Military Models ( A sort of biography)

In addition to war games and RPG's I have had a passion for military models since I was 7 years old or so. I would pour over books with air planes and tanks trying to find the finest details. Then I would try to find a kit or scratch build those details I had seen in the books. My first attempts where pretty awful. I kept at it, and never quit. When I was in my early twenties, many of the lovely young ladies I had befriended would make comments about still playing with toys. I went underground so to speak, but I never lost interest in in modeling. My late twenties saw a lot of those fine young ladies moving away and starting lives elsewhere. I despaired at being a confirmed bachelor. I went through a buying frenzy. After all, I had no girlfriend at the time and no family. What else was I going to spend money on? So it went for a number of years. The kits purchased out numbered the ones built by a wide margin. Later,I met a fine young woman I became engaged too for a few years. I thought that it might be the end of my buying spree. Instead, she encouraged my to indulge my obsession. She would tell me stories of how her father would build models when they where children living in Germany. We saw each other for a long time. Then we broke up. It was a sad day. But we still remain close friends. My buying slowed down somewhat for awhile. Then about a year later I became interested in a long time friend. We moved in with each other and have been happily married with 3 children for nearly 10 years. My wife Dena encouraged me to continue with miniatures and military modeling. In her words, it was less likely that I would be out into trouble with another woman if I was home with her and my hobbies, than if I was out barhopping with the boys. Smart girl. Anyway. What started out as a short post about my tank models has turned into a ramble. Just look at the pictures. I hope you get as much pleasure seeing them as I did building them. About the models. The first is a early model Sherman tank. The kit is by Italeri and is 1/35Th scale. I painted it with Testors water based Model Master paints, and weathered it with a combination of airbrushing, drybrushing and chalk pastels. I used a Tamiya kit for all the extra stowage on the model. and sealed the whole thing with a matt varnish. The second kit is a British Chieftain tank. I built a few years ago, from the Tamiya 1/35Th scale kit. I chose the colour scheme on this one because the history in the kit instructions mentioned that Chieftains with these markings had been used in maneuver's in Canada. Since I lived in Canada that piqued my interest. The model was finished with paints from Testors, Games Workshop, Monogram an Humbrol. The camo was done with an airbrush. It was the first time I had used one and it didn't turn out too badly for a first attempt. Enjoy :)

Cheers.
GeorgeD