Getting back into modeling after a long absence. Absolutely blown away by all the great models I'm seeing. Thanks very much for all the effort that goes into forums like this.

Grew up building models in the late seventies/early eighties. Most of what I built was WW2 stuff, mainly 1/48 scale aircraft & 1/35 scale armor, lot of the monogram aircraft, with some Revell & Testors (ex-Hawk), and a lot of Tamiya/Italeri for the armor stuff. Don't remember a whole lot of other manufacturers being available back then, at least in the local hobby shops. Took a break from modeling (growing up, high school, other interests, etc etc) got back into it again after I got home from boot camp (Field artillery, CO/KS National Guard, M110 & M109's). That time got to work with more Tamiya, Airfix, early Hobbycraft, Fujimi & Otaki 1/48 stuff. Everything I did was OOB & hand painted, and most of them given away to local neighborhood kids. Think a few had aftermarket decals. Cue another break from modeling. In the mid-nineties started collecting kits again, had a really neat collection of kits waiting to be built by the time I'd owned a house. Other projects, job & life changes, followed up by the economy in 2008...wound up selling the whole collection on ebay without ever getting to build a single one.

Not too long ago saw the trailer for the upcoming "Midway" movie, and after a lot of internet surfing on sites like this one, and seeing kit reviews on Modeling Madness, decided it was time to give modeling another "try". This time around hope to (finally) get a lot of experience working with airbrushes, and possibly work with some of the resin & vacuform conversion stuff that's out now. Still getting some of the tools together (recently picked up a new compressor) and need to figure out where I'm going to display completed models.

Tend to read more than I post. Mainly added this to give people a better idea where I'm coming from. 99.9999% of model makers out there are way better than I am. But if someone needs pictures of a model that's in my stash, or a pic or scan from a book that's in my collection, will be more than happy to post them.