So what brought you into this hobby?

[Guest]

Great post Gavin, many thanks for sharing it with us. Hope the collar bone is healing....just reading about it sounds really painfull. I notice your based in Singapore...is it easy enough getting hold of everything you need for model making and whts the price of stuff like in comparrison to the UK?

Keep up the great posts, regards Martin :-)

[Guest]

hey evry1,

awkward story how i got started...

a few years ago my dad was hospitalized for a few months, and while he was in the hospital i had to clean out the basement by myself. I started to find all this cool stuff, including a half completed F14 Tomcat model, which i finished. Now i look back and realize how bad it looks, with the wheels all off centre and with acrylic paint, which blotched and makes it look lumpy. Anyways, I went to go find more to build, but my mom (im only 15) said no more until i finished the ones i got. So i went into hyperdrive completing almost 1 a week (about 2 hours a night of work).

Anyways, I just enjoy the sense of accomplishment. Also, when i build older models, i feel like im actually there back in time, and i feel like im living a different thing...seeing what others have seen, if you know what i mean.

~joe

[Guest]

Great post Gavin, many thanks for sharing it with us. Hope the collar bone is healing....just reading about it sounds really painfull. I notice your based in Singapore...is it easy enough getting hold of everything you need for model making and whts the price of stuff like in comparrison to the UK?Keep up the great posts, regards Martin :-)

Thanks Martin, The collar bone is healing well. Hurt for a couple of days but I had happy pills for that.

Yeah I'm based in Singapore now, there aren't many scale model shops here. Personally I know of 2, one is the Tamiya distributor but they focus mainly on RC and some scale models. They other one is the Airfix distributor that try's to stocks everything in the catalog. Needless to say I've been spending loads of time there. Price wise we pay about 1% -3% more than what's posted on the Airfix website. Not that bad after I think about it.

[Guest]

Hi Joe, another great post, thank you. I do know what you mean regarding going back in time when building models, its a great feeling. Well done on getting the older models done before getting any more, i bet you will find that most of us on here have a "stash" of models that are waiting to be done, it kinda goes with the hobby...so tell mum its perfectly normal lol...my Mrs says the same thiough "whay are you buying more when you have all them out there to build".....All the bast mate, Martin :-)

[Guest]

hey evry1, awkward story how i got started...

a few years ago my dad was hospitalized for a few months, and while he was in the hospital i had to clean out the basement by myself. I started to find all this cool stuff, including a half completed F14 Tomcat model, which i finished. Now i look back and realize how bad it looks, with the wheels all off centre and with acrylic paint, which blotched and makes it look lumpy. Anyways, I went to go find more to build, but my mom (im only 15) said no more until i finished the ones i got. So i went into hyperdrive completing almost 1 a week (about 2 hours a night of work).

Anyways, I just enjoy the sense of accomplishment. Also, when i build older models, i feel like im actually there back in time, and i feel like im living a different thing...seeing what others have seen, if you know what i mean.

~joe

Hey Joe, good post. I know what you mean by being back in time. I'm 38 but I'm still a kid when it comes to this. I'll be arguing with my kids about who gets to use what paint first. They normally win.

Hope your dad recovered well from his hospitalization.

[spanner570]

Got a few minutes Martin?

It wasn't a case of what but who...My late father, who passed on 17yrs ago, started me off by buying me an Airfix Bismark and telling me to "Get on with it and see how you manage." I remember building it on the little table in the back of a Bedford Romany caravanette in the late 50s, whilst my dad drove the family around Scotland. I had to stop building it on the move when I was sick down my dad's back!

On our return home he looked at it and said "Not bad for a first go, now put it on the rockery, take my .22 up into the bedroom and sink it whilst I film it for you."

I still have that old 8mm film on a very precious vhs tape.

The next day he took me to the model shop and spent a fortune on models, paints ect, sat me down next to him and taught me 'his way' for the next 5 yrs or so.

I started work as a Joiner in the arctic winter 62/63, then came my introduction to that amber stuff, beer and that other diversion, women! Model kits forget it!!!

I didn't touch a model kit for possibly another 5yrs, then started again when I was banned off the road for 12 mths. with 3 endorsements on my drivers licence ( no points then) 3 endorsements and your out, no question!

Also during this period I was into serious competitive slalom canoeing, going all over the country competing on rapid rivers. I trained every evening on the salmon steps on the Dee at Chester ( Stuff the models!) I was destined to be picked for the British International Canoeing Squad but for an unfortunate incident at a selection competition on the River Tay at Grandtully in Scotland, when 12 of us 'Naughty Chester lads' came out of a pub by the camp site and spotting a lamp post decided to see if we could all get up it...We did, but the lamp post didn't appreciate being mauled by Englishmen and promptly snapped, shorted out and plunged all the lights in the village and nearby Aberfeldy into complete darkness.

I was recognised and hauled before the big noises of the British Canoe Union and promptly banned from all competitive canoeing for the remainder of the season and all the next, that put an end to my serious canoeing, although I still go on the water when I can......Back to modelling again for a bit then a very long break whilst I got to know my wife, 2 sons and god knows how many Grand children, until May last year when I started modelling again after I guess a 30yr. break, joined this, my first forum and the rest as they say.........

Wake up at the back!!

Ron

[Guest]

Ron that is such a brilliant post, thanks so very much for sharing it with us...part of it is soooooo spookey...i have been for my very first lesson today for canoeing !!!!!!!!

I live in Devon and we are very fortunate to have some wonderful waters around here. Nothing to adventourous for me though....i went out on a recreational kayack and it was awsome...i quit fancy the touring thing with a bit of camping thrown in......all the best mate and thanks again, regards Martin :-)

[Guest]

I have always been a person who dosen't mind his own company and that being the case as a kid i would spend hours in my room building kits, i was once told i had a knack for it my other hobbies include photography and my first love has always been fly fishing. Un fortunately my job now takes up a lot of my spare time so fly fishing is out of the question so are long days wandering the country side with my camera, so like many of you something was required to fill the few hours i had at home, i had been wandering around the shops one day and bought myself the tamiya 1/35 famo and the 88mm gun, so thats how it started again for me nothing exciting i suppose more out of boredom really however my wife decided one day that she wanted to try it so i got her the 1/24 tamiya mini and now she is here as well with the rest of us hell even my brother in law has taken the hobby up after lookin at some of my stuff. I found this forum whilst on the net one day and here iam still in with a great bunch of very talented people whom i admire a great deal, and a few good lads that i've met in person gern, spanner and yak face, I build kits for fun but i do try to outdo myself on every kit doesent always work that way though so i guess thats my story.

scott