Hello, all.
I've now returned to modelling after a gap of 40 years, having started as an 8 yr-old when my father bought me an Airfix kit-in-a-bag of a VW Beetle, our family car, then stopping some 12 yrs later as the demands of work and the attractions of the world outside my front door took me on to other things. I've been hankering to start again for a few years. My kids, the eldest of whom is 19 and now at uni, and sorting out my house have taken priority, but I now need to take things easier due to my health and now seemed a great time to start again.
Wow, how things have changed in those 40 years. The quality and availability of the kits, tools, paints, accessories and information have changed out of all recognition, as have the results. I used to think I was good but the quality of the work I see here and on sites such as YouTube make me feel like a rank amateur starting from scratch again.
I splurged on a range of paints and tools so that I have just about everything I need apart from an airbrush, which I'm intending to buy later.
Modelling started my interest in the RAF, in which I spent over 20 years as an engineer before changing career to become a number-cruncher in insurance companies, and military history, Bomber Command in particular. My other interests include finishing off revamping our house (my second wife's ex let it deteriorate and sorting it never seems to end), keeping fit (I still try to jog daily) and my Wankel-engined Mazda RX8 with the associated active car club. My wife has a thing for Lancasters, Concorde and Sally B.
I've started building a 2003 version of Airfix's Dambuster Lancaster in order to get me back into things gently and a 1/35 Sherman Firefly to turn my hand at photoetch. I have some other kits waiting: an Airfix B17 (I have fond childhood memories of making its 1960s predecessor, A Bit O' Lace, which seems a dinosaur in comparison), a Vampire and Meteor (I was, for a time, involved with the RAF's Vintage Pair display team) and a Tamiya 1/35 Afrika Korps 88mm Flak 36 (I lusted after it as a kid and it gives me a go at painting figures).