Just wanted to drop in and say "hi."
Here is a quick bit about myself pertaining to this hobby:
My interest in model building in general started early on. In the late '60s (I was born in '64) my mom enrolled me in a Science/Space club that included a model kit that had an Apollo Command Module and a Lunar Module. I built them with a little help from my pop, and was hooked.
As I got older and with the Viet Nam War going on and discovering that I had relatives on my pop's side (direct lineage... grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on) that fought in the American Revolution, Civil War, World War I, and World War II, my interest in military models began to take hold.
I mainly concentrated on military aircraft from WWII at first, but in sixth grade a friend of mine introduced me to armor models. He gave me one of the diorama sheets that Shepard Paine did for the Monogram Sherman tank (which I still have, by the way) and found my true focus in modeling.
During junior high I built model after model. At first it was only the Monogram kits because that was all that was available at the local department store. It wasn't too long until I discovered the Tamiya and Italeri brands at a hobby shop not too far away.
Once I got in high school my interests shifted and I started racing BMX in 1980. That took up all of my time until '87 when I retired as an A Pro.
Around that time I got back into modeling and started to take it a little more seriously. I got some of Verlinden's books on modeling and dioramas, and really got into research and detailing.
When I got married in 1991, I drifted away again, only building one model, that being a 1/48th scale B-17 my wife bought for me.
Now for the present. I have started again, and really am enjoying getting back into it. I have a stash of kits I have had since the mid-'80s and dug out the Tamiya Flakpanzer IV Mobelwagen I have had since '86. I am currently in the process of building it so I can rehone my skills.
So, that's about it for my lengthy intro. I have enjoyed reading some of the reviews and other forum topics for the last few days and decided I better quit being a lurker and register.
I am sure that I will learn a lot and that it will help improve my abilities with this fantastic hobby of modeling.

Gday from Western Australia

Likewise from a couple of thousand km east of Western Australia.

You have joined the best scale modelling forum on the interweb Brett, I'm sure you will get as much out of it as I have over the years.

Cheers, D

Hi, welcome Charleygnarly!

Welcome aboard.

Welcome aboard, you have found the best modelling site on the web. There is something for all modelling intrest.
Tom