Hey guys -
I am new to this forum and thought I'd introduce myself.
My name is Phil (dont get thrown off by my nick - Mad Mel Anglestad is my fave hockey player), 26 years old on Sept. 10th, born and raised in Austria but i now reside in Maine.
As a kid in Austria i used to model airplanes, mostly the MatchBox planes and i still love them. Their detail work might be terrible but the box art alone was cool and those 3 colored sprues!
My first plane was the Harrier in all its green-gray-grayish beauty..
After that i modelled mostly planes , anything from WW 2 to Vietnam and beyond.
I've always had a fascination with models and military. My in-depth analysis paper for my school in Austria was a 25 page report about the "Adler Tag".
Growing up in Austria the WW2 history always was close to me.
Up the mountain is the old wreck of a shot down 4 engine bomber that my dad took me to when i was a kid (i believe it was an 8th AF Flying Fortress), the blood-less surrender of my home town with the help of towns people armed with pitchforks and hunting rifles to drive out the fanatical governor, the SS company that was left inside a valley for 3 months after(!) Germany's capitulation in case war against Russia would ensue....a half built ME 262 in a mountain cave, etc...
My grandfathers priceless pics of WW2 which are unfortunately now lost :(.
I did serve a short term in the Alpine Corps in Austria myself.
Afetr several years without modelling i am now back and now i am starting to slowly graps the concept of weathering, shading, pastels...etc
Its great stuff but i got a long ways to go and amass experience.
I sift through old threads and books and get better each time.
I may not reproduce everything in a 100% accuracy range but i build a decent model and thats where the fun for my lies. I am sure you'll be seeing me asking a few dumb questions as i learn along the way.
My main focus now is WW2 armor and i am about to finish a 1/35 Dragon Stug III, Nashorn diorama. The only tanks i built when i was young were match box and Esci and boy - the quality has come a long way. While back then it was the vinyl rubber tracks its now those photo etched parts that give me the shakes from time to time.
Great to be here - looks like a great forum with great guys!!