Introductory thread

[Benno]

Hi guys,

I thought it might be better to have one topic in which we and new members can introduce theirself so here I go..

I'm Benno de Groot and I'm 19 years old. I live in Almelo, a medium sized city in the Netherlands and no I don't wear wooden shoes nor do I smoke pot (although you do smell it sometimes when you walk down a street). I go to Saxion (name of the school) where I study Applied Arts and Technology. It's mainly focused on advertising, webtechnology and video. My main hobbies are, next to painting miniatures, watching films and listening music.

About the hobby.. I started this hobby five years ago with a set of French infantry from Italeri. Tried to paint them with Revell paints, but quickly changed to the Games Workshop acrylics which I had left from my Warhammer period. A few months later I had almost collected all the Napoleonic sets from Italeri.

Since then I've been improving my painting techniques and, of course, buying way too many sets that I'll probably never paint. Not that I care 'cause buying a new set is part of the fun in this hobby. I only paint with acrylics, from manufacturers like Revell, Tamiya, Rackham and Games Workshop. My brush only has a few hairs on top of them. The Games Workshop and Revell brushes aren't really working for me. The smallest size brush from Revell is actually the biggest I have. I don't use any fancy stuff to paint better, only a figure in my left hand and a brush in my right, that's all.

And of course I run the site and forum named Benno's Figures, a corny name I made up four years ago when I set this site up. Blogs weren't as common then as they are now so that's why the site is so static, though I'm working on a more 'open' website (as you might have noticed..). The site is about having fun in this hobby, motivate eachother and to have a platform where everybody from all over the world could join in and talk about this wonderful hobby.

Love to have you guys hanging around here, showing your painted figs and talking about music and stuff. Never think you're painted figs aren't good enough, just put them up. We won't bite.. hard.

My English isn't a 100% perfect, so it might be possible you encounter some grammar errors on the site and forum.

Anyway, that was my little introduction, feel free to add yours too.

[ModernKiwi]

Great idea Benno.

My real name is Chris, not "Grumpy" although I am sometimes known as that when my sarcasm gets out of control.

I'm 39 years old and live in Auckland's "Wild West", and I work in IT, looking after computer systems for small to medium companies (in NZ terms, thats companies with fewer than 300 seats).

I got into this through my other hobby, role playing games. I needed figures for the games and so bought some cheap ones - Italeri Roman's and Celts. This was back in 2000, although I did have some figures for much the same purposes back in the early 1990's but these were all lost when my brother threw them away.

I am mostly into modern era stuff (post WW2 anyway), but also have some time for medieval and fantasy.

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.

[Waterloo]

Hi guys, my turn.

My name is Colin Sedgwick-Pinn and I am 18 (almost 19) years old. I live in Peterborough, a city of around 80, 000 people, in the province of Ontario in Canada. I have lived here all my life and as a result I really want to get away, hopefully to somewhere in Europe! I have traveled to Europe 3 times in the last fours years and I just love it. I've been to London, Amsterdam. Paris twice, Barcelona twice, Frankfurt and all over Southern France. These trips have shown to me that I have a love of travel and that I am fascinated with history.

I just graduated high school last years and I am currently taking a year off to work and save money, and to try and figure out what exactly I want to with the rest of my life. Besides miniatures my other hobbies is movies, fencing, reading, and historical reenacting. To talk about that last one, I reenact the War of 1812 (sometimes called the American War), and I am a private in the British 49th Regiment, Grenadier Company, which is a local reenacting group in my area. My involvement in this has strengthened my love of military history, specifically of the Napoleonic period and this resulting in my eventual (and inevitable) introduction to figure painting.

I got my first set of miniatures back in 2004. I used to be into airplane models, but they were taking up too much room and one day when I was in a hobby shop looking of airplane kits, I stumbled across a set of Italeri's British and Scots Infantry and overcome with curiosity I bought it. Now I can't stop and I now have bought over 50 pack of figures, according to my last count. I can't get any of the awesome metal figs over here which really makes me mad!!!!!!! I want them!!!!!

My painting style is pretty basic. I don't bother with any fancy shading or shadowing, and instead I just focus on overall look and detail. I have mentioned before that when I am painting I try to find a nice balance between painting up nice looking figures, but also painting a lot to make up large dioramas (eventually). I use both Games Workshop paints, as well as Americana craft paints, and Vallejo Model Colour (where I can find them... they're hard to get over here). Like Benno, my brushes are almost non-existent.

I am open to new ideas somewhat when painting my figs. I tried priming....didn't see the point. I tried shadowing..... took too long, etc...
I do like to convert figs, as you have seen.

My plans for the future is to go to university, eventually, majoring in history with a minor in political science. I want to built a really large diorama of Waterloo one day, when I get the room, money and time but for now I continue painting. I want to go on traveling and who knows, maybe one day I might just show up at DUZI or your meetings in Kampen!!!

If you have any questions I would be happy to answer.

[yoyoma]

My name is Harmon, though I've gone by Yo Yo MA on the boards since I started painting, six years ago. I was 11 then, 17 now. I am the president of my high school in New York and will most likely be attending the University of Chicago in the fall; I plan to study philosophy and theater.

I paint mostly ancients and napoleonics; I'm currently working on a diorama of the french revolution. My first set was the zvezda greeks. I use the Dallimore paint method, with foundry paints.

Besides plastic figures, I do improv. I'm the captain of my school's team, and hope to continue with comedy through college. My life goal is to become an academic, probably in philosophy.

I tried a miniatures website when I was 11, Cossack gallery, but didn't really follow through with it. I now write a philosophy blog:

http://www.harmonsays.blogspot.com

[Chasseur]

Hello All,
My name is Jeff AKA Chasseur. I am also known as Reluctant Warrior on the Miniaturewargaming.com forum. I am a Safety Professional (CRSP) and reside in Canada.

Just turned 51 last fall and have been happily married for 21 years. I still have 2 teenage boys at home. I got into miniature war gaming about a year ago but have built models off and on for quite a few years. I love Napoleonic's due to its colorful uniforms and armies en mass! Currently finishing up a WW2 diorama. Looking forward to doing some solo war gaming with Nappies as the only club in my area is a 50 minute drive one way.

I'll paint with what ever acrylics I can get a hold of. I have 11 Napoleonic Historic's kits just waiting for me to start. I love this forum because everyone is willing to share ideas which really enhances the Hobby!

Cheers for now.....Chasseur

[Siegfried]

Dear all,

my name is Christiaan, (that surprises you all, I know) I'm 18 going on 19 and study History at Leiden university, Netherlands. Leiden is also the place were I live most of the week, during the weekends I'm at home in Amersfoort, where my parents live.
I got into the hobby when I was 12 I think, my first set being Revell's Napoleonic Prussian Infantry. started painting with emails, but changed to acryls in 2006 or 2007 I think. I do have a uncounted, massive collection of 1/72, and a small but growing collection of 20 mm metals.
I'm interested in the period from the fall of Rome all the way until the fall the the reich in 1945. for years my main areas of interest have been dark ages, high middle ages (say 1100-1300 AD ), 'age of reason' period (1670-1783), The Napoleonic wars and the two world wars. But interests are ever expanding. American civil war and the Franco-Prussian war are tempting to get into, as is the 17th century.
I do love for some reason forgotten wars, theatres and armies. So besides taking a large interest in ww2 German armies and Napoleon's grande armee , I do have a small obsession with the ww2 Romanian and Hungarian armies, ww2 in the Balkans, ww1 Italian front, Spanish civil war, etc etc.
Apart form painting and collecting I find lost of joy in the researched and reading about (military) history
Besides this hobby and (military history) I do like (classical) music, films, the history of arts, travelling, Italy, Literature, books and well, of course enjoying the student's life:)

Cheers,

Christiaan

[Peter]

Great idea Benno.

This “joker” will enter his “c.v.” too.

Hi, I’m Peter and I’m double four of age. I’m married for about 22 years now, and have two sons (17 and 19). My occupation is at the Belgian Military Service. I have the rank of “Adjudant” (Master-Sergeant). My unit is, and this is difficult to describe, some kind of pioneer-unit. Our job is to keep the infrastructure in good health. We do this with two teams of ourselves and several civilian contractors (that’s where my job begins). With infrastructure I mean: buildings, roads, runways and sub runways and many other things.

In the hobby I started collecting figures when I was about 9 years old. Most of it Airfix and some Atlantic and Matchbox figures (First set was Airfix Japanese Infantry). With painting I started when I was 23 years. I collected every box I could led my hand on. Area didn’t count, I just wanted to have them all. Now my interest is specific the “Napoleon Area” and most of all Waterloo (not you Colin) .

I have joint this forum for the diversity of the topics, the goofing and for all the interesting people on it. And very important, it’s a friendly forum! As most of you know, joking is my favourite!

My other hobbies are reading books and watching movies. Most of them historical, and my favourite is “Waterloo”.

Oh, and I have a cat!

Questions and remarks are welcome.

Greetings Peter

[Susofrick]

Okay, a little CV from me too. The same age as Peter (a few months older actually ). Work as an assistant librarian at the local university since 10 years, before that I did other things (worked at an antiquarian bookshop (almost all the money I earned I bought books for), at a graveyard, trained as a nurse, tried a little teaching, took a course in creative writing, etc, etc, etc.).

Music is a big interest. Been playing guitar since 1977 (the year of punk). Joined the local blues association in 1984 and became editor and writer for their (very local) magazine 1989. Left the association in 2000 due to it took to much time. Started my little band in 1995 and we're still going (suffered some deaths among the lead guitarists and now we don't have any, got a MySpace-page though). Got a collection of LPs, around 4.000. Not that many CDs, a couple of hundreds.

Literature is also a big interest. I usually have four or five books going at the same time. Some I read fast, others take years, mostly because I don't want to stop reading them.

Moved into an apartement (old barracks building, built in 1906, and it shows on the stairs) together with the missus in 2001. The missus got MS (Multiple Schlerosis) and is in a wheelchair. Got our first dog in 2002, and he took some time, as it should be. He died from a brain tumour in August 2008 and now we're waiting for a new one, we'll decided that we shall have one at least to the summer, hopefully earlier.

Started with the little guys sometime late 60s early 70s. Mother hated them and got me to stop buying them in 1975. Started again in 1984 and started to paint them some time after. Had many Airfix (not the rare ones) and almost every ESCI set, missed the late Airfix and all of Atlantic. Tried to do a Waterloo diorama, but realised that many of the different regiments weren't represented at all in plastic (this is a while ago) and that I would never have space for such a big thing. Got tired of painting historical correct 'cause I thought I wasn't very good at it and started to paint them after my own mind, trying too think they could pass as fantasy. It's only now with the competitions here that I've found direction with my painting again. And I buy almost all eras and try to paint them. Some will show up in competitions and some just as entrys.

And, no, my real name isn't Susofrick (he's a little beachtroll that me and two other guys invented many years ago for some rhymed fairytales) it's Gunnar. Okay, next one!

[T. Dürrschmidt]

Ok, it´s my turn now.

My Name is Thomas Dürrschmidt. I am 33 Years old, married and we have a three years old daughter (Anika). My wife is pregnant at the moment. So in April (hope not earlier) we will get a son. (About the name we are not sure, perhaps Tim or Till).

I am working at a big German Bank since I am 16. But the times are not really good at the moment. Hope this gets better.

I was born and life in Northeast Bavaria (this is not the Alps region). The county is named "Oberpfalz" and it is rather near to Franconia and also not very far from Bohemia. The bigger cities in our region (which you might know) are Nuremberg and Regensburg. And no, this is not a prejudice.....the typical meals for our region are "Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut", "Sauere Zipfel" or "Schweinebraten mit Knödel". And the typical drink to go along with this meals is........beer (in summer mostly in a 1-litre Masskrug). And yes, I also own "Lederhosen" and wear them sometimes. But this is only for special events like festivals or "Kirchweih"

My hobbies (besides miniatures) are cooking, history, watching films, music and sometimes playing theatre. I am also member of our local volunteer fire brigade, which takes also a part of my spare time.

By the time my wife and me didn´t have kids, we enjoyed traveling also very much. We visited England, Scotland, Ireland (my favourite holiday countrys), the States, Spain, and so one....

I started painting miniatures at the age of 10. My Papa supported me, built landscapes for the miniatures etc, but Mama didn´t like the "war-stuff" very much.
For my first figures (Matchbox) I used the oil colours from my sister´s "Malen nach Zahlen-Set" (painting after numbers)....I don´t know the proper word for this. The colours needed a whole week to dry. Then I built lots of planes, ships, tanks and so one. The first ones looked very cruel.
All the time I had a big interest in history, especially the medieval period, which is very alive in my region. The historical highway from Nuremberg to Prague was located in my area. So there are still many castles (some of them ruined) to keep the ancient times alife.
About 2002 I bought myself the "GW Painting Compendium" and started to paint with acrylic colours from GW. I recognized that this "wargaming" painting style was very suitable for me and my skills improved. I discovered 28mm scale miniatures for me, but kept always an eye at the other small scales. I competed in some German shows and won some prizes. But the best is my "Golden Brush" at Benno´s.

Regards Thomas

[Francesco Giova]

What a nice idea, so I can introduce myself a bit better than I could do when I posted some figures some weeks ago ...

My name is Francesco, 46 y.o (but look younger ), I was born and live in Rome, Italy. Maybe the fact that I live in the very center of the city and am surrounded by so many things of the past had a role in making me gain a big interest in ancient military history. After all, the Trajan Column is 10 min from here, so I can go and have a look if I am painting roman soldiers Moreover, the village where my father was born, and where I go for some days during the summer, was the theatre of one of the most important (and less known) battles of Italian Middle Ages.
However I wanted history to remain an hobby and not a work. That's why I graduated in Medicine, got a residentship in Diagnostic Imaging and then became a full-time professor in the faculty of medicine of the local university.
I am not married, and changing girlfriend rather often

When I was 9 my parents made the big error (and then regretted it a lot) of buying me an Airfix blue box of Indians. After many, many Airfix boxes I discovered Atlantic (which back then in Italy were as available and cheap as fresh water) and particularly loved the Egyptian sets, which my mother threw away (I can not forgive her for this). I stopped when I was 20 (but always kept an eye on the hobby), then I restarted 3 years ago. Now I collect and paint the best sets from the Stone Age to Waterloo, and sometimes later

I arrived here with the hope of learning from you all and of finding some people telling me that I am not hopeless

[Alex]

Hallo, all!
I feel as we sit before a fireplace in my home... Very well! I too shall tell a little.
My name is Alexander. I was born and I live in Moscow. To me of 46 years. (though I and have not understood as it have occured so quickly...) I am married 26 years and at me 2 sons - the student. We are friends of the wife since time of our study at school as studied in the same class. So we together.... 32 years.
My trade - the designer on interiors. Also I work, as the architect. I very much like to do beautiful dwellings.
I mould figures from 11 years. First it were figures from plasticine in height of 54 mm. First me, as well as many boys, heroes from " the wild West " - cowboys and Indians interested. Then - an epoch of Napoleon, then I began to do Middle Ages. About one today I have an archive in which are stored 12 thousand these figures. Then I also as well as many, have grown fond Machbox and these fine a figure in scale 1/72. Also has understood, that I wish to do them as probably to make the whole world with cities and fortresses and all this - in a city apartment! I did conversion, glued many planes and tanks, but the first figure could make only in 2000. Then still long could not develop the style. Now, in many respects owing to Jens Jenson, and also your support, my friends, I plunge into it more and more. I was engaged in a sculpture still when studied in institute, but now I receive very much great pleasure when I mould. Also me the opportunity to show to you very pleases the works. Yours faithfully
Alex

[Yarik]

Excellent idea! I think still it is possible to place also the photo



I – Bobrov Yaroslav(Yarik). 18 years. I live in Moscow (Russia).
The student of the Moscow Aviation university.
8 years take a great interest in painting of miniatures. But earlier worked in vast scales 1\35 and 1\32. In size 1\72 1.5 years work somewhere. On historical subjects I prefer the Middle Ages and Fantasy.
Now I create an own manufactory on manufacture of figures.

Recently has made to itself a blog: http://yarik-veles.livejournal.com/

[Michel]

Hello colleagues...
My name is Michael! I am 37 years old and live in Frankenthal! This is a City of 50.000 People in the Kurpfalz, close to Mannheim, Heidelberg and Frankfurt!
By profession I am a physics laboratory assistant and work in the BASF!
I am married since 2002 with Tanja and have a fantastic son, Jan who is 4 years old!
...and still work as a fitness trainer!
...and i am a great Supporter of the SV Waldhof Mannheim, a Football Club which has played in the Bundesliga till 1990´, then in the 2. Liga and now in the 4. Liga, but there´s no one like Abramowitsch which spent a lot of Money in the Club...
I have begun with the figure hobby in the early 80s years!
Matchbox, Airfix and Atlantic were the companies!
Indeed, only played and not painted...!
Then a friend, here in the forum "Phalanx", bring me again to the figures and since 2006 I also paint figures! My biggest interest is valid for the late Middle Ages!

[Old Wolf]

Hi folks,
my name is Andreas and i m 44 y.o. Happy to be not the only one at that age here . I m living in Hagen, Germany, next to the Ruhrarea, working as an advisor for multiproblem families- means giving help by getting another idea for bringing up children.
Addicted to Plasticsoldiers started in 1970, when my dad, as a warchild of WW II, bought the Airfix French Army box and one week later the French Foreign legion (My favorit). Many boxes were following. I loved the Atlantic series, specially the wild west . they were so cheap at that time.
At the age of 10 i tried to paint, but i was to restless to start painting really. At least puberty came over me and some other figures became more interesting.
in the 1980s my armies( shame on me) found a tragic end `cause i joined the peacemovement in germany. There was a big NO for all wartoys. So i said bye to my Armymen.
When i was 20 my son was born and Dungeons n Dragons came to my life too. 15 years of Fantasy roleplaying were following. Painting Figures came back, building dios and landscapes. In the end i opened my own fantasy shop in my hometown. It crashed 6 years later (thx GW and WOC for kicking me back to reallity ) Today i don t like to paint fantasyminiatures. My favorits are Nappies, ACW, still Wild West,dark ages and Ancients . But i collect all other eras in different scales too. Just to have them and to know today i have the money but no time , whats different to my earlier days when i had the time but no money . And, lucky me, my wife is ok with my interests and gave me my own space in our new house, the cellar

go on Benno and thx for this forum

hope to show my works soon
old wolf

[ColeF]

My turn. My name is Cole. I am 12 and have been painting for almost a year now. I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I am interested in History, Judo, chess, the violin and running. I got interested in models when my dad got Field of Glory from the library and it grew from there.
Great post Benno!

[Maurice]

Hi,

My name is Maurice. I'm 34 (and glad not to be the only adult who likes to play with toy soldiers ) from Leeuwarden, Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands. In daily life I work for a large insurance company.

As a kid I had a large collection of 1:72 and 1:76 figs, but somehow they disappeared (either sold them of threw them away ), been doing some 1:35 (tanks and such) scale modelling since I was 18 but now I'm going back to 1:72 figs (and other small scale figs like those used in RPG games).

What to do with the figures? Hopefully I'll be making some small dioramas, and maybe playing wargames like DBA. My interest is mostly with the ancient ones, armed with sword, spear and shield, but the ones firing muskets or M16's are also nice.

[Valion]

Dear crew,
dear Benno,
that's a great idea to make such a thread.

So I'll sign my name, too.

My real name is Marc, and I live in the Ruhr area in Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany.
I just turned 30 last month, and I must admit, there IS a certain step you take by this, at least mentally.
Still, I'm very much of a big kid, even childish every now and then.
On the other side, I'm too serious, way too deep into politics, philosophy and history. These subjects a very dear to me, and I studied them for quite some years. Nevertheless, I ended up studying Social Work, and I graduated last summer.
I'm working with young people, mainly working class kids, who try to achieve an apprenticeship diploma.
That is a bit harder in Germany than it is in most other countries, and most of them had a complicated way in life so far.
So they need professional support.
I like that kind of work.

There is not much of a secret that I am leaning towards the far left politically, and every now and then, you might catch me even getting "political correct". If I offend you by that, just drop a line. I'll try my best staying fair.

My hobbies besides modell painting ?
I like terrain making and scratch building in 1/72, too.
I even started sculpting a few weeks ago, and that's something you all should try !
It's fun !
Just don't think you'll EVER do ONE single piece comparable to Alex' work..


I've got a small and superb BMX waiting to be shaken off it's dust next spring, and I'd love to get back into Jiu Jitsu some time soon. Having an office job does not make that easy because I got pretty lame and lazy. I'm into music, too. And though I do not like watching TV, I still get myself a DVD from the video store probably once a week. I like movies !
I also love watching these video blogs on YouTube.
The Kamloopian is my favourite, and a good pen pal besides that.

PC gaming is fun and addictive, I must admit. I'm glad they don't produce that many good games anymore. They took oh-so many hours of my life time..

Finally, there's my girlfriend Alex, not to be confused with the artist here.
She's very supportative and quite good in painting figures, too. Actually, she has not yet done too many, but the ones finished make me nervous, as she definately has more skill than me.
Oh, thus far, you won't find any pictures of our work on the net.
To be true, I don't know why.
We have a camera, and some time soon, I'll post my first thread showing that I'm no master, nor a supreme painter, but at least seasoned enough to present decent results.

My collection consists of medieval works mainly. Of course, I buy lots of stuff, too, and 98% probably never will be finished. I don't like the idea of having two figures looking the same, so a lot of time is spent simply by customizing and - yes - cleaning off sprues. My conversions are what I like most, and I think that's where I have a little talent.

Being a perfectionist in heart, but a chut chap in life, most of my projects remain incomplete. Sometime even in the state of just sketches and blueprints.

I decided to never get into Napoleonics, but I have a lot of sets lying around, so probalby, I'll start a virtual flea market here at some point. You guys here can use it better than I, that's for sure.

Finally, I enjoy reading new articles on PSR, and I like this forum very much.
You're a crazy, fun and fair crew, and I'm looking forward finally meeting some of you on one of those meetings.
Again, I don't know why I didn't make it to the last few.

My thanks go out to Benno for making all this possible.

Cheers,
,
Marc.

[dutchboyinohio]

All,
I've been waiting to post an intro here so that I could post a picture of some of my work with it, but the painting has been so infrequent later I figured I'd just write something anyway. And, I just noticed I have been a forum member for exactly one year today!

I'm Mark van 't Hooft (aka dutchboyinohio or DBIO as some of you have renamed me ). And yes, I am Dutch, born and raised. I was born in Eindhoven (and thus a lifelong PSV fan), and grew up for most of my youth in Brabant. I got an undergraduate degree from the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and spent part of that at the University of Iowa (which is how I ended up in the US).

Now, many years later, I'm still living in the US and after being a classroom teacher for five years, I now work as a researcher in educational technology at RCET (http://www.rcet.org) at Kent State University (http://www.kent.edu). I have done that for almost 10 years.

As far as painting figures goes, I got started when I was probably around 11 or so with Matchbox figures (I distinctly remember the blue German soldiers and tan colored Japanese, both of which I "painted" with permanent markers!!). When I got older I got more into HO scale trains (lots of figures to paint there), and plastic modeling. I really have a wide range of interests, including WWII Allied armor and anything related to the Dutch armed forces. I model in a wide variety of scales, anywhere from 1/300 to 1/12. I probably have five or six projects going at a time.

My favorite period in history is probably World War II, mostly D-Day and after. I'm especially interested in anything airborne, as my father's side of the family (my father, his siblings, and parents) lived through Market Garden and were directly impacted by the fighting (they lived in Beek-Ubbergen, right outside of Nijmegen). I have some really good books on that, they were published by a local journalist in Beek some years ago. Interestingly enough, I met a veteran from the 101st Airborne here at a local July 4 parade who jumped right outside of Eindhoven. He was probably about 80 years old when I met him, but he still had the attitude of a Screaming Eagle. He mostly remembered breaking into safes in Eindhoven and stealing cigars.

With regards to figures, the historical period really doesn't matter too much, I'm much more eclectic. This also means that I have a quite extensive collection of figures, including many, many Revell, Italeri, Hat, and Esci sets. Other brands I have include Nexxus, Waterloo, Airfix, Matchbox, Atlantic, Valdemar, and of course Zvezda.

When I got into painting figures more seriously (probably during my college years), I exclusively used enamels, but now I use pretty much only acrylic paints. They are cheaper, easy to use, and don't smell as much. And, on top of everything else, they dry a lot faster.

As you've probably noticed from the few figures I've posted, I don't finish a lot of figures quickly. I used to paint figures by the box, but now I spend much more time on an individual figure. Part of the problem is that I'm a perfectionist, plus I've been experimenting a lot with different techniques (still need to get that blacklining down ). I'm still working to develop my own style, I guess.

I have to say that I've really enjoyed myself so far and learned a lot from all of you. I am planning on being much more active; I may even put an entry into one of the upcoming competitions!! What I like most about the forum is that everybody is very supportive of each other's work and tries to help each other out with tips, pictures, etc. I haven't really seen any flame wars like you sometimes see on the other forums.

It's amazing to see how far the 1/72 soldiers have come, compared to when I got my first sets about 30 years ago. Sites like this one only contribute to the advancement of such a great hobby. Thanks for letting me be a part of this interesting forum!!

[Rowland]

Hi all again,
My name is Rowland I'm 47 years old and married with 1 son. I live along the beautiful Pembrokeshire (Wales ) coast.
What can I say about myself well i spent the first 10 years of my adult life serving in the Armed Forces, then decided to come back home to Pembrokeshire and stayed ever since.
As a young lad many moons ago ( too many to count ) I use to make models ( planes mainly ) and painting them. But left for the forces and stopped doing them.
I bought my son some toy soldiers last year and the memories came flooding back about how much I use to enjoy model making/ painting when I was younger. So a few days later went back into the local town and bought some 1/72 soldiers. I have always had a interest in the Napoleonic era so thats what main interest. So any experts out there on this era watch out I will be bombarding you with questions like where, when, why and what
My wife thinks I have started my second childhood as for eveywhere she looks there is toy soldiers
Well thats me everyone hope I have covered everything

Rowland

[montecristo]

Hi I’m 39 years old and I live in a small town near naples. I’ married from four years and I have a beautiful son three years old. I have always been a fan of modelling but I have painted only four soldiers in 54 mm more than twenty years ago, then I have not done anything anymore until I have discovered, thanks to Internet, the amazing world of 1/72 just three years ago and the old passion is relighted.
however I have always read magazines and manuals of modelling, I can say in the theory I am very good less in the practice.
So now I find myself here... and I would like to give a small contribute with mine limited “artistic skills" to the further growth of this yet great forum.
Of course...I'm sorry for my English