Greetings, FSM! Long time, no see!
It's funny. After an email exchange with Mr. Skinner last November, I was under the belief that my account had vanished, and that I would need to start a new one. But once getting signed up again under my email, it looks like everything is intact from my original account after all! Cool beans.
I've certainly been away from quite some time. And my apologies for vanishing unexpectedly 7-8 years ago. But life happening sometimes take the most unexpected shifts. Between getting established with my career, home ownership, births in the family, deaths in the family, marriage and all things in between, I'm finally in a place where I can come back and start scratching that itch. I've been lurking the forums and watching from afar, and I can see that alot has changed here. Some of you old timers here, I remember. But many here, I don't. And some that I remember that are no longer here. I offer my greetings to all here, and my best wishes that are no longer here, and hope that they are all doing well.
So, where to I begin? Because of my on again/off again status in the hobby, my skills aren't quite up the quality as the rest of y'all. But I had been a reasonably active member throughout the late 2000s. Over the last year or so, I had been sort of preparing for my return. I found myself buying more kits, an all new set of tools and supplies, and a whole new bench, seen here below;
It's not exactly the perfect, dream bench. Since my step daughter moved back in with us for safety (bad relationship turned worse), I've had to concede a little more space than I planned. But still, it's still better than anything I've ever had by leaps and bounds. So, I'm pretty excited about it. I'm still tinkering with a few odds and ends. But I hope to be jumping on board with another GB here in the near future.
I've pretty much been an aircraft guy throughout my life. I built a couple of ships as a teenager, did a tank when I was 6, and a car or two when I was 21. But with my kit collecting over the last year, I've focused on more armor and cars and a few boats too; just to try to be a little more ecclectic. Still have plenty of planes, though. But variety is the spice of life. I'll share some of my builds with the corresponding (and crossover) GBs I've done in the past...
Testors U-2R for the SAC GB
Monogram P-40B for the P-40 and Pearl Harbor GBs
Monogram SBD for the FAA GB
...and the Testors SPAD for the Knights of the Sky and Weekend Madness GBs
I won't include those that I promised builds years ago and never delivered, since I didn't earn them. But I do have a couple of shelved kits that have been collecting dust for 8 years or so. I suppose I'll get to those eventually. But for right now, I'm looking to tie up those details with the new bench and start off with a fresh build; something where I can focus on some of the basics that I'll need to relearn. And I am certainly considering where I'll want to start.
But again, I did want to say hello to all and get reacquainted with FSM. It certainly appears that alot has indeed changed. But it should be fun just catching up...
