Greetings from Washington State!
Recently returning to the world of scale models after a 35+ years hiatus! What I would have given back then to have access to this forum and all the great advice and tutorials. God love the internet...
I'd been kicking the idea around of a return to scale modeling for some time, thinking it would be a great relaxing hobby that I could work on in my meager spare time. I really enjoyed building models as a youngster, and now with a better budget (and patience) in hand than my teenage self, I could go big time! The only thing I was currenly lacking was spare time, with a demanding work / commute schedule. Who knew that I would have more spare time at home than I could handle with the current world situation? Ironic.
All kidding aside, I am extremely grateful that my family remains in good health, and that I am fortunate to have a job that allows me to work from home. I know many are not as fortunate.
So about three months ago (pre-COVID19), I picked up some basic supplies and a Revell 68 Charger RT Kit at Hobby Town, figuring it could be my "practice" kit before tackling something more challenging. I quickly learned that although my patience and attention to detail had improved, my eyesight and steady hand certainly hadn't. But I'm having fun with the process, glaring mistakes and all.
In my younger years, I spent some time in the US Army as a Cavalry Scout and later on re-enlisted as an Infantryman (I'm a glutton for punishment). I spent some time crewing an M113 APC, and later the M3 Bradley, as well as short stints driving the M151 Jeep and the M998 HMMWV.
Some of my best memories of this time were spent in Germany from 1985-87. I was stationed with 3rd Squadron, 8th Cavalry in Mannheim (Later the unit designation transitioned to 3/7 CAV). At the height of the cold war, and with a seemingly unlimited military budget, I spent two years rotating through gunnery training in Graffenwoer, then manuever in Hohenfels, and then rotations in the Fulda Gap on border patrols, relieving the 11th ACR guys so they could go to gunnery and manuevers. Pretty much an endless cycle with not much time in Garrison. Probably a good thing, as guys got into trouble with too much free time..ha
Great memories of driving and then being a TC of a M113. They were alot of fun to drive. As Armored Cavalry, we also had M60A3s which transitioned to M1s about the time I was leaving. Had a number of senior NCOs still in at that time that had crewed one or the other in Vietnam.
So with all that, my goal is to spend some quality time building those great vehicles of my wonder years. First go will be the Tamiya M113 which just arrived in the mail a few days ago. I feel confident that I can do a fair job given the great advice and examples seen in the forums here. There are alot of extremely talented folks here!
Regards,
Dogface
p.s. Also spent some time in the 3rd Infantry Division, hence the screen name..