I'm a 25-year USAF retiree and veteran of both Gulf War conflicts, and firmly settled here in England with my British wife. I first picked up a paintbrush and a model car kit (A Monogram Jeep CJ-5 with the golden eagle on the hood / bonnet) convinced I could do a better job than Dad did on his 1/48 scale Apollo Saturn V! Well, I quickly discovered two things right away: I was no child prodigy (!), and liquid plastic cement was the slickest thing around for gluing things together (until I discovered superglue later). I was hooked on the hobby from then on - the first few years I spent building cars, then shifted gears and started building Vietnam Era Jets in High School, before touching down into World War II aircraft, where I have been ever since 1991. I've since graduated from paintbrush to airbrush in the past 40+ years, and while I haven't been a steady or prolific modelbuilder (I have other hobbies too and a wife of course) it's been amazing and really inspiring to see so many cottage industries explode on to the market with incredible ideas, tools, materials and accessories in just the past 20 years alone.