Better late than never! I've been lurking around these parts for a few weeks now. I read another post where a member was wondering if he was being purposely ignored. He wasn't but another member suggested that he introduce himself since he was now part of a huge community and it was the right thing to do. So here's a somewhat belated condensation of the treatsie I wrote about myself under My Profile.

Primarily, I'm a mellowed, ungracefully aging biker type with grey hair, grey beard, tattoos, etc. I grew up on eastern Long Island, NY and got out of there as soon as I could via Uncle Sam when I did a stint with the !st Infantry Division at Ft Riley, Kansas as a Recovery / Evacuation Specialist for C Company, 701st Maintenance Battalion. I ran an M543A2 5 ton wrecker for about a year before crewing on an M88 medium recovery vehicle, one of the cool ones that had the gasoline powered double supercharged 1000 HP Continental V-12. After getting out I stayed in Kansas for a couple years before moving to Indiana with the intent of working and saving money to eventually move to Phoenix, Arizona. That was 1978 and I'm still here. I work as an electronics technician and industrial maintenance mechanic. On the personal side, I've been married for 30 plus years no kids. I live with my wife, 3 cats, all adopted strays, and a sweet tempered Rottweiler (from Sacramento, California).

I have built models on and off for my whole life sometimes taking decades off between stopping and picking it up again. I started with 1/24 - 1/25 scale cars as a kid and got away from it in my teens because motorcycles, girls, and recreational mind alteration became my main interests. I picked up modeling again about 10 years later in my mid twenties when I became obsessed with building a 1/48th scale model of every aircraft used in WWII including bombers. I still remember my awe at Monogram's B-29 Superfortress and my disappointment at the poor fitment of the fuselage halves. I quickly ran out of room to hang them and a move to a smaller house forced me to find a new home for them with a 12 year old son of a friend. A week after taking possession he had destroyed some 300 aircraft. I guess his awe was less in the carefully painted camoflage and detail work and more in imagining the creative ways he could destroy them. The only survivor was a 1/32 P-40 I kept that a stumbling drunkard broke during a party. Oh well. Twenty years later I built 3 German tanks, A King Tiger, A Tiger I, and a Panther on a lark having never attempted armor before. For the first time I added battle damage and weathering. And stopped modelling again there. A few years later my years of riding rigid framed choppers began to exact a toll on my spine. Two cervical fusions leaving only 2 unfused bones in my neck and the damage to my spinal cord from bone spurs messed me up pretty good. When I began to lose the dexterity in my fingers and started dropping things and was almost totally unable to handle small items I decided to try model building again as physical therapy. Thus began a foray into WWI German aircraft in 1/48 scale and an interest in WWI history. Next came a renewed interest in CAN-AM racing cars which I had watched as a kid when my Mom took me with her to her job at the Bridgehampton Race Track during the mid / late 60s. That, of course rekindled an interest in the street rods of my youth and the weird customs of the day coming from the likes of George Barris and Ed Roth. Eventually, my interest in WWII surged again and I returned to my favorite new model building passion- WWII weaponry, especially the odd and unusual AFVs which the Germans seem to have a lock on.

Having more questions than answers about the hobby, the Winds blew me here!

welcome to Armorama site and the KitMaker Network, you can never have too many members.

Welcome Jim! Plenty of room to roam here at KitMaker for all of your interests. The only bad question is the one never asked. Speaking of questions, I was wondering if your 'hobby therapy' was helping with your small motor dexterity? I have arthritus in a thumb base joint and own and operate two complete titanium hip joints, so I am a little familiar with skeletal dings and such.
Cheers!

Welcome Aboard Jim.

Hello Jim, If you are from southern Indiana you might check out Evansville.
Their was a nice small hobby shop there along with one of those chain shops. The small shop had a good selection if you could find your way between the shelves. Things may have changed, I haven't been over there in 12 years. Welcome, their is room for you here.
Joe

Welcome Jim,

This is a great site. Help is just a click away if you ever need it.

Be sure to check out the campaigns. They are usually a lot of fun to participate in.

I am from Indianapolis, but haven't really been back there since 1978. I now live live in Jeffersonville, across the river from Louisville.