When I was younger I used to go to the Hobby shop and look at all the train & modeling magazines and there was one that got my eye and it was in a Tamiya catalog one time. By some japaneese modelers an I was hooked.

Then when I started building the 1/700 sale ships. I started to find out about Bob Letterman & Lewis Pruneau projects. Then there was the Scale Ships magazine with the 1/350 Enterprise and all that scrap building of tug boats and stuff. I forgot who it was in was in the later years 1980 something.

I started with ships because most of my grandparents and uncles where in the Navy. Some where in Burma when they strated to fight there.

I was just wondering who got you hooked. And made you say WOW I wish I could do that.

Happy Modeling

Thats an easy one for me. My Brother Mike! When I was younger, he would come home on leave from the Marine Corps and usually have a big box filled with foam peanuts. I couldn't wait to get into it because I knew that one of his expertly built models would be cantained within! I just wish that I was more responsible when I was a kid. Although they usually hung from my ceiling or sat on a shelf, "things" would happen to them. Like getting caught in the crossfire of a domino fight with my sister for example. Let alone that my Mom was murder on them when she dusted!
Then during the 80's, he really got involved in figure painting and was brilliant at it! I inherited a couple of those too, same story!
He easily influenced me to initially build, but I never thought I would be as good as he was. I just didn't apply myself until later on. I am still working at it! :-)
I have introduced him to the site and am trying to get him back involved in the Hobby. He is one of the smartest people I know and would be a great asset. Now he is into CG painting of aircraft. His latest work was the paintjob on the Plane in flight of the Phoenix. The sucky part about it is, he could make so much more money doing it, but he paints them on a fee basis so he has no claims to residuals or anything.
Sorry, didn't mean to ramble off topic, but the choice was clear for me. Although technically not a professional (you need to derive the majority of your income to be qualified as such) his builds were as good as a lot of the "pro's'" I had seen.

I started building when I was young and as products and skills got better felt I was doing OK. Started going to model shows and found out differently. But I guess Tony Greenlands Armor model book was my inspiration. After seeing his stuff my thought was.....Gee....I can do that....nd I am still striving, but it definitely is a goal worth acheiving

Several people inpired me as I returned to modelling. The first was the late Jim Jones (no, not the guy with the Kool-Aid! ) He was a member of the Worcester , Mass. club and built superb armor. The first thing I saw of his was a spectacular desert rat dio with two jeeps attacking a German supply depot. He taught me to stretch sprue. Long time readers of FSM might remember a super detailed Shinano aircraft carrier about 15 years ago...The was Jim's work.

As I started competing, one Dave Linbo was doing some excellent 1/72 armor with beautiful drybrush techniques. He moved out of the area, somewhere down south, I believe.

Most recently, I've taken inspiration from Christian Petit, a French sculptor who specializes in American Indian subjects. Seeing his work at the 2002 Long Island show got me started on figures of America's First People.

started when i was 9 or 10 (6 or 7 years ago) started building chevy car models (love my chevies!) and then my first military kit was a 1/48 apache, then got into planes, now 1/35 armor and dios

I suppose I have to give Mr. Verlinden a mention here..
When I was still living in Holland, my models came from the LHS. That meant Tamiya, Tamiya and Italieri etc. No aftermarket, no magazines ( asked for a modeling magazine once at the news agent.... Did I tell you I lived in a small , backward village at the time :-) ) ,, no choice. Then I moved to a larger city, and the LHS stocked Verlinden's finest. I mean a wall sized display cabinet with a large no. of his sets in stock. This was the early nineties, and I was hooked. Now in those days his stuff was a revelation to me. Very expensive, but the detail...compared to Tamiya, this was perfect. From that point my models went one level up. I displayed my first dio in the window of that shop... happy days. So whereas I don't feel that Verlinden (at least his style) 'inspired' me, his products definitly helped me realise that I could do more than just glue a tank together and put it on the shelf. Or blow it up with fire works, but that's another story......

Henk

Shep Paine! His inserts in Monogram kits were a great inspiration to me. I still have them today. And, of course, his books. To me, Shep always will be The Man.

Chuck

I'm with you there cfbush. I built a monogram B-17 for a middles school art project (I'm 33 now). The illustrated insert that featured Shep Paines work was the beginning of my modelling sickness. I have kept everyone of them I could find. I think I have 4 or 5 of the inserts.

It was all reinforced when I purchased his book, How To Build Diorama's when I was a late teenager. I have never looked back since.

Hello Tom!
When I was a lad I was pretty much on my own in the modeling world. No hobby shops, just bought my kits and supply's at the local drug store(Glue). So I just learned on my own as I built. LOL, didn't learn much. Then when I got back into the hobby 9 years ago, I found the internet and some great modeling sites. That helped my progress tripple! But I will say this, the last 14 months here on Armorama I have learned more than I did in all those other years.
With the good folks and great modelers we have here, it has been a blessing. Not to mention a whole lot of fun! So this site and the people in it are my modeling hero's!

Thanks mates,

Garry