a question !! why the hobby and epitomise what it means to you ??

[Gern]

What was it with all you guys spending your teens with women instead of doing summat sensible like boozin'? The hangovers I used to get from beer were far less severe than those my mates got from the girls they got mixed up with!

Didn't nobody tell you: "Marriage is a disaster for young men and a comfort for old men"

I too did a lot of (very poor) modelling as a kid. Then I found that booze and modelling don't mix - at least not on the money I could earn back then. Got back into it purely by accident when someone bought my grandson a model kit and I was asked to build it. Made a pretty poor job of it so decided I'd see if I could get better enough to at least show some of my efforts. Gimme another 40-50 years and I might get confident enough to show ALL of my builds!

[Guest]

there was a maoosive modelling / toy shop near me called sp models at snetterton, must of been one of the biggest in the uk, whenever i needed a "moment" id loose myself round the shop (literally i had to phone my wife up and ask where she was the shop was that big) sadly could never get my boy into models after he dropped lego, and an even bigger sadness was it subsequently closed !!!

[Dave Ward]

Been making models since I was 6 or 7, encouraged by my father - and never stopped. Been through the whole range of modelmaking, balsa aircraft, balsa boats, plank on frame ships, model engineering, R/C powered planes and of course plastic models. Just part of my life now, I'm retired, and with decreasing mobility, and it gives me great satisfaction, to do something that I think I am actually improving at!
Dave

[Si Benson]

Great to read your background stories guys:thumb2:

Personally I was a late starter to model building. I was always an outdoor kid right up into my mid teens, not one for staying in. I did paint a few warhammer figures in my late teens and built a few RC cars but it didn’t last long.

I gave up smoking in my mid twenties and built a selection of Tamiya military kits to distract and keep my hands busy.
Never painted them, just stuck them in a box in the loft. Had loads of spare money before marriage and children so got myself a 1:16th Tamiya RC tiger 1 to build but it became an ornament once built.

About 10yrs ago,a trip to Bovington had my in awe of tanks, seeing all the kits in the souvenir shop gave me a push to want to paint what I’d built yrs before.
Stumbled across modelling forums and modelling magazines while looking for advice and got totally hooked.....been building ever since!

[Jim R]

Very interesting to hear of how modellers came to be modellers. When I retired I moved from Yorkshire to the Outer Hebrides. I had always worked long hours but now found I had "free time". The weather on the island was not always conducive to doing stuff outside and the wife suggested that either a murder or a divorce was in the offing if I didn't find something to do rather than get under her feet and ask if it was still raining!
On a trip off the island to visit family I found a model making magazine at a motorway service station. I was amazed at the sheer quality of the models in the magazine. I bought it and joined the old forum and built my first ever model. A Tamiya jeep. The rest is history.

For me I find it relaxing to spend a few hours listening to the radio and creating something. It is a hobby where you can push yourself to improve. The other thing is the shared fun on a site like this.

Scotties post pretty well sums up my feeling now. Just wish I had more time and wasn't so painfully slow at modelling.
Jim

[Gern]

Hey Jim! Are you still living in the wilds of the Hebrides? Only I noticed you've signed up for Cosford this year. I know it's acracking day out, but that's one hell of a commute!

[Jim R]

Hi Dave
No, we lived on the island for 11 years. Lived the dream. My daughter lives in Chester and the journey down was getting to be a bind. A 3 hour ferry journey from Stornoway to Ullapool and then a 500mile drive. We moved to Shropshire 3 years ago. Glad we did as I now have a granddaughter. Also get to go to Telford and Cosford and give the old credit card a good work out :rolling:
Jim

[Mike Mortimore]

Hi Alan,
I started modelling at the age of 9/10 years old and continued up until 18 when I joined the Royal Marines. Never did anything modelling wise during my time in the Corps except for a 2 year stint at a training unit where I dabbled for a while..... I left the Corps in 1994 and moved to France in 1997..... but due to my PTSD condition could not get my head round the patience required to model...... but it did not stop me from adding to the stash.......big time... :rolling::rolling::rolling:. After a 3 month stay in a French Military hospital I slowly got back into the modelling. joined the old Forum of MM as so much had changed with in the hobby. I still have glitches with my patience, so a dealing mechanism is walk away and come back to it. It is why there are gaps in my build posts. Getting better though as time moves on.
I enjoy my modelling, it is a great destresser..... fortunately I live on my own, so no SWMBO .......... only my 3 dogs and 2 cats......

Cheers Mike :sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping::sleeping:

[Guest]

For me it was when my mom had to be hospitalized when I was a kid her surgery went very bad and she spent a long time in the hospital (age 9 10 ish). every night my dad and i would go see her and then we would go eat. one trip to wal -marts he found me in the model section and he grabbed the 1/35 Tamiya german soldiers. I built them and like everyone else was hooked, came home from school one day and my dad (a carpenter) was home it was raining. HE was on the kitchen table building a scene for my figures lol. after that spent a lot of time with him building kits. Sometimes I would come home and find a new one just sitting on my bed .
Girl /beer/ cars, then the army, for me a small break but really a life long hobby.

what I get out of it is the sense of accomplishment and making something from nothing. that and like so many have said the friendship of fellow modelers. the peace I get out of it is better than any doctor and produce with a pill. I lose myself in it and there is no life issues for a few hours.
RICK.

[Guest]

thats a lovely memory to have rick, its sad though how the hobby has diminished, just look at clips of model shows and theyre arent many kids in shot mainly adults, then theres the lack of specialist shops closing due to the decline !!! glad theres some like minded peeps out there still to talk too !!!

[boatman]

thats a lovely memory to have rick, its sad though how the hobby has diminished, just look at clips of model shows and theyre arent many kids in shot mainly adults, then theres the lack of specialist shops closing due to the decline !!! glad theres some like minded peeps out there still to talk too !!!

Yes you are right there that the hobby has diminished ten yrs ago I had about 6 model shops to chose from now im down to 2. An where I sail my warships theye put all double yellow lines down so you cant park close to the pond an it is in decline as all the members are fed up but thankfully for where I live I have another concrete boating lake about the same distant away only trouble is its right on top of a cliff nr the sea an it can get a bit chilly now an then so got to pick a nice day to go.But showin the ship off to the holl makers make up for the chill

[Guest]

your in norfolk too arent you chris ?? what shops and boat lake do you use ? or am i thinking wrong county ??

[boatman]

your in norfolk too arent you chris ?? what shops and boat lake do you use ? or am i thinking wrong county ??

Yes Alan you are right I live nr what used to be RAF COLTISHALL an now a prision an shops I use now are Pegasus in Norwich or hobbies nr loddon or beccles way as the gorlston model shop shut only last yr an lakes I use Norwich pond or Sheringham boatin pond

[Guest]

ah !! did you ever go to sp models at snetterton before it closed?? id seen hobbies at loddon i did an extension not so long ago there thats bout 25mins from me, are they just rc stuff or modelling in general ?? find getting into norwich bit of an issue sometimes due to traffic

[Fernando N]

Hi all,

Interesting question Alan and great to read all the motivations of everyone.:thumb2:

As for me I got into the hobby after getting my first model from my dad when I was nine and never grew up (almost 25 years ago…).
Until a couple of years ago always built OOB to just build something I liked, then started to use pigments washes etc.
After joining the now defunct MM forum a couple of years ago followed by SMF it went even worse in attempting to make a better model every time while learning from others and good fun between the posts.:smiling:

In the end it’s the satisfaction I get from taking a subject I like and let the creativity flow to get the envisioned result, de-stressing at the same time, most of the time it works too.:tongue-out3: