Introductory thread

[Gerry Lee]

Hello all! I am Gerry Lee from Hawaii. I am almost 50 now, and have loved miniatures since I was 13 or so. From the old Hinchliffe and Heritage models (remember that first Lord of the Rings series back then?) all the way through Warhammer, its been great fun! But now I like 1/72.

I like history, though I only have a superficial knowledge of the subjects I love, sad to say. I like Saint Joan of Arc, the Crusades and the Saracens, Samurai, Mongols, all very exciting! And all wonderfully represented in 1/72 by great manufacturers. But I think after my Joan of Arc army I will try HaTs and Lucky Toys Indians, as I love Peter Brook's adaptation of "The Mahabharata" right now... I am just starting out in this scale, but loving it!

Games wise I like TSR's old out of print "Chainmail", "Warhammer Ancient Battles", and am waiting to see if Mantics "Kings of War" works the bugs out since I find the concepts of the system simple and fun, but there are some problems yet.

Right now I wash my models with dish soap, and primer with watered white glue colored with paint. I deeply score the bottom of the model bases to make the super glue hold them to Games Workshop bases. I like my figures individually based from the old days of TSR's "Chainmail". For Cavalry I use a small bit of 'Green stuff/kneadatite' to help hold the rider to the horse. My paints are mostly Games Workshop, which I love and hate, but can easily get, and I finish with heavy gloss and matt coat sprays.

Do any of you live in Hawaii? I'd love to meet you!

Be well, and be blessed!
Gerry

[Cortmeister]

Hi everyone,
I've been checking out this site for months now and became a member back in September.
Time to introduce myself...
I used to do a lot of 1/72 and 1/76 modeling when I was a kid back in the Netherlands (ESCI, Hasegawa and Fujimi primarily) and dabbled in 1/35 Armour and 1/72 Aircraft before shelving all my gear in my late teens.

I am now living in Winnipeg, Canada, married and have two sons, 7 and 4 years old. Recently, I have bought a few kits (1/72 Dragon and Roden) and began putting them together. I have finished a few, even painted them and on top of that I have weathered a few of them as well, using tips and guidelines that I found on this forum. I cannot believe how things have changed in scale modelling and how websites and forums like these have broadened the reach of info and techniques available.
I also purchased my first photo etched sets, both from Eduard and am extremely intimidated by those. How can you possibly fold these small pieces properly? I guess I will have to practice and learn...
An airbrush is another thing that I am looking into purchasing, any tips on those is greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I will try in the next few days to post some pictures of one of my completed models, most likely the Dragon Tiger 1 (early) I hope you'll enjoy it!

[Winttrix]

Hi everyone,

I'm Emmett Freeman, 14 years old, and I live in Honolulu, Hawaii (like Gerry Lee previously). I have been building models of some sort since I was 7, but it's only been recently (about six months now) that I've been doing small scale figures for wargaming. My interests are WWI, RCW, WWII, and modern conflicts.

I have been on the Society of Gentlemen Gamers for some time now, so I have experience with this kind of layout for my work. I will probably be reposting a lot of the stuff I've posted there.

Thanks Again

Emmett

[Duke atreides]

Hi all!

I'm David, 34, I'm from Caldas da Rainha (80km north of Lisbon) and back in 2008/09 I discovered that the first battles of the Peninsular War had been right "there"! Shame on me, I know! Looking for some more info about it I discovered that painting napoleonic figures wasn't something of another planet (Caldas da Rainha is so small!) and started with some Italeri kits.
Quickly I "found" many other eras... and even that those plastic soldiers I had in the attic were 1/72s (well, and also bigger).
Right now I'm involved in two major dioramas, the first is about the Battle of Roliça (17th August 1808, first victory of Wellington in Portugal) and other about the conquest of Silves, in Algarve (in 1189, our 2nd king took the city from the moors - and they took it againg from us 2 years later!). But I'm weak, and will paint any other figure that gets into my hands!

Duke Atreides... well, that's my drug, my spice, the Dune Chronicles!

[craig]

Greetings - my name is Craig. Based in Queensland, Australia.

My story is very similar to others - 40 years old and haven't been near 1/72nd scale for about 25 years! I've spent the past few years collecting vintage Action Man (made by Palitoy in the UK) and have slowly come around full circle to 1/72nd scale again.

I was a keen collector of Airfix soldiers as a kid in the 70's (as was my brother). I was always frustrated as a kid that I couldn't get reasonable results when painting them. Decided recently to give it another go!

I'm currently finishing off a set of Airfix Afrika Korps soldiers (my favourites as a kid). Will post the results on the forum when finished!

All the best,
Craig.

[leifkarl1112]

I've just relised that I have been an active member of this forum for over a year and I have never introduced myself.......

My name is Karl and I'm 43, I have two children, Leif who will be 11 next week and Freya who is 8. I have been painting miniatures since I was 18, I started with Citidal and merged with Warhammer. As a younger boy I used to collect Airfix 1/72 soldiers, and even tried to paint some. I have always dreamed of having a large collection of Napoleonic armies; this is, and probably will always be 'work in progress'!

I love this website, as I think that there is always something new that you either have never seen before and there is always something new to learn. I think of my style of painting as always in transition, I'll try most techniques, especially if it kindles my interest.

I like most periods, but my main love is Napoleonic, I collect as many books on this period as I can afford. My other interests are Ju-Jitsu (18 years), reading fantasy as well as military history, football (Portsmouth FC - I must be a glutton for punishment!), Heavy Metal music - the noisier the better(!) and motorcycling (I own a Triumph Daytona 955i).

The rest, as they say, is history..................

Karl.

[Lobowwe]

My name is Mark Munro. I live in Vancouver ,Canada and have been modelling for 20 years.
My main modelling interests are the First and Second World War- all 1/72/-1/76 scale. I am also interested in the minor countries , ie Finland, Hungary, Italy , Greece. They do tend to be undermodelled (how many times can one do a Tiger?) and I like the details of the various camapigns- conversions, headswaps, and scratchbuilds-oh,my!

I think I've found home!

[Poilu]

Hi Guys,
My name is Jeroen and I live in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. I am new to figure modelling and bumped in to Benno's Figures, as I am planning to build a small WWI Light Railways diorama/layout. The scale of the diorama will be 1:76 ... which makes it a bit larger than the stuff I normally do. Below an examples of one of my 1:87 builds:



I normally used the pre-painted Preisers, but as none were available for my new diorama/layout, there was only one thing left ... start painting them myself. I must say that I really like it, as each figure is almost a little piece of art by itself. Just gave my first 2 1:76 figures a go, they are part of a French Infantry set by W^D models. You can find a picture in this thread.

Hope to be able to show more soon, as I want to make a tiny test diorama before I start building the layout.

Cheers,

Jeroen

[FredG]

Hello all,

I'm Fred, a name I've had most of my life, which helps because I'm kind of used to it.

I've not painted any figures since my first foray with Airfix Napleonics some 40 years ago.
Lately I've been amassing quite a collection of new Napoleonic figures (went into a model shop looking for something for the grandsons, found the HaT Camel Corps, not Napoleonic I know but it lit a fuse, and away we go again) so the new year will see if I can still hold a brush still enough to paint them.

I seem to be developing a passion for artillery.
I've already got a coehorn and several royal mortars, the barrels and wheels for several 24pr siege guns and the barrel and wheels for a 3pr mountain gun.
I'll be using wood for the carriages and I have noticed that the HaT Prussian Artillery has a couple of pack horses that will carry the 3pr.
My current problem is oxen, can anyone point me to a source for these?

Enough about me, back to the galleries

[myname96]

Hi my name is Brian,

I've been painting miniatures for about 3 years. I started by painting star wars miniatures ( For the star wars roleplaying game) and have recently become the paint 1/72 scale historic figures. I'm 40 years old, I have one child, and live in united states.

[Al Gunthwaite]

Hi Folks

My name is Al, I'm based in Yorkshire in the UK. I sculpt Gunthwaite Miniatures which I set up to produce 1/72 scale figures a few years ago. Modelling is my hobby but I don't get enough time to indulge as I would like.

There is some great quality work on display on this site - really impressive and it showcases what can be done in smaller scales.

Al

[darkbirk]

Hello,

I am Birk, born in Sweden, living and working in Berlin, Germany for almost twenty five years.

I noticed this fantastic forum some years back - but never ever dared to post here. One reason is my poor english wich is as poor as my swedish.

I start painting 1:72 around year 2000 when I discoverd that round-based wargaming on windows PC is much fun but playing "real" armies on "real" terrain with "real" oppenents is much better.
Generally I play games with modified Rapid Fire! rules.

Hope to improve my painting by gettings hints from others.

Cheers
Birk

[Ben Bob]

Hello I am Ben, I live in the Eastern United States. I work in the summer for a commercial seafood harvester and attend classes at my community college in the other three seasons. I wargame in 20, 6, and 54MMs. In Napoleonic, WWII, Arab-Israeli, American Civil War, Afghanistan, Iraq etc. I read about history, enjoy other things, but above all wargame.

[panzerman]

Greetings and Salutations,

My name is Bill Herd, aka panzerman. I'm an American living on the East coast, south of Baltimore, Maryland. I enjoy building
armor models, making dioramas, and painting miniatures. I'm a member of IPMS and AMPS(both modeling clubs). I like to compete
at modeling shows. I do fairly well at them, but don't ask me to explain why a model can win a medal at one show and get nothing
at a different show. AAAh, the subjective nature of human choice????
I found this site some time ago, and was blown away by the high calibre of painting and creativity. I consider it an Honor to join in
with the global community of enthusiests here. I usually build ww2 subjects, but I'm looking forward to branching out into Ancient and
Historical subjects. At the very least, I get to start using my red, yellow, and blue paints instead of my normal green, brown, and grey
paints...HAHA!
I've already posted one of my earlier works in the 1/72 gallery...check it out and let me know what you think of it. Thank you in
advance for reading my intro. See you in the Forum....panzerman.

[Anwenoit]

An introduction should have been compulsory in the first place.
Apologies for neglecting this duty.
The name is Tomasz Basarabowicz - 3/4th Polish, 1/4th Ukrainian.

Interested in Polish/British/Commonwealth plus the minor powers' uniforms & insignia and armoured fighting vehicles (XVI-XVII century, Napoleonics, Colonial, WWI, WW2).

Do yer want me to explain where does my nickname come from? There used to be the three Cromwell tanks of the 1st RTR HQ back in '44:
- Anwenoit
- Anwecandoit
- Ansodowe

Very best to all of you,
Tomek

[Gowan]

woops totaly forgot to put my intro here a bit late now but hi I am gowan or james (to my friends) I'm 17 I'm english but moved to New Zealand when I was 10. I have always loved history and models before I moved to 1/72 scale models I did the Lord of the rings figs and I own a N guage scale railway maybe some pics of that I'll show later

sorry for the very late post here

[Lacc]

Hello! My name is Alfred, I have 44 years and I'm from Zaragoza (Spain), official servant. Excuse me not submit before publishing a post, thank you very much for your warm welcome.
All my life I've been a fan of figures 1/72, 19 th century. I'm very happy found this forum to share my hobby.
See you soon, my friends!

[Glyndwr]

Hello, my name is Richard, 53 years of age from Wales in the uk. I have just got back into painting 1/72 scale figures after giving up a few years ago because of eye problems, i now own a head visor which has given me the ability to see the figures again. The ability of the people on this site is staggering, i hope to pick up some painting tips and if i can get half as good as the people on here i will be a happy man. Cheers.

[HoScaleGeek]

Hi, I'm Wouter, from the Netherlands. I make stop motion movies where plastic HO scale figures play a key part, and I post them on Youtube under the username HoScaleGeek, the same username as I use here.

I had my first set of plastic 1/72 figures when I was about 6 years old (about 1976). I've played a lot with them, and gradually I realized I was collecting them. Collecting came to a halt in about 2004, but revived last year when I had a serious leakage in the cellar where I stored the soldiers. I had to evacuate the collection upstairs, and started taking pictures of a set, as part of a plan to put them on Ebay gradually, which never happened... I just loved the photos, and in the same days I discovered how easy it was to make a basic stop motion movie, by importing a bunch of photographs into Windows Movie Maker. It's fun making stop motion movies with toy soldiers, and sometimes a challenge as well, and collecting has restarted as well, as a spinoff of the stop motion hobby. It's an old hobby in a new coat.
Currently I'm busy giving the hobby the better infrastructure it badly needs, such as gathering info on sets from the last 8 years, updating my own Excel database, making a wishlist, buying "new" sets that I like most, making some decent high cupboards for storage instead of just cardboard boxes, and setting up my own little "Bollywood" here.

I like this site, I'm absolutely amazed at the members' painting and modifying skills. I'm sure I will be painting some sets as well.

[matjazs]

Hello, my name is Matjaz, I come from Slovenia where I live in Ljubljana. I am 37 years old and everything with 1/72 figures happened very suddenly. Two years ago my girlfriend went to visit her parents for Christmas holidays and I went to supermarket to buy some food. I found box of American Special Forces Vietnam War, those were the same figures that came on the market in late 80s. It was the last box involved in wars we had with friends in those days. I bought box, cut figures from sprue and put them on the table, then I realized that I had nobody to play with them. Half year later we went to Zagreb to visit one exhibition. It was OK, but the best came later. During sightseeing of an old part of the city we took coffee break and later I spot Hobby shop. After one hour later, I left the shop with: 2 bags of figures, bored and angry girlfriend and without any money-but it was worth it . I decided I will paint them, soon after I discovered Benno´s Figures forum and from that time I admire work on figures and positive atmosphere in communications.

Best regards,
Matjaz