Average age of everyone and modeling's life lessons?

"Finished Is Better Than Perfect."

I am going to post that above the kitchen table! I really need to heed that advice Scott, thanks for the reply. Anyhow now the thread has been 'bumped' to the main page again how about a few more to hit my goal of 100? Thanks everyone for making this a fun and informative thread!

OK....I'll bite.....I'm 54. My background from my profile

Well this'll be a shocker for some of you, I'm thirteen! I'm guessing that I'm the youngest one here so far

Well this'll be a shocker for some of you, I'm thirteen! I'm guessing that I'm the youngest one here so far

52 here. Still on first wife (going on 29 yrs) she has no interest in what I do, just appreciates that I am home and out of her hair. Daughter, now grown built a couple of cars and a Titanic when she was a pre-teen. My granddaughter 2 has gone to two airshows with me and thought EVERYTHING about airplanes is beautiful except "they're loud" but she had no problem watching the Stearman's taxi about 20 feet away from her. I have HIGH hopes for this child!

Life lesson: Jalapenos and hemhorrhoids don't mix ! or have a sense of humor in EVERYTHING

Great stuff fellas! Ill hold out for the final tally, 12 more to hit my goal of 100! Thanks again for contributing to this survey I started and the excellent life lessons!

Another thread had me ponder the issue of sorting out people by the types of models they build, impossible I now realize and I believe Forrest Gump said it best:

'Life is like buying a partially built kit on E-bay... you never know what you are going to get'

Well maybe the quote is a bit inaccurate but it fits this forum better than chocolate! Interestingly enough there are as many variations of the Panzer IV as ways to cook and serve shrimp...

redleg12

I am a retired U.S. Army Artillery officer and is currently a Director of Engineering for a major water and wastewater treatment company.

This is an interesting coincidence.  I have a friend who was an Army officer (a West Point grad to boot!) who is a water quality engineer for Waldoboro Maine....basically he is in charge of maintaining and treating their water supply.

Brian

[ img. ] C:\Documents and Settings\Andy\My Documents\My Pictures [ img. ]

Here goes, I'm 56 and I fit the original profile almost to a t. Modeled cars and some planes as a kid, my Grandma would buy them for me. Lost interest as a teen then after 1 not so great marriage picked up the hobby again. Now married over 28 yrs. with 3 kids and have more models than I could ever finish.(or so my wife says)  Discovered the great area of Armor models after I got restarted.

Hawkeye - try again as the image did not come through.   

That's because he tried to post directly from his hard drive. He needs to post the image on a photo hosting site first and then link to it there.

Right - Hawkeye - do you know about Photobucket, for insyance??

50, watewater treatment plant operator at the town's paper mill.  Started modelling when I was 7.  Planes, cars, ships, armor and trains.  Did the modelling thing 'til I was14 and graduated to 12 inches to the foot scale railroading at Illinois Railway Museum (there are'nt so many small parts to lose).  Back into model railroading at 35 and the last few years found 1/35th armor interesting.   Red leg, I'd love to hear some of your stories.  Both WWTP and arty!

S&S - The world is small and it is amazing anyone else even knows some one (New Hampshire) in the buisness....but two in it who bot build armor!!

On the poop side I am also a licensed class 4 operator. Besides running a wastewater design group I am also a commissioner of my towns wastewater authority which is a 4 MGD plant.

Rather than clog the pages up with our off topic discussion, I will try to hit you with a PM.

Rounds Complete!!

Hello again,

Realized there are just a few more replies needed to hit the 100 mark on this thread. Someone else was asking about the 'average age' here so I decided to 'Bump' this thread back to the main page. If you haven't replies on your age please do and I will tally up the results late on.

Thanks!

Jason

OK, I'll add one more.  I'm 76 next week and have had my one and only for 55 yrs.  Built a few stick models as a kid (you can see from the above number that was some time ago), and didn't start the finescale aircraft builds until just a couple of years ago.  Initially, only intended to build replicas of the few I worked on in the AF and ANG,  but have built a few more now.  Lessons - at my age I've forgotten more than I can remember - my main hobby is staying alive! 

54

Take responsibility for your own actions.

I know that's not a "modeling" life lesson but I sure would like to see more of that.  Rememeber... it was YOU that put the hot coffee between your legs when you were driving.

Hi-

I just turned 42 earlier this month (may), never been married and have no children & my story is like most here; started building as a kid, at 14 I discovered girls etc. etc. etc... How I got back into building however, was unintended.

I have had Type 1 Diabetes since age 15 and in 1998 I was declared Medically Disabled. Now I have little money but lots & LOTS of free time on my hands.  Then one day in early 1999 I was in a Barnes & Noble bookstore and I found a copy of FSM magazine and rediscovered the hobby, and I'm glad I did. 

My modeling life lesson has 3 parts-
1st-  Suddenly getting down on the floor to search for a lost tiny bit of plastic or PE will ALWAYS attract a curious dog.
2nd-  Tiny bits of plastic or PE stick like glue to the wet nose of a curious dog.
and
3rd-  Before I can retrieve my lost tiny bit of plastic or PE off her...  my dog will, without fail, lick her nose and that's "It" for the tiny bit.

Also after the  "Dropped Xacto Knife"  incident, she doesn't go under my workbench anymore.

Anyway, great thread topic & remember Keep your stick on the ice,
-Ray

Awesome! I believe we have out perfect average # of 100 replies! Thanks for contributing everyone.

Group #1 -  832 combined years divided by 21 modelers=39.62 average age

Group #2 - 276 ''                   ''        ''              by  9  modelers=30.67 average age

Group #3 - 188 "                   "        "              by  4  modelers=47.00 average age

Group #4 - 202 "                   "        "              by  5  modelers=40.40 average age

Group #5 - 180 "                   "        "              by  5  modelers=36.00 average age

Group #6 -  621 "                  "        "              by 13 modelers=47.77 average age

Group #7 -  453 "                   "       "              by 12 modelers=37.75 average age

Group #8 -  391 "                   "       "              by 10 modelers=39.10 average age

Group #9

macattack80                          29

CallSignOWL                          18

M1 A1 A2 Tanker                   39

namad68                                 42

FastEagle1                              46

redleg12                                  54

total american patriot          13 - tied for youngest modeler!

hawkeye2an_L-                     52

masonme2                              56

Shoot&scoot                           50

Kbuzz01                                    76

wing_nut                                   54

Batosi420                                 42

Total age                                           = 571 combined years

Divided by # of modelers       13  = 43.92 average age

average of all 5  groups                =  3714 total age % 94 modelers

Overall average                              = 39.51  years old!

Regardless how the numbers are calculated it seems 40 years young is our average age in the forums!

Still will do a final calculation once we hit my goal of 100 replies. I do not think it will change the average with 6 more replies yet for a perfect average 100 is the magic #

Thanks again everyone!

51 and loving life.....

I'm 60 and have over 250 kits to build and still counting.  Will it ever end?

He who dies with the largest model stash...

leaves his survivors with an Ebay windfall...

Good one Carlos! Love it!

Mark, basing off what I have seen you bring to AMPS and IPMS, I would say that you will probably have the largest built collection when your number is up at today's life span...

Hey, I'm trying! I got a few people ahead of me though. But, I am hoping that in the next couple of years I have most of my stash of 280+ built already.

Just turned 63 spent 40 years modelrailroading retired, that got to costly to support on S.S. payments so I turned to my second love plastic models. PS been with same women for 40 years would'nt want it any other way.              ACESES5              

Sounds like a good life to me ACESES5

Mark at last count I had in the area of 400-500 unbuilt kits in my stash. And as you know, none are in your preferred scale. I know they will outlast me.

Yeah, my condolences my friend! Still, you'll have fun with it anyway. And your kids have a means to finance their educations with your stash

ACES, I've been with my same woman for  twenty years! Kudos my man!

54 and counting.  My dad got me started @ 7 yrs old and I have been doing it ever since.  You name it, I have built or tried too build.  From wood, plastic, fiberglass and any other type of material you can model with.  Started w/just building, discovered painting made them more realistic and today I now own three air brushes and lost count of hand brushes. From tube glue to liquid to welding plastic, that last one does work, but never could get the hang of it. Have seen this hobby go from the kits being a few plastic parts and some times some wood to the multi-material wonders they are today. Modeling has been a good friend to me, but I do have to admit I have spent a small fortune on the hobby.  Today I model in two mediums, plastic and the next is card/paper kits.  The most important lession I have learned: buy more kits?

Ahhh......nothing like jumping in at the tail end, but anyway........41 here (42 in Sept.). Begged my parents for a Lindberg SR-71 (actually a mislabelled YF-12A) at 7 years old and thought it was the coolest thing. My dad helped me put that together, as well as my next choice: a Monogram snap Huey Chopper. I was off after that and haven't looked back. Yes, building slowed down DRASTICALLY during college and my early '20s, but it picked back up right around 25 and has been gaining momentum since. Wife #1 thought it was childishness, but fortunately soon-to-be wife #2 appreciates my enthusiasm for the hobby. Has even ventured to hobby shows with me, and affectionately refers to them as a 'contact sport.'

Lessons would include patience and the will to let some things go to actually finish the build, hoping to remember those things I wanted to improve on for the next build. Basically the same as what most have learned........

Dave