Hello to everyone,
My name is Shaun, I'am 35 and almost 6 years recovered from a mental illness and for the past few years have been trying to return to and incorporate into my coping skill arsenal, my passion for model building. I have an array of other interests, but collecting, building, painting, looking at, and reading about the hobby,at least mentally, seems to be one of the more fun ways that I use to take my mind off of whats bothering me, whether its thoughts, or emotions or any kind of stressful situation.
I started when I was ten, with a $10.00 Monogram F-4 Phantom snap together kit that I bought with birthday money. I did not know a thing about model building and didn't really have anybody to teach me. My Mom was with me at the time and we hunted down a Testors finishing kit (with a professionally finished F-4 model on the back. Talk about skill envy!) and took both home. I also knew very little if nothing about history. At ten years old, Star Wars and hot wheels had been my history, and all four of us were being raised in a reasonably sheltered environment . So when I read the background information on the F-4 on the kit's direction pamphlet, I was clueless. And then, (and this is funny) I simply took the kit, took out the parts, and threw it together---without reading the directions!. How I wish I had.
Anyway by Sunday I had tried to put the paint on and by Monday it was "done". I was sort of pleased with it, yet it didn't look anywhere near as good as the one on the back of the finishing kit box. And I didn't realize that It was my first one, and that I couldn't expect myself to be able to do the kind of work that someone more experienced would.
Long story short, it wasn't the end and I was thrilled when I got a new kit to work on, whether it was for birthday or Christmas or whatever the circumstances. I started out with aircraft then moved into ships. But my skills were primative for many many years, and as my life went on, my illness made it impossible to do many things,some even very basic to every day living. But , almost six years ago The Lord saw fit to bring me out of the darkness I was in and has helped me in every way imaginable to live a full life, and I can say that my faith in Him is unshakeable and I continue to recover and to thank Him.
To close, I have a number of kits and supplies crammed into my room and no good place to work on them in the winter time as we have pets roaming about the house 24/7. But Summer is almost here and I am hoping to get some work done outside if the weather allows. I now have gotten into armor, cars, figures, sci-fi, and whatever comes next; perhaps trains someday? I am a new subscriber to the website and forums but not the magazine. I love history, literature, Science fiction, baseball, and italian coffee, and as I hinted before,am an animal lover. Above all I am a Christian and this will take up the remainder of my life, but I always hope for a little time to "throw one together". I am looking forward to making friends and to learning and sharing ideas and stories. Sorry this was so long. Thankyou everyone. God bless.