Hey all...
Well this week I thought of posting to find out from others around the world if the location where they live is good for their modeling hobbies?

Personally i feel very lucky to live where i do (South West of Western Australia) however more so when a big chunk of inspiration lands on my doorstep. I say this quite literally as if i look out my back window i can see the port where the below ship is currently situated. Kind of handy really as I can tell if cargo or military ships are in port....then take a 5 minute drive to take some snaps. Having said that I'm sure many people are even more better off so please post away and tell us of your inspirations....close to home.

Cheers

Great...

San Diego, California USA is an awesome enviorment. in addtion to great weather and scenery (Desert, Mountians and Ocean al withing 30-45 Minutes of my front door) it is a Navy Town and Marine Corp Town. Camp Pendelton has Modern equipment but also hada great LTV-5 on Dispaly and I got on the Navy Amphib Base to check out the Restored Swift Boat for a project I did last year (No I was not doing a Kerry Ad!).

Great, Town.... but (beinga native born SD boy) too many people....

John

Ola Powerlogik

I know what you mean. The Area where I live hasn`t changed much the last 80 years. Still loads of old houses and frams and the dividing of the farmlands etc. are still the same as in the old days. IN WW2 there was a german Garrison in our village and there was one in teh smaller village next to us but the sorrounding area still looks the same as it did then. And teh fun thing is that it doesn`t look too different as the rest of Holland.
Great reference.

Well, every day when I leave the Air Force base that I live on, I drive past a tan/brown camouflaged P-40 fighter.

When I arrive at work in the morning, my office window overlooks about 100 pieces of US military equipment sitting 50 feet away. My day is normally interupted by the sounds of those vehicles starting up and moving around.


Other times, the noise of police cruisers training high speed maneuvers breaks the morning calm. Often dozens of police motorcycles play follow the leader in between buildings and around the motor pool.

If I chose to go to lunch at one of the local fast food restaurants, I end up driving by the National Guard's maintenance site where they have a multitude of older US and Soviet vehicles on display.

If I need gas, I drive by the F-86 fighter on the Air Base.

Oh ya, i'm from Buffalo,NY and in the down town area we have the Buffalo Navel Service Mens park. The USS Little rock, USS Sullavins and SSK Crocker a sub are docked there, along w/ a huey, jets, tanks, apc's you name it's there. Also Niagara Falls Air Force base, two large armorys, Coast Guard Base. Everything's in the city except the air base which is only a 20-25 min ride away.

Here in Vancouver, BC, we got the port and Esquimalt naval base is just across the strait in Victoria. Not only that but just outside of the city is Abbotsford, with a large annual airshow.
We also get a few military vehicles travelling thru town and a number of the American ships coming in for a port-of-call.
And we got a he** of a view in town, too!!!!!

Living at the edge of Salisbury Plain, we get to enjoy the sound and smell of heavy artillery on a regular basis. We also have vehicles from Warminster Base passing through our village, and our garden ends at the main road!

We are also under the low flying pratice run from Lyneham Airfield, the home of the C-130. We get a lot of weird and wonderfull this flying low enough over our house to say hello to the driver. :-)





Cheers
Henk

Hi...
as I come from Wigan its a great place if you want to be inspired for modelling pubs, men with flat caps and whippets...and old mine workings.
For anything military I need to travel further afield.

When I was little, me and my friends would often cycle 15 miles or so and go to the American airbase at Barton to see if we might get lucky and watch a strat landing.
Its gone now. But watching those big birds was a lasting inspiration for me.

Some of you are so lucky.

Cheers
Peter
:-)

G'day mate
occasionaly i will see a convoy of Landrovers and trucks going down the princes highway, seen the trucks carrying an M113 once or twice, nothing much else though.... oh the blackhawks and hueys always pass over on their way to avalon airshow! thats pretty good too!
cheers

fredericksburg, va
GREAT for civil war stuff, i can go north to quantico for marine stuff, i can go to for AP Hill army base for army stuff, or travel to our nations capitol for anything. and southeast of me is Williamsburg for the colonial period and norfolk if i feel like looking at some boats!

we also get the occasional USMC CH-53E and USMC Cobra attack helicopters and CH-46(more rare) from quantico flying over head, i still go out and watch them, the presidents helo (one of them) is also based at quantico. and sometimes we get the occasional c-17 or c-5 planes flying over head to whereever

I live close to Dayton Ohio, the home of the U.S. Air Force Museum.

All tho I do armor, I still like to browse the WW2 aircraft. My fovorite being the A-20.

Muuch the same as flitzer Prestons great if your into modelling drabness! no Prestons good for looking at brickwork ect > I'm on the flightpatch for BaE systems Warton were they are testing eurofighter so see that some times. Also got Preston Barracks home to 42 Nw Bde Hq abd 5GS regt . It has a comet,type 69,25 pounders some big guns and some iraqi armour from the 91 gulf war. near by I have some cheftains,t34,jet provost and some helo's and 40mm bofors at a tourist shopping center

Im close to the City of London where we get a lot of visiting warships from many countries and I live on the outskirts of the ww2 Hornchurch air base we often have fly overs of ww2 planes, last sighting was a Lanchaster and a spitfire.

I'm feel very lucky to live only 45 min. from the Planes of Fame at Chino, CA. Lots of Old Warbirds and some Armor on display. Greatest thrill is that most of the Warbirds fly. At the upper left you can see some aircraft waiting for restoration. At the bottom is "Fighter ReBuilders" the people that resently rebuilt the P-39 for Duxford. Building in the upper center are the museum itself. Off to the left out of picture is the Aces Air Museum with more restored birds. The two comprise Wingything Heaven for these old eyes:-)--<


To check out somemore great photos by Britt Dietz and others and to get info about "Planes of Fame" check out the website http://planesoffame.org/

My town if I were into figures..I could model homeless washing their clothes in the town fountain or Illegals hanging at the train station...not much armor.

I live in a small town of northern Greece called Komotini. I don't have the chance to see many military stuff but i think that inspiration comes from everywhere. For example when i get out of the town i watch carefully the trees, the bushes, the different tones of the green they have or the rocks and the mountains with the variety of grey tones they have. Even when I'm walking down the street i watch the buildings and how the weather effects on them. So you can find inspiration everywhere...

Greensboro, NC, USA. Ring a bell for all you military History buffs?
No?
Yeah, there's a reason for that...



Well, O.K., it was the site of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the war for American Independence. Also known, along with about 75 other sites, as "THE Turning point of the Revolution!"
Although after the battle, the British commander was quoted as saying "Another such victory and we shall lose the war!"

Fascinating History, not much inspiration for modeling unless Cannons are your thing.

But less than 1 hr. North is this fascinating place: http://www.aaftankmuseum.com
on which I hope to soon post a review.
Also a small air museum 45 min. South of us but I've not yet visited.

Robert - the museum at Douglas airport in Charolette has some very interesting "stuff" on display. Is that the one you are refering to ? You should check it out too.

I live about 40 minutes from Canadian Forces Base Borden, and about the same from the Meaford Tank range. I see numerous peieces of Can equipment traveling the roads back and forth.. Usually the 6 wheel bison I believe.. Recovery vehicles and the odd duce and a half.. Both bases have a ton of old armour outside on display. In fact, I have seen some of them posted here..

Mojo

Well I live in Sandhurst which is all right if you want to model some Ruperts in their going out gear! Luckily I travel to Southampton and Andover daily for work so pass lots of military on the roads, and I have still have good mates in the Engineers nearby!

Sam

I live in Hechtel, Belgium...

From where I live it is about 5 minutes by car to the "Kamp van Beverlo", Leopoldsburg, which is home to the 1st Mechanised Brigade and the largest garrison in Belgium. With the base and the training area, which is about 80% located on Hechtel territory, I'm blessed with seeing olive drab and 3tone schemes almost every day.

Also I live directly in the take-off/landing path for the planes from Kleine-Brogel AB, which is about 15 min away by car (about 2 with wings).

So I've got land and air... Naval will be difficult, as the little stream behind our house is hardly enough to drown a fly in..... :-)

Well thank you all for your replies. It's great to see we all get something from our local suroundings. I discovered on the weekend another source of inspiration on the...my grandfather. Never being one to get out his photo albums i'd never seen pictures of his father (my great grandfather) before in my life. It turned out he was a train driver during the war in which 3 of his trains were destroyed by enemy aircraft. Also he was a driver for the famous "Flying Scotsman" train.

I must admit I wouldn't mind to live in the USA near the civil war battlefields. I find that era interesting....also the fact (and correct me if i'm wrong) that this war was the most photographed war ever is very intriguing.

I live in Michigan, in a small town. Not too much military inspiration up here anymore. I used to see national guard convoys all the time (I live about 25 miles from Grayling) Now, that has scaled back quite a bit. I do live near a major gravel pit, so I see trucks going by my house daily. I will probably have to build a couple of dump trucks, and a few double bottom gravel semis. Actually some of the cement mixers could be fun scratchbuilds. Once you get past the mixer barrel, they are all right angles and flat surfaces.

I used to spend most of my time in the U.P., and I was right under the flight path for B-52 bombers when they did their low level flying drills. (North shore of Lake Manistique) Used to lay out in the yard, and watch them rumble over. Hated it when the fighters went supersonic, though. No warning... Just BOOM! Makes you a bit jumpy after being rattled out of a sound sleep several times. Blew a few windows out too. Now, both Kinchloe and K.I. Sawyer are closed, and there is no activity up there. (No economy either)

I guess I gotta build a B-52 someday...

Lincoln is an aceplace for modelling ,up the road we have the royal artillery ,kirton barracks , missiles and vehicles gallore !
down the road a bit is the royal airforce station waddington ,now multinational , lots of f-18 hornet from spain and mirage 2000's from france plus the u.s. airforce and recently some russian su-27's !
andin town is a beautiful medieval city ,with cathederal ,and castle , the top end of town isalmost stuck in a time warp ,i love it!

SInce I live near Ft. Carson Colorado, I have access to the 3s ACR museum which has a nice little dsiplay of armor out back, including the last remaining horse carrier truck. Basically a Studebaker truck with a very long trailer behind it. Ft. Carson is also home to the 3d ACR and the 3rd BDE Combat Team 4ID, and all of their equipment. I've got Bradleys, M1A1's and A2's, and M109A6's to name just a few of the big pieces. Lots of wheeled vehicles too. Peterson AFB is about a 20 minute drive for me. I can catch F-16's and C130's there pretty regularly with the occasional, C5 and C-17 for good measure. Colorado Springs Airport is just across the Tarmac from Pete so we have a nice array of civlian aircraft at any given time. Just down the road is Pikes Peak International Raceway. The Busch series hits this throughout the season, as does the supertrucks, monster trucks, AMA, Indy Racing League, and Good Guys Car show. There are others that race/ show up here as well. Every 4th of July there is the Pikes Peak hill climb which brings out some really cool vehicles to compete, even if it is only once a year. Speaking of Pikes Peak, we have the COG railway that runs to the top of PP. Not your everyday train by any means.....so no, there isnt much in the way of inspiration for model building here in Colorado Springs... LOL. yeah right! About the only thing we dont have is a Naval yard, but we do have SEABEE's on Ft. Carson. Now all we need is ship. "Q"