hi guys
i'm nearly 32 and was modelling from the age of say, 6 or 7 (can't really remember it was so long ago![:0]). i cut my teeth on matchbox 1/72 kits, and grew into the odd 1/48 aircraft, but mostly 1/35 armour. i stopped modelling at about 13 or 14...gain i guess the change was gradual, but i can't remember a "cut-off" point.
although i grew up as the first atari consoles were coming out in the UK, and had the odd hand held mario bros game, i too think of myself as the last generation over here to grow up video game free; they just weren't that bi a part of my life.
my earliest memory is of longing for the staurday morning trip to the village store to get my 2 comics "victor" and "battle"!! anyone remember those?
as school, sport and ofcourse the fairer sex came into my life, so the hobby left, but my interest was always there, even if the time wasn't.
growing up in the sussex and kent, over which the Battle of Britain was fought, i've always had a keen sense of history, heightened by grandfather's role as a tank driver in normandy (sadly i never met him) and my great uncle's career as a motor torpedo boat crewman in the royal navy (he lived with us for a few years and i would always try to get stuff out of him; he had a box of medals bigger than my bed, or so it seemed when i was small!
)
it wasn't until i took a sabbatical from my job in finance in the summer of 2001 that i returned to the hobby, and now i build 1/35 armour and 1/48 aircraft, all WWII. i try now to build historic projects, especially of those who maybe i've had the chance to meet or their like. meeting a group of Battle of Britain pilots at the Biggin Hill airshow 2 years ago was a profoundly moving moment.
indeed apart from the obvious enjoyment i get from the hobby, it is also from a sense of debt and duty that i build what i do; it's my feeble way of acknowleding a debt which can never be repaid. this is the main reason i'm going with my girlfriend (she is czech, so also has a keen sense of the past 50-60years, although thankfully she's not that old!!
) to the D-Day Memorial Celebrations this june over in france. i figure go now before it's too late
.
oh, and ofcourse the internet has made getting reference material galore so much easier, and, most importantly, to meet and have fun with all you guys!
regards,
nick
ps do i get an extra star for most long-winded post?!