Hey there, everyone! I finally decided to go ahead and register after reading the forums here for several weeks. I'm just getting back into modeling after about a 20 year absence, so I guess I qualify as a newbie. I haven't put together a kit since my early teen years. I apologize in advance for all of the dumb questions I'll probably be asking in the immediate future, but everyone here seems quite willing to share their experience and advice.
Anyway, here's a little bit of my modeling life story. My dad got into building kits in the early 80s when I was probably about 6 or 7 years old. I used to sit beside him at his table for hours just watching what he was doing. Mostly he built 1/35 scale WWII armor kits, and he got to the point where he was really good and he won several awards at local model shows. Finally he gave me a 1/35 scale Tamiya King Tiger that I built (mostly) by myself. He did the airbrush painting when it was completed, but I was still really proud of it. I liked putting that kit together so I started building others, none of which turned out as good with my crappy kid painting skills, but still I had fun. Unfortunately, other teenage distractions got the better of my modeling hobby and I haven't built anything since probably the late 80s.
For some reason (mid-life crisis?) I've recently gotten an overwhelming urge to get back into models. Over the past month or so I've been going over a lot of online resources and checking out what kits are available these days, as well as gradually putting together an acceptable arsenal of tools and supplies. My display space is a little limited so I'm going to stick with small kits for the time being, probably mostly 1/48 scale armor and 1/72 scale aircraft. For my first project I decided to go with Tamiya's 1/48 scale KV-1B Russian tank. It looks like a fairly straightforward build without a lot of crazy details and it's got a simple monochrome paint scheme. I'm just going to do this one with a spray can, but I'm looking to invest in a good airbrush pretty soon. Hopefully I'll get to start on it this weekend. The box is sitting on my table right now and I'm really itching to get going. Hope I don't screw it up too bad.