I guess it is time to say hello. I have posted a few questions but not taken the time to introduce myself. Rather rude so here goes...
Like lots of others I am an old fart (51) just returning to the hobby. I was an avid modeler starting about 4th grade and was fortunate enough to have an older brother that was also a modeler and helped to encourage me. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were Thursday night meetings at the local hobby shop for the scale model club. There were some very gifted and very kind older modelers who were WW2 vets and I hung on their every word and soaked up all the advice that I could. I'm afraid my skills never progressed to the point that they achieved, but hey it's never too late I guess. Looking back on it I know now that with the historical knowlegde they had and the meticulous approach they took in their craft they had to grimace inside when I got so many cammo schemes wrong etc. But all they did was encourage and sometimes gently correct and it makes me realize now that being too harsh of a "rivet counter" can kill the enthusiam for a youngster or an adult just starting out. I have noticed that I don't see a lot of kids in the local hobby shop, and that is moderately worrisome to me. I guess it's tough to compete with the Xbox etc. I am in the process of collecting tools and some kits (here we go again) since I gave all of that stuff away when I got distracted with school work etc. Man I could cry when I look at kit prices now and remember what I gave away, but hopefully folks got some enjoyment out of them. It will be awhile before I really can jump in since we are trying to get a house ready to sell and that is sucking up all the spare time for now. When building in the past I enjoyed aircraft, spacecraft, cars, armour and an occasional sci-fi or Deals Wheels type of car. It has occured to me that we plan on down sizing and I won't have lots of room to display finished stuff and I think I have a partial solution to that. I can think of lots of friends and family that would really get a kick out of having something built that is meaningful to them. I am in the very slow process of doing a very small (1:144) F4G (diorama I hope) for a co-worker who flew wild weasels in the gulf war. I figure doing that once in awhile will fulfill the modeling urge and maybe make a nice surprise for someone in the process (depending on the finished product of course lol). I am blessed to have a very supportive wife and she is encouraging the hobby enthusiastically. Hey she realizes it is way cheaper for me to build that C6 Corvette rather than getting a second mortgage for the real deal! One of the truly amazing changes in the hobby that I see are forums like those that FSM has, what an unbeleivably valuable resource. It never ceases to amaze me how generous folks are with their time, talents and ideas. Well I guess I will quit rambling, thanks for the answers I have already received and I hope that eventually I can be of some help to someone as well. I will be mostly reading for awhile but hope to be "back to the bench" within a year or so.