Introductory thread

[Madknight]

Hi

Name's Andreas, I'm 45 years old, married and work in the err.. food and beverage redestribution system in Germany. Like some of you guys I started with the usual Airfix sets in the early 70's (loved those Ancient Britons and Prussian Landwehr particularly). Switched in the 80's to fantastic roleplaying (Forgotten Realms). Came back to collecting toy soldiers after the release of the Realm's 3rd Edition (and the collective dissappointment that came along with it for us old time players), when my younger brother introduced me to PSR. I became addicted at once - so many new medieval sets ! So during the last five years I've amassed some 10000 knightly figs (no Strelets though, don't like the look of those). Since I don't have the skill I havn't painted them yet, but plan to do so in the near future. Right now I use the figurines for wargaming with my brother, who's into the napoleonics (whose addiction is worse than mine, whose english is better than mine and who already painted some few 100's of his figurines quite well) using a mixture of Fields of Glory and own houserules. Moreover, I regularly visit the fairs of DUZI and Herne, always looking for everythig related to my hobby.

Joied your forum, because it is the most easygoig I came across, hopefully also learnig a lot from you guys. Keep up the good work

[Al]

Well, this is a new one for me... Al, 39, live on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand; rain forest, more like Chinese water torture sometimes! I teach History, Classical Studies and languages in a high school. Served in the NZ Army for three years before joining the Royal Marines for another fifteen. Married with one daughter who is starting university this year, studying forensic anthropology. Been into collecting and painting figures and vehicles in 1/72 since I was a child, and wargaming with these since about 2005, when I left the military. Hate teaching but the alternative is more military/security work, so currently working on a viable exit strategy.

Greetings to you all.

Al

[Lääkintämies]

Hi

My name is Antti, but most of those who know me call me ADHD And yes, there is a reason why they r using that nickname. And its kinda obvious, no explanations requested.

Me, about a year ago - talking with my (ex) girlfriend in phone meanwhile our belowed Jenna Jameson doll is riding on me

I was born in `90, dark night of november. It was the first big winter storm of the year... Well, at least thats what my parents have told me

Im living at the outskirts of Tampere, or as locals know it, "Mansester", direct ripp-off from Manchester. The common thing between the cities is large number of steel industry.

At the moment Im doing my military service at the Finnish Defence Forces as a medic, which explains my nick "Lääkintämies" - simply medic when translated.

When the time comes and I will run out from the gates of the garrison as a free man, I will most likely to start studies to become professional model builder.

Been painting, collecting and gaming minis for..what? Allmost ten years for now. Damn that sounds like a long time. Its been a long trek from airfix british paratroopers to caesars modern US and strelets RKKA.

Sadly Im kinda lazy painter, so most of the times there is armies of based and converted troops on my work desk, but sadly it takes ages to get that point where I paint them.

My favourite subjects are as well as sci-fi, fantasy, modern (&What If), WW2 and WW1, so no middle age cavalry, sry

With small exceptions, allmost all of my figures&vehicles will find their way to the wargaming battlefields, which explains some of the choices I`ve made when assembling my vehicles or basing my figs.

How did I find this forum? Thx Kiwi About a year ago I was randomgoogling pics of modern US troopers in 1:72, and I found the militaryphotos.net, and thread which was owned for 1/72 minis. I stalked long times of that thead, and find link to this site, posted by Kiwi couple of months ago. So it took pretty long to join, but wth, here I am

Forgive me my typos

[jn]

Hi,
I'm a member of this forum since today, March 8.
My name is Jorge and I live in Lisboa, Portugal.
I'm 46 years old and I'm collecting, painting and assembling miniature armies since I was a kid. I played so many boardgames, cardgames, rolepaying games, that I couldn't remember all.
I guess, reading this, you are imaginig thousands and thousands of well painted and organized figures but...no. When I was mastering some technics I couldn't get the time to do it and, for many years, I have just collected the figures that showed in the marcket. As Benno said, buying figures is a good side of this hobbie.
Today, working near home, I, surprisingly, got some free time. When I realized it, I blowed the dust over my tools and checked if the paints aren't all dry - surprisingly, not.
What I'm doing now?
I'm painting and assembling a Lusitanian army with Hät and Caesar figures and organizing lots of figures from different makers.

[sberry]

Hi everybody,

my real name is Stephan and I think, I am a fairly typical representative of the “Generation Airfix”: As a schoolboy I started with Timpos in 1/32 – very expensive, not at all good for the pocket money. However, I soon discovered Airfix and assembled over the years a collection in 1/72 and 1/32: Napoleon, knights, ancients, WW2, a bit of everything. When the Atlantic ancient series appeared in the stores, I immediately had to have them.

Then comes a large gap of about two decades in my collector career. I have studied chemistry and afterwards spend years in the biophysical chemistry lab; I’m pretty sure you don’t want any details. Right now, I am working as a science author, doing stuff in the border zone between natural science and ancient history/archaeology. If you are interested in the pathology of combat injuries from antiquity you may have a look at the recent issue of Ancient Warfare (www.ancient-warfare.com).

My interest in 1/72 figures, this time with an exclusive focus on the ancients, was renewed about ten years ago. The first thing I had to learn was that my whole collection had been disposed, I had left it at my parents house. This is shocking, but I know that I am not alone with this fate. There were some nice items: The Roman fort from Airfix, the Atlantic Sphinx and the siege tower. So most of this collection is a real loss – with some exceptions. The Atlantic “Romans” were probably the worst and most ridicule figures I have ever seen, so I can do without them. For several years now I have been a figure collector in the true meaning of the word – collecting them, but not getting any project finished. In 2008 the first two dioramas were finished, this year the score rose to 7 dio projects altogether. And here I am.

[evilsam]

Hi folks,

My name is Jon. I'm mostly a war gamer and have started to experiment with 1/72 as a great (and inexpensive) way to get into historical gaming. Done some stuff with WWII and am slowing working into Napoleonics.

Glad I found this forum and have enjoyed the great commentary and friendly atmosphere here.

-Jon

[Trull]

Hi there,
michel told me about this forum and here I am.
My name is Oliver (39), I live in southern Germany near the lake Constance and in real life I construct buildings.
5-6 years ago I started with building little Dioramas. My previous works shows more fantasy, lately I tend more and more into history. Recently, my works getting bigger and bigger, which my wife now no longer finds funny... I'm trying to work always very detailed and I'm looking for every new project is a new challenge for me.
My biggest project is my Diorama called "Pirates". Currently I am working on 3 projects. "1888 - a dark tale" tells the story of "Jack the ripper", then I build an old water mill and next year will begin my major project, the Ponte Vecchio. This plate is about 1.00 m tall and will occupy me for 1-2 years.


Cheers Trull

[Cor V.]

My name is Jim. I live in Rotterdam Holland and have 2 grown up daughters and a grandson.
For the last 28years I am teaching Wing Chun kung fu for witch I got my master degree in China. www.wingchundong.nl My other interests are photography, pyrotechnics and listening good music, most 50’s and 60’s.
My plastic hobby started over 50y. ago with the Airfix Guards Band. I remember having the Indians, Arabs , cowboys, Foreign Legion and the Guards Colour Party witch was a big disappointment to me with the 36 same marching poses. All in all I think I owned +/- 10 sets and did paint them all.
For some reason I changed to airplanes, Spitfire’s, Messerschmits and Mustangs. Never looked back at mini soldiers again.
2 Years ago I inherited my uncles plastic collection that included some Airfix, Esci and Matchbox sets. This renewed my interest and I bought some 25 sets since.
Painting them up is my joy, no gaming for me. My knowledge of historic battles, famous generals or uniforms is next to zero, witch is a bit of a handicap. So don’t expect me to post sensible info but I promise to post pics of finished sets once in a while.
Period of interest is from ancient up to WW1.

[Dad's Army]

Seems I never introduced myself over here

I am Remco, born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
When I was young I did make a lot of diorama's in 1/72 an 1/35.
My favorite models where from Hasegawa and Monogram (all US)
Now my son has brought this hobby again under my atention.
Even his interest are a another period.
That brings me to my nickname: Dad's Army. A British serie about WW2.
Because my interest is mainley WW2, and being the dad of Benno, I choose this nickname.
I am not as active as the most of you guys over here, but hope in the future make nice litle dio's.
After a lot of years I made my first vignette: a medical jeep but I must say, getting older makes the small stuff harder to make.
I can't see it without my reading glasses, and have to use a loupe..
Anyhow the most of you guys know who I am, seen a lot off you in real life on events, and hope to meet more members in the future.

[Bourbaki]

Hi,

I'm Dani, I'm 23 I live in Spain (Palma de Mallorca)
I can't remember exactly when I started to paint 1/72 miniatures, I started with Revell ww2 miniatures, but my favourite subject is the 19th century, specially middle and late century. I paint for wargaming, my project now is about FP war, I only bought plastic miniatures ,metal are very expensive, some of them maybe aren't accuarete at all, but i like the variety ,in future post I will explain this .

[Fabien G]

Hello everyone,

How stupid is that?, I'm excited about joining a forum on the internet about... plastic toy soldiers!

Hello then, I'm Fabien, 37, live in France, unemployed, like football (english, german mainly), music (kindda open-minded but preferably british indie-pop music), travelling a bit (went to Rome last year and enjoyed it a lot) or spending some time at my parent's house...

When I was young, my favourite pasttime besides football was playing with my plastic toy soldiers. My parents use to buy me quite a lot (that pretty all I wanted as gift), mainly Atlantic.

My favourite periods of time are
WWII
WWI
US Civil War
Romans

Nowadays, I'm starting to have a real desire to go back and take my soldiers from the old cardboard boxes in which they are stored in my parent's house to start to paint them all and 'use' them.

My biggest regeret is that..; I didn't asked for more! Looking at the price nowadays, wow, it's an expensive hobby! ...And also that I never kept the boxes!!!

That's why I registered here in the first place; after reading things on here... I liked the site! It's clear and simple design, only for 1/72 scale, people share ideas, and you seem to know about the subject so much!!! On the contrary, I know almost nothing about toy soldiers and I'm quite lost. There's almost too much to read for me, to many informations to discover at the same time, my mind can't cope!

So it will probably take me a liitle while before I post, and excuse me in advance if I start a topic that's been talked about before (I'll try not to), and for my english being 'rusty'.

[Mark]

Hello, My name is Mark. I was born in Stockport and raised in Chapel. I am 19 years old.my interests are historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, and history

[Zozan]

Hey guys!

My name 'Zozan' is not my real name, normally I'm called Alex, or Alexandra if I did something wrong But I know that there is already an Alex in here so I had to choose a new name. Zozan is a kurdish female name I like very much

I'm 21 years old, I'm living in Germany (Ruhr Area), actually in the same flat as Marc (Valion). I'm studying Philosophy and History, but History is my favorite.

My first contact with modelling was when I was around 5 years old. My two older brothers tried to paint airplanes, but they always kept me away 'cause I was too young and a girl.
So I didn't have anything to do with modelling until I've met Marc. When I first came into his flat he showed me some of his figures. I think it was the same day that I wanted to sit down on his bed, but then I felt something... A short scream (not mine, but Marc's), I stood up, and saw that I have sitten on some little, tiny weapons... But he forgave me

Now I like those little figures, buildings and scenes as well. Especially I like the middle ages, as there is so much diversion. I don't really like tanks and airplanes, as I can't find anything nice or esthetik about them. Until now I didn't paint so much, as I need a lot of time for it and the last time I had too much to do. But I'm quite motivated to restart! Then I'll show some of my figures here in the forum.

I'm glad to join this forum now!

Alex

[Shaun]

Hello To all

My names is Shaun and i hail from Perth Western Australia. My interests in miniatures started off from the other side of modeling, namely small scale 1/72 AFV's. Then after stumbling on PSR , one thing led to another and then finally a purchase of zvezda's french knights and french infantry. From then on i have been hooked ever since at the expense of my computer gaming and small scale AFV modeling.

My main interests in figures are those sporting spiffy metal Armour's but i have been going out of my comfort zones and been pleasantly surprised.

[Alejandro]

Hello, My name Is Alejandro, I am from Lanus (city), Buenos Aires (state), Argentina.

I paint and collect Historical and fantasy miniatures in many scales.
I study Laws in te university, (I am going to finish this year!!!).

I meet the formum by Valdermar's Homepage.

Bye.

[edchew]

Hi friends. My name is Edmond and I live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am 39 years old and am a vivid fan of 1/72 plastic miniatures. I work as a Banker.

I was hooked into plastics when I was 10 y/o soon after I found several Matchbox infantry sets and AFVs being offered at a then small toy shop here. By the time I attained the age of 14, I was introduced to wargaming. That was the first time I discovered a meaningful use of the miniatures other than as toys or dioramas.

I must say that since my first discovery of the figurines, I always had a recurring dream that I would visit a shop and would encounter a host of manufacturers producing a multitude of WW2 figures. Everyone of them has unique poses that enhances my collection, and with these I can create a whole 1:1 army batallion /company.

That dream never came true till the late 90s. All we had then was, Airfix, Matchbox, ESCI, Hasegawa, Fujimi and Revell. Only the German Infantry was sufficiently diverse enough to build a company of men. Of course one has to contend with the differing sizes then. Post 2000, the proliferation of manufacturers made this dream come true. With the internet, I am now able to acquire them with ease.

The rules I use for WW2, is called "PanzerFaust: Armored Fist" written by Scott Nicholas & Peter Stone from Australia. Though a rather cumbersome ruleset it contained good and rather accurate details that breathe some reality to the game.

This however is a 1:1 rule set and hence one has to spend tonnes of money to build the units specified. The biggest complain isn't the excessive use of cash, largely because i built the units over several years, but rather the building of the said army and not to mention painting all of them. They are a nightmare.

I amassed an army in excess of 8000 figurines and nearly 400 or so AFVs to date. This excludes the Anti Tank Guns. I think I built only 1/3 of them and painted close to 3% of the figures.

With so many exciting sets coming out, I think it will be a real challenge building and painting all these stuff. Hope the next dream I get is the full construction of the entire army and its eventual use in a big wargame!

[Zimbo]

Hi Boys

my Name is Marc iam 40 years old and i came from Germany.
The name from my Hometown is Eppelheim this City is between
Schwetzingen and Heidelberg.

I came to this Board via Michel he told me from this Board.

Iam not a Professional Trader!
I sell my Buildings from Privat to Privat!


Thanks for the great Hello on this fine Board!
Greets Marc

P.s Sorry for my terrible English.

[entrauner]

hello pilgrims,

My name is Erik and I live in Vienna, Austria.I'm 58 years old and my profession is making blues music.
like most of you I started getting into this hobby by collecting and painting 1/72 airfix figurines in the late 60ies.(my first was the US fort playset)
my father was a great model ship builder and he inspired me to build my first dioramas.although he was a very multiple and difficult personality,through modelling we could keep up a kind of an ok relationship.
all through the years I had built up a "completely-out-of-control-getting- collection" of figurines and everything that comes with it , so I don't think I will ever switch to another scale.
my intention is, to build scenes and figurines with most archievable realistic and authentic character.-like a 3dimensional painting.
therefore research and daily life observation is a very important issue for my hobby.
my historical interest goes from adam and eve untill WW1.
I think this forum is a quite inspiring and peaceful spot to share and learn more about our passion.-thank y'all for having me here!
Let's keep it up!

thank you

[franznap]

Ciao a Tutti,
Since 1975 i paint and collect 1/72 plastic toy soldiers of the Napoleonic Era,in these decades although my sight get weaker, my hand get smoother.
I keep to find and develop new techniques in converting, painting, transforming these little guys, and i would like to place here some of it for the other lover of this art.
I don't paint for wargaming or for dioramas, but i would say that this is for me a sort of "Zen" practice, a miniature art which keep me calm and hold the deeper emotions of my childhood alive, a sort of remote soul; after painted i photograph and i store the soldiers in small cigar boxes between cotton wool, each box with his own label. The pleasure for me is to open the boxes now and then, and enjoy the disclosed beauty of the content. Also photos help a lot to give the right athmosphere and pathos and it is an easy way to see and enjoy every detail and every composition.
My goal was to reach all the units and all the armies who fought in that colorful time, but i think i will have not enough days in my life to reach this aim, but i keep the illusion with me, like a mirage in the desert.
About myself , my name is Francesco Messori, I'm Italian, born in Modena the 19 november 1961, but actually living in Amsterdam in the Netherlands; I'm an architect and enjoy my work. i live with Patricia and 2 beautiful cats. I have a beautiful daughter Vera.
reading this contributes i see how many of you have a similar background, and motivations, and i love to share this art between generations, without age and cultural boundaries.
here a cool fhoto of me and Patricia at Republique in Blomendaal

[gogiovanni]

My real name is Giovanni,

I'm 16 years old and live in Venice, and I'm a student

I got into this through my other hobby, collecting carmodels and modify. I needed figures for doing a small garage but when I see some military dio I decide to convert to this tipe of diorama.

I am mostly into WW2, but also have some ideas for Roman and Medieval.

I admire the work that's posted on this site and generally feel quite inadequate compared to the masters work, but hope to improve as time goes on.

Thanks for your helps

Gio