Having recently joined Armorama I thought it was high time I put fingers to keyboard and introduced myself to you. I'm 38 years old, married with three teenage kids and a veritable menagerie of animals. To put food on the table, and of course kits in the stash, I'm an ASW Sea King observer in the RN, joined up in Sep 89. Since then I've served in all three of our 'carriers' and a good few of the RFAs, and of course been lucky enough to visit some fantastic places... As well as Bosnia, the Gulf and Georgia

I only really got back into modelling about 18 months ago, had made the very occasional kit over the last 20 years or so but really nothing much. Like a lot of you I used to build loads of kits when I was a kid, mostly 1/72 aircraft and armour ~ most of them later ended up making a single flight, in flames, from an upstairs window! And then a couple of years ago I was chatting to a colleague at work who happened to mention a kit he was building that I had always yearned after as a sprog, but could never afford. That was the old Matchbox kit of the Royal Navy's Flower Class corvette in 1/72 scale. Turned out it was still in production (!) after all those years, now being made by Revell. Well, I just had to get one, didn't I? So far she has taken me 18 months to build, and is finally getting close to finished. There are a few pics of the build in my gallery, I hope to post some updated (and better quality) photos soon.

Whilst I was building her I decided to do another kit as a bit of a break, so did a bit of scouting about on eBay to pick up some cheap kits. Managed to acquire a Tamiya 1/35 King Tiger, to which I then promptly added a whole bunch of after market goodies. This naturally turned a nice simple kit being built as a break from the main project into quite a major evolution... It amazed me when I got back into this hobby just how much the quality of kits has improved, and of course the incredible range of detailing sets and so on that are now to be had.

Thanks to eBay I now have a large stash of kits waiting to be built, largely 1/35 armour, the majority of them hidden away from wifey in the boxroom upstairs! She is now starting to make rumblings about the dining room having been taken over by tools, pots of enamel and half-assembled models (at the moment on the go I have a 1/24 Airfix Me 109, the corvette, and a 1/35 Dragon Kettenkrad with Puppchen). Must get a bigger house...


PS Whilst looking for PE for the 109 I was surprised to find there was nothing available. A post in rec.models.scale led me to 'The Ol' Etcher' (Fred Hultberg, who I believe trades as "Foto Cut"), who was kind enough to actually make up a set specifically for me! In return I did a write up of it for him (an in box review really since the 109 is still a work in progress). Sadly I haven't seen the review online anywhere, but obviously still have it on my PC. If anyone wants a look then please let me know.

Cheers!

Welcome to Armorama, Graham! I hope you learn as much as I have from all these great knuckleheads! You'll never feel better than the first time you post a picture of your work and people respond with the compliments. I am so glad to be a part of Armorama and to learn and share with the best modelers in the world. I hope you will feel as good!



Cuhail

Welcome to the Big A Graham.

Glad you found us. Sounds like ebay is becoming a dear friend. Post some pics when the building is happening.

Hasty

Hi there Ripster,

Welcome to the big A!

Dig your website! :-) :-) :-)

Rudi

Welcome to this mad and friendly site - the ladies and gents here make modelling a fun experience and I have improved out of site with the feedback and the only prob is when I am online I am not sculpting -oh well can't do everything
Ian

welcome to Armorama Graham.Always good to have new members in our modelling family and the ones who served or serving in honor are great reference sources for us.
Greets from Turkey

Nice to have u here. People with army experience are always valuable

Costas

Thanks for all the words of welcome gents, I'm looking forward to participating here, and hopefully contributing a little.

Costas: Army?!?! I'm in the Royal Navy (the Senior Service ) and you would never catch me messing about in the mud and grime. Well, not very often anyway

Welcome aboard Mr Graham (perhaps u could let us now what is ur navy rank..) hehe it's good to have som,ebody from the navy to join us. Although i'm not a ship modeller but i've build (so far) 2 ships and in the waiting list is USS ENterprise which was partially build but never completed since 2001. Anyway i did peek your gallery and I can say that the King tiger really cool. The cammo job was beautifully done. The Flower class, however, was amazing. It's rare for me to see a modeller were doing difficult project on his first 'comeback' project. I can see lots of PE goodies stuff in the ship. Well, cheers all the way! and good luck. Once again, welcome to the Big A Family!

Welcome to Armorama Graham.

Glad you joined us

Hi, thank you! I'm still a lieutenant, have been for 10 years now - I think the promotions board have lost my papers...

Really like the ambush scheme on the King Tiger in your gallery, I must try that on one of my kit stash. And that Kilo is VERY nice indeed. I'm an ASW observer (like a US TACO I suppose) and actually got to play with a Polish Kilo a few years ago.

The Revell 1/72 U-Boat is on my wishlist, but she's a bit expensive. And of course I would have to add the PE sets and the CMK interiors as well, which would add a LOT to the costs. Let's hope I win the lottery!

thanks again for the welcome

Graham, welcome to the Big A. You are now an official member of one of the best model sites on the web. Can't wait to see some of your work, so when your ready, use some of your gallery space, upload some pics and let us all have a look.
Once again, Welcome to the Family...
Mary (++)

Wellcome aboard Mate! Kick back, have a pint and enjoy.

Graham, welcome to the group. Looking forward to seeing your work. Cheers Kevin

Thanks all. I've posted some of my stuff into my gallery, hope you like it!

Welcome to the site hope u find it as usefull as i do.

Ahhh finally Lieutenant Graham on the deck! Errr do they in the RN spell use lieutenant instead of leftenant?? just curious ... wow...u really have the chance to see the kilo in real life.... this is something that most of us civillian were envy at the navy boys!
and thanks for your kind words about my KT.. if you wanted to know how the cammo is painted, Click Here. PErhaps u could find my method usefull.
i think everybody's here wish they could win loterry someday..hehe

A lottery win would be useful wouldn't it? The only way I think I will get to build all the kits on my wishlist!

And in the RN we say it as 'leftenant', rather than 'lootenant'

Cheers!