back into modelling just recently after 6-7 years off.
I got into modelling when I was about 10 through a love of aircraft and history, as well as just pure fascination with minatures. Now I model dioramas from WW2, my favourite area of history.
I also like playing sport, writing/recording music, movies, video games, reading, beer, spending time with my girlfriend/family/friends etc.

Good news for the hobby; my 25 year old flatmate just built his first model, and my 20 year old apprentice is about to start his. This is hobby that you come back to, or appears to you when life changes pace etc. I think I am enjoying it more this time around, and being able to discuss it online just makes it better.

Matt
Like ShermanFirefly said: I’m me!

30

I agree with you Tigerman but the only diff is I still build them that way! Like Spector822002 said I too got one of my first kit’s while i was sick. I’m a 30 yr police officer and son of a retired Army man and grandson of a man who earned a silver star in WWII. So i have a natural interest in weapons of all types. I started modeling regularly in the '80’s with Robotech, Gundam [before they were popular and when they were only available from Japan], and the AMT Star Trek kits. I later moved on to WWII A/C bombers and 12" vinyl figures. I stopped modeling when I got married. Then soon after the stress of marriage, kids and police work brought me back to my sci fi kits.
When you build sci-fi kit’s it has always been my experience that the originality you put into a kit more so than the accurracy that makes it fun and interesting. All us sci-fi modelers do is customize and scratch build even though we have our fair share of “rivit-counting” as well. We don’t have nearly the selection of quality kits and companys to choose from as military builders.
Modelers of Armor and other similar “real world” subjects tend to focus on accuracy. When I first came here it was a whole other world!lol I love the this subject because of all the history that came with the use of these vehicles and I have found an interest in the desert campaigns and the more “unique” military vehicles [both modern and WWII] which are seldom depicted.
On my U.N. Bradley thread someone stated basicly that there was no such thing as a white Bradley suggesting that maybe I hadn’t done my research. Fact is I have. That’s why I’m building it. I could build a cammo or desert Bradley but the only diff between it and someone elses would be the amount of gear and after market dollars I pumped into it or the dio I place it in. So as a result most everything i build is unique be it military or sci-fi. There is nothing wrong with building a “replica”, I build them too. But I just like to find the balance between accuracy and fun.
Now I’ll get off my soapbox and go look for some resin wheels for my hummers![:D]

If ShermanFirefly and Phroosh are “me” then I’m “me too”.LOL

31

hi guys[:)]
i’m nearly 32 and was modelling from the age of say, 6 or 7 (can’t really remember it was so long ago![:0]). i cut my teeth on matchbox 1/72 kits, and grew into the odd 1/48 aircraft, but mostly 1/35 armour. i stopped modelling at about 13 or 14…gain i guess the change was gradual, but i can’t remember a “cut-off” point.
although i grew up as the first atari consoles were coming out in the UK, and had the odd hand held mario bros game, i too think of myself as the last generation over here to grow up video game free; they just weren’t that bi a part of my life.
my earliest memory is of longing for the staurday morning trip to the village store to get my 2 comics “victor” and “battle”!! anyone remember those?
as school, sport and ofcourse the fairer sex came into my life, so the hobby left, but my interest was always there, even if the time wasn’t.
growing up in the sussex and kent, over which the Battle of Britain was fought, i’ve always had a keen sense of history, heightened by grandfather’s role as a tank driver in normandy (sadly i never met him) and my great uncle’s career as a motor torpedo boat crewman in the royal navy (he lived with us for a few years and i would always try to get stuff out of him; he had a box of medals bigger than my bed, or so it seemed when i was small![:p])
it wasn’t until i took a sabbatical from my job in finance in the summer of 2001 that i returned to the hobby, and now i build 1/35 armour and 1/48 aircraft, all WWII. i try now to build historic projects, especially of those who maybe i’ve had the chance to meet or their like. meeting a group of Battle of Britain pilots at the Biggin Hill airshow 2 years ago was a profoundly moving moment.
indeed apart from the obvious enjoyment i get from the hobby, it is also from a sense of debt and duty that i build what i do; it’s my feeble way of acknowleding a debt which can never be repaid. this is the main reason i’m going with my girlfriend (she is czech, so also has a keen sense of the past 50-60years, although thankfully she’s not that old!![:p]) to the D-Day Memorial Celebrations this june over in france. i figure go now before it’s too late[V].
oh, and ofcourse the internet has made getting reference material galore so much easier, and, most importantly, to meet and have fun with all you guys![:)]
regards,
nick
ps do i get an extra star for most long-winded post?![:p]

32

hi guys[:)]
I am a 47 year old who started modelling at about the age of 7 or 8 with matchbox and airfix kits and doing dioramas with the kid next door. Then came wife and kid and no time for building just at odd times i would buy a kit and stor it for another time.A few months ago I told my wife that I was going to get back into building again and she said ok good idea, so I have started to build some of my old stored kits and read this forum to get my rusty techniques back up to speed. I have noticed reading all the replys above that i am not alone in reterning to building after a long time off . and if we can do it there must be a lot more out there just itching to get into it again so no the hobby will keep going. Thanks for the insperation guys and keep up the good work.

33

I’m 17 and turning a year older in 3 months. Actually I was interested in mechanical stuff eversince, opening things that interests me, usually toys. Got punished a lot of times for it but it never measured up to my curiosity, so I got punished even more. I started getting into modeling when I was ten. I remember when my dad bought me a 1/48 seacobra and an apache for my birthday, I used to be a heli-freak back then. But I never finished both of them. After that I lost interest of modeling and got back to the mechanical stuff. Then as the years passed I was in and out of modeling. Until I discovered it again last year. I am currently out of school because of some problems but am planning to go back again this year. I am mostly building models OOB (since modification parts here are quite unavailable if not completely unavailable) with some modifications when needed courtesy of my inherited and trusty X-acto knife and some what-have-you. But I must admit to you guys and gals(or vice versa) that being too accurate sometimes just takes out the reason why we are modeling.

34

CTrill09
Lol, now that I think about it, it MUST have been that movie that got me into modelling in the first place. Haven’t really given it much thought, it seems like so long ago. I remember watching that movie, and absolutely being mezmerized by it (I was a wee one back then). A couple of years thereafter I ran into a box with a picture of an 14 tomcat. I didn’t even know what plastic kits were back then (from where I hail, they were not too common for a 5year old in communist rural Europe). SInce then, I was hooked. I can’t seem to enjoy the movie as much anymore (maybe cuz they tried to pass that f-5 as a Mig) but I’ve managed to build every plane in that movie. Hehe, maybe they’ll be the first I’ll rebuild :slight_smile:

35

That’s the attitude to have. I need to learn that. [8D]

36

Hello fellow modelers: I 55 years old and have been doing models about 45 years I like some of you got out for a while. But got back in after the service to as a way to unwind from stress I suffer from ptsd It isthe best stress reliver I have ever found I teach akids modeling class with the LHS so I have lots fun with it. Well thats enough from me. Happy Modeling…Stephen

37

I’m about to be 28 in a couple of weeks and have grown up with the video games, still play alot of them too. I modeled mostly cars when I was a kid had to quit though for many years since I moved around alot and never had anywhere to put them. I got back into the hobby last July though while I was laid up the first time and was looking for something to keep my hands busy and happened to stumble across this site. All it took was to see some armor builds and I figured I could get into that more so than cars and planes and here I am now, can’t get enough.
I think that there alot of the kids that would rather play games now that later in life once they get settled down more will go looking for something else to spend time with and may find that modeling is thier cup of tea. There are alot of games that have armor and such in them now and that may be something that could spark an interest later in life.

38

Some of my earliest memories concern modeling. I can’t remember a time during my childhood when there wasn’t half-solidified tubes of cement or dozens of little testors bottles covering every flat surface of my bedroom. After twenty years away, I unexpectedly came across a 1/72 tiger while in a hobby shop with my sons. Delighted that the paints and glues have become less toxic, I’m back in force with my sons in tow. I guess the charm for me is it’s a creative outlet that momentarily slows down what is becoming a more and more hectic and chaotic world.

39

I built my first armor when I was 13. I stopped building when I was 21 and got back into modeling in 2003 when I was 35.
mark956

40

I’m 47 and have been building models since I can remember. My first model was built with my dad; I was 5 and just had my tonsils removed. I still remember the model…it was a red race car (old Indy style car) that was molded in red…tires and all. My dad built models and free flight and control line planes…I still remember a white plastic tri motor plane he had that sat on the old B&W TV. I’m sure I picked up building my models and R/C stuff from his interest in them.

I build (and collect!) cars, planes, armor, ships…done some figures (Terminator, Alien, Predator2)…all model categories have something interesting about them!

I remember building the old Revell planes, and th old AMT cars- remember the “Little Red Wagon”? The old Revell Stuka (with the snake decal that went the length of the fuselage?) Aurora’s “Dracula” or “Frankenstein”?

Nowadays I build mostly WWII stuff because I find the technology changes during that time in history to be fascinating…the technology leap from biplanes to jets, from S boats to the Type XXI submarines was incredible.

I have tried getting my son into models with some success…now we are working on a Mustang, since he is starting to “discover” cars… (he’s 13) My daughter actually enjoyed building and painting the plastic bird kits that were out a few years ago…so she’s done more models than he has.

Anyway, it’s a great hobby to have. Also, my wife always knows where I am (upstairs with the plastic or in the garage with the R/C toys)! She puts up with all my stuff, and although she doesn’t understand the passion about the toys, graciously humors me when I show off the latest and greatest “whatzit”!

I guess I just couldn’t imagine not having something around to build or fuss over!

Thanks for posting a great question!
[:)]

ooo! ooo! One last thing- this forum is one of the things that makes the internet so cool…instantly being able to reach out to fellow modelers, see their stuff, discuss pros and cons, etc… faster than having to wait a month for the latest magazine coverage!