Introductory thread

[rpardo]

Hi
My name is Rafael, I am 54 years old, married (31 years now!), with a son (27) and a daughter (24). I live in Valladolid (Spain) and in the 'real world' I am in the University of Valladolid teaching Analytical Chemistry. My research interests are in environment and pollution.
I started with the miniatures around 1980 with Airfix Waterloo sets (French, British, Guard....). I paint the figures for wargaming the battles of the Napoleonic era, so my figures are all from those times!.
My painting standard is medium (and low when compared with other member of this Forum ) but I like to see the works of others, and I have learned some tricks here.
At last, I love the friendly atmosphere of this Forum. This is the main reason to stay here!

[winged hussar]

Hi...I introduce myself
my name is Giuseppe from Catania(italy)...i'am 20 years old and I paint soldiers since i was 10 years old (a passion from my father)
i painted only 2 soldiers of 54 mm in my life and 4 tanks ....but my world is 1/72...i love sculpting and painting my figures ....my favourite period is 16th-17 and 18th century (ottoman,higlanders,,seven years war,thirty years war,polish winged hussar,ecc..)
I have presented my works in some italians shows with good result

arrivederci a presto

Giuseppe

[PitYak Studios]

Hi folks

just signed up; I'm Phil, long-time toy soldier fan, mostly 20mm. My main areas of interest are ancients, medievals, ACW, victorian / steampunk, Pulp, WWII, modern and cyberpunk. I that that's about it. I'll post some pics I've got kicking around.

[arkhunter2002]

Well I'm new to this forums so I guess introductions are good.

I'm Austin, and I'm 19 years old, I go to the University of Dayton and am doing Army ROTC. I enjoy building models, especially helicopters. I mostly do work in 1/72 on subjects in Vietnam through modern periods although I've done few in 'outsiders'. You can probably find me on a few other websites like the Aircraft Resource Center, Finescale modeler, and Armorama... Each place seems to have their individual strengths...

I'm also a fan of sculpting and scratch building.

And thanks Benno for adding the 'human question' on the registration page

[jaime]

My name is Jaime, I am 46 years old and I live in Salamnca (Spain).

I started with the miniatures 20 years ago (from 1:35 to 200 mm) but this is my first time in 1:72 scale.

Jaime

[tony]

This is forum is top stuff and i have been reading and using it for weeks,so i thought i should sign and say "Eh up lads and lasses".

Name is Tony,been doing miniatures for years but really for myself,the new figures that have arrived are stunning ie CEASAR/ITALERI/HAT.i buy to many of each to be honest and have boxes of figures still piled up.I get a real buzz of them even at my age!!.

My main interets is modern/future (not so much sci-fi) more say "ghost recon" tech.Also i love sci-fi horror ie "Dead space/zombies/aliens" and i am working on some necromorphs in 1/72 scale by using ceasar skeletons and different parts from other sets for conversions.

Ancients and fantasy also interest me but with costs and time,i have to curb my excitment at other ranges.
All of the miniatures i have seen on here are superb and some of the painting is outstanding and very inspirational !!.

Thank you for letting me join the forum:) its brilliant hope i can live up to it:).
I am 43 and live in wet/windy/rain soaked england.

Cheers all 6mm tony.

[west1871]

hello all,

I am west1871 or when I am being normal,Rich.I like pincoladas and being caught out in the rain.I am 33 and 3/4s years old married with one drain on my money,I mean one wonderfull son (6years old).from newbury,berkshire england.now living in dorset.more of a modern boy,ww2 onwards but paul has turned me to the dark side,I mean ancients like celts and romans.
I used to do a lot of painting when I was at school and had a break for about 15years and then gave up smoking and did this to help.Paintings a lot better and the wife(mrswest1871)wants me to give up painting now
this forum is a lot more friendly than HATs (full of know it alls and not helpfulls).
I feel cleaner after admiting this and hope to lead a more rewarding life

[The Talking Horse]

Gentlemen, have been remiss in not doing this sooner, for which I apologise.
My name is Douglas and I have recently entered my 60th year on the planet, this time round.
For something like 50 of those years I have been playing with toy soldiers, predominately plastics and have amassed a reasonable collection, covering all periods up to c 1940 when my interests end.
No doubt my painting has improved since the early days, but I hate painting horses in particular, prefering a one colour and wash technique, which doesn`t give me what I feel is realistic.
Thanks for the site, can get some form of contact with others who share my interests. Regards Douglas

[Pat]

Hi all, Thanks again for the great welcome.

As you can see my name is Pat, and I joined Benno's figure forum because it's the best.

I work as a freelance art director for advertising agencies and as a free lance modelmaker for maquette makers and my own clients. I live in Amsterdam for 14 years now and am originally from Rotterdam.
I live together with my girlfriend, my dog and cat.


It was about 20 years since i painted 1/72 scale figures. And when i recently started to pick it up again ( i ran out of hobbies with jobs like these) I was quite surprised by the number of sets available and specialy about the quality of the sculpting.

So I started to buy some random sets of different manufacturers, simply because i felt like a kid in eh ... a model shop again, and continued where I left of 20 years before. This time there was a good primer for that pesky, rubbery plastic, and finally paint really stuck to the model. Yes!

At the moment i am finishing some lone figures and have my mind set on a small diorama about the Dutch revolt, also known as the 80 years war (1568-1648).

I browsed the forum a little bit already and spoke to some members in the chatroom. Thanks for the tips! It's also nice to see the different paint styles members of this forum have, and that some members are very gifted sculptors.

Looking forward to your posts.

Pat Broesder

[monty]

Hi

My real name is in fact not monty, i chose that name because general bernard montgomery (who my grandfather knew and served under) is my favoirite commander of the second world war, it is Dom. I have spent 14 years on this rock I been looking at this forum for quite some time but only recently had the guts to join it. I got my first set when i was about seven; the revell post 1812 brits. I went on to get a few rare ones from italeri and revell but after a while i bought soley the airfix big sets like the d-day ones. When i was 12 i got an xbox 360 which took the lime light away from the model soldiers for a while. Only a year ago i have got back into toy soldiers after i dicovered PSR and once again i was hooked you may or may not of heard that i i hve a project going to model a battle for every major war that englishmen/brits have fought in since before the roman invasion of britain so my intrests span almost everything


monty

[Wheeling Turn]

Hello everybody,
my real name is Markus. I live in Duisburg - Germany.
I collect 20mm Toy soldiers since i was a little boy (ok my wife things i am today). I mostly game with my models. My favourite games at the moment are warhammer fanrasy and lord of the rings from games workshop, but also 20mm DBA and starting at the moment Fields of glory (some kind of bigger and more detailed dba).
Next to my growing 20mm collection i also collect 25mm Games Workshop models (the vintage ones from the 80's).
I am also a great fan of the Hex and counter wargames like Advanced Squad leader,etc.
Other interests are rideing with my trusty ole bicycle,reading, wathing movies, and having a beer or two with Woko (also from this forum) and some endless chats about compositions of our model armies.

cheers
Markus Alexander Schenk

[Alanus]

Greetings gentlemen,

My name is Alan, I'm 40 years old and live in Sydney, Australia. My wife and I have just had twins, so I now have 4 children I'm a Roman historian by training, and currently teach history in a high school, where I also run a wargaming club.

Some of my earliest memories involve playing with model soldiers. My brother and I grew up making Airfix ships and aircraft models and playing with figures. Through high school I mainly became interested in painting German AFVs (mainly Esci), then discovered wargaming when I was about 17 and painted some 15mm armies for DBM (Normans, Late Romans and Franks). I lost interest in the hobby through my 20s.

I rediscovered the hobby when I was studying in the UK around 2001. A friend and I were sharing our fond memories of growing up with Airfix, and decided to make a model for old times sake. Going to a hobby shop I was amazed to see the 1/72 figures that were available. That was it - I was hooked again, and more than ever! It is truly a golden age...

I currently paint 1/72 plastics, with occasional metal figures. My approach is to make wargames armies, so I usually paint for mass effect. I paint ancient and early medieval DBA armies, English Civil War armies for DBR, Napoleonics, 1/72 WWI aircraft for Canvas Eagles and have just become interested in Napoleonic naval battles (using 1/1200 Langton miniatures). I rarely get to play games - 1/72 is not a common wargaming scale in Australia except for WWII.

That's about it really. Other interests include historical fencing and movies. I have recently started a Blog for my hobby, but am still having problems uploading photos. You can find it here:

http://dux-homunculorum.blogspot.com/

Alan.

[davidRN]

Hi to all.

If only we'd had a great facility like this years ago, good on you Benno.

Like many others i started collecting & painting as a young lad, only a few Airfix sets around then and i could not afford fancy metal figures.

Napoleonics are my thing but i do admire well painted stuff from other periods.

My young eyes churned out many sets towards the distant goal of a Waterloo diorama, not alone in that dream hey?

Then reality intervenes, i join the RN, get married and have two daughters, soldier collection is boxed-up in garage for several years, end of hobby?

Not blooming likely!!!

My interest was revived when i noticed all these new sets appearing a few years back, if only we'd had this choice we would not have painted French Cuirassiers to look like British Dragoons, etc.

Now i'm 56, divorced, loads of free time available but i have to use a magnifier, i'm slower at painting but still fascinated.

Deciding what type to paint next is now the toughest decision i find, anyone else have that problem i wonder?

I'm very approachable so feel free to contact me anytime, cheers, Dave...

[Chris]

Hello,

My name is Chris, i'm 22 years old, I live in Wattrelos, 15km from Lille in France at the Belgian border.

I'm student in law and politics for 4 years, beside my studies I work as an assistant at a legal adviser.

Concerning our hobby, I used to play and collect 1/72 figs from my early years, but I started to painted them a year ago, so i'm a beginner, I hope you won't be too tough with my work...

I have a huge interrest in Napoleonics, but I have nothing against other period!!

That's all,



Chris

[ToneTW]

Hello,

My name is Anthony, I'm 24, currently studying history at university in Newcastle. I was previously in the British army for 5 years.

I have a large collection of 1/72 plastic figures from across history which will take the next few centuries to finish at my current rate so I would have to consider myself a collector then a painter. I also have some metal figures to add to the plastics and I have limited myself to this scale in an attempt to curb or at least focus my impulsive buying.

Cheers

[L´Epaule]

Hello,

my name ist L´Epaule. Please look on this picture:

http://www.8eme.de/Gruppe_Mitglieder.php

L´ Epaule is called translated in such a way into for instance the shoulder or strong shoulder. One must also have those as Caporal.


As you see, I exercise willingly the hobby Reenactment. As an infantryman one comes around completely beautifully in the world.

Perhaps have their desire to read a little on the web page www.8eme.de. Unfortunately the web page is only on German. I'm sorry.

My real name is Frank. Come from Hamburg, live however for a long time in Bad Oldesloe in Schleswig-Holstein. Recently I rediscovered again our common hobby in 1/72, particularly Napoleonic. I participate, a Diorama to build over the storming of the Farm of La Haye Sainte around 18:00 clock. I want to represent this scene in 1/1 at figures.

The first Diorama plate is finished up to a few figures. A few pictures I already adjusted under http://www.bennosfigures.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3123.

I would like to thank you cordially for the admission in the forum. Power fun with you and there are to be seen many beautiful things from your works to.

Ton caporal
L´Epaule

[Fire at Will]

I'm Will, commonly found on forums as "Fire at Will" I got th nickname after a number of WW1 aircraft games where my random choice ended up being the bomber or reconaissance aircraft and therefore the main target!.

I'm a member of the lance & Longbow Society and you can often find me on the stand/games at the North of England shows. Also a member of the Pike & Shot Society, Society of twentieth Centuery Wargames and the Society of Ancients, showing the wide spread of my interests.

I've been wargaming for over 40 years and have amassed a collection of over 22,000 painted figures (with still another 7,000 in my stash). I originally started with plastics for cost reasons. Subsequently I continued because of the light weight and it was a way of controlling my spending as figures appered at around the rate I could paint them (this is no longer true)

I have kept a blog for the last two years and posted most of my recent work on it.

http://willwarweb.blogspot.com/

Please to meet you all
Will

[musketier]

Hello everyone! My real name is Randall and if I recall correctly I have seen 46 winters here,which is just outside Chicago.
I started collecting military figures when I was 8-9 years old. Airfix's 8th army and Africa corps were the first sets I got. With brief pauses for school I kept collecting more and more sets until I took stock 15 years ago I had 17,000 plastic figures covering each era that I could get my hands on. Not many got painted though because it was frustrating to have the paint just flake off, I then moved to 15mm metal figures and joined a wargaming group,where I started to take painting figures seriously, I have since sold most of those 15mm figures when my group broke up and now I am back into the 1/72 scale, since the figures have gotten so much better in detail and different materials now used than when I first started .
I am interested in all era's and enjoy chatting about all of them. but my real expertise is in WWI and ECW and have a real passion for 20th century warships,1/2400 scale.
Again I just want to say that I have enjoyed all the positive comments I have received from you all. Really inspirational!

[Mixon]

Hi,
My name is Milan. I am 32(almoust 33 ) years old, I’m married and have two years old son. I'm a Organizer of sports programs in the pool, and I teach swimming in a swimming school and I work as a coach in swimming and a water polo club. I am in reserve of the Serbian Army as a sergeant, responsible for basic military and medical training.

I am a collector and I have about 20,000 soldiers, gather all periods.

[TK]

Hi,

My name is Takács Krisztián. I'm from Érd a 'sleeping town' next to Budapest in Hungary. I was born in '76, I'm married, we have a 3 years old son. I hope once, he will help me to finish my great collecton of unpainted figures.
When I was a child, I built planes and make dioramas of front airports with the Airfix figures. In the University, I stopped to build models, of course, that I could be a serious civil engeneer and marry a nice girl.
In 2001, I got a 28mm samurai from my wife and look for painting in modell shop and I was surprised how many nice 1/72 figures are from different time periods.
And now, I have 2000 painted and 20000 unpainted figures, I'm editor of http://www.wargame.hu and I'm reenactor too. Our unit is here ( http://www.ir32.hu ).
On DUZI2006, I met with Uwe Wild and his friends and I took part to build their great dioramas of Hastings 1066. It was such big impression me, so since this time, I with my friends plan and build a new diorama in every year. Fortunaly, my wife and my son like to go with me to the exchibitons and to reenacting too.


Bye,
TK