I've been model building for about 50 years, now 61. Started off mainly with cars and did a lot of extensive stuff when I was a kid and teenager, chopping, channeling, frenching, etc. and won a few trophies in little local hobby shop contests. After four years in the Air Force and years of on again and off again modeling, I have turned most of my modeling to military aircraft, mainly recent or current aircraft. I have always just been a box-stock builder with the aircraft, however, and just recently have tried to learn the weathering and aging techniques that makes the models stand out. I've done a few WWII aircraft (F-4, P-38, P-61) and tried to weather and detail all of them, along with some dioramas and I like to think they look pretty good, then I will look at the stuff that most of you are doing in the magazines and on-line posts, and I turn green with envy. Most of this stuff is incredible and my hat is off to all of you that build at that level! The main thing I am trying to learn at this time, is the painting process. I have a Badger #200, single action, bottom feed airbrush and a Thomas Model 600-12 compressor that is probably 20+ years old. I have used Model Master enamels for the most part, but tried some acrylics recently. I work on my models at my office (in a mdeium size office building) so I thought the acrylics would be less offensive, odor wise, for my neighbors. I thought the water based paint would reduce or eliminate the odor associated with the enamels and thinners. Then I found out that just because they are called acrylic does not mean that they are water based or water clean-up. OOPS! Anyhow, I will now be reading these forums and magazines with much more interest to see if I can boost my modeling skills. Just tough to teach an old dog new tricks, though. I'm just trying to plan ahead for retirement with a good hobby to occupy my time. I'm also into photography, so I can get some pretty nice photos of my models as I go. I can email some photos if anyone would be interested in critiquing my work so far.