UPDATE: I love the response! I’m extending through Friday. I’ll pick a winner then!
UPDATE 2: A winner has been selected!
Due to a twist of shipping snafu, I find myself in possession of an extra copy of Tank Art 3, the new book from Rinaldi Studios. Rather than sending it back, Rinaldi Studios offered to let me keep it and put it to good use. I’ve not yet cracked my own copy open yet, but if it’s as good as the first two volumes, I’m in for a treat.
Or should I say, we are in for a treat. Me, and maybe you, fine reader. That’s right, I’m giving away my extra copy to one lucky reader. Entering the contest is easy:
- Enter a comment below (be sure to leave me your name and email address or else I can’t get in contact with you!)
- Tell me a story about your time in the hobby. Any subject, any length. Just tell me a good one.
Out of the entries, I’ll pick a random entry.
And if this goes well, I’ll turn this into a regular thing! So let’s get this moving. Tell me a story about this great hobby of ours!
oo, don’t have that book 🙂
Story time:
On the way back from AMPS nationals in indiana we booked it all the way back to texarkana so we could spend the night in texas. we got into the motel very late, got our rooms and went in. Bob opened the door to fined it chained shit form the inside and a rather angry sounding troll-like grumbling form inside… turns out the room was already occupied? the key worked so LOL.
we got up the next morning, got our McDonalds breakfast then where promptly rear-ended by a teenager.
pretty exciting trip 🙂
P.S. on chrome your two image slideshow has the page shrink and grow as the images switch… fees like i am writing on a ship at sea!
I fixed the seasickness inducing shift. Thanks for the heads up! 🙂
Walking through an antique store with my lovely wife a few years back when I came across an “antique” Badger 100 airbrush. It’s price was marked 200 and since it was actually the current model and it retailed for 120 dollars at the time, I was somewhat taken aback. As I was looking at it, an older lady came up and asked if she could help my wife and I find anything. I took the opportunity to say “Ma’am, I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything but this airbrush is not an antique and it only sells for 120 brand new …” The lady paused for a moment and she said ” Look, I’ll drop the price to a dollar and a half but that’s as low as I’ll go!” I was shocked for a few seconds and said “Ma’am I thought you were asking 200 dollars! It’s worth more than a dollar and a half”. She said “Not to me it’s not. Do you want it for the pru e or not?” I promptly nodded my head yes and pulled the money out and paid the lady. I use that airbrush to this very day.
Like so many others, I started building models as a kid. My mom worked at a camera store that also had trains and model kits upstairs. I would walk from school to the store and wait for my mom to finish her shift and take us home, so naturally I would hang out looking at the models. It was the late 70’s-early 80’s so think old Tamiya with motorization holes and Italeri kits. Some of them eventually found their way home and onto my shelf of shame 🙂 The owner would give me all the old catalogs and I would dream about all the cool kits. It was good motivation to do chores, cut grass for the neighbors etc. Eventually other things got in the way and I took a break from model building for almost 25 years. I’ve been back building kits for the last 4 years and what a shock it was to reenter the hobby but it has been a blast. I joined my local AMPS chapter and now my shelf is not so shameful 🙂
I’ll take a stab at this!
Mike
Mike, don’t forget your story! 🙂
Looks like a good read. I’d like to relate a story about something that happened two years ago. I was building Trumpeter’s KV-1E. I’d bought working indy link tracks, an ET photoetch set, and special Russian Green paint. I was all set for my first “pro level” build! All went well till the painting stage.
I don’t have a big enough home for an indoor spray booth but I am lucky to have a not-bad shed that I can use to prime models with rattle cans. So I felt comfortable leaving parts out there overnight to dry and wait for the fumes to cure out.
Turned out to be a false sense of security on my part. That or KV series road wheels loom like nuts. To a squirrel at least.
That’s right! A squirrel stole two of my road wheels. On the very first kit I’d bought aftermarket parts for. I was incredibly frustrated as you may understand. It was a conundrum. I could go all out and buy resin replacements. I could post online and try to find someone with spares. Or I could get around to learning how to do my own casting! None appealed to me.
In the end, it was bribery that worked. A few peanuts left in strategic places, and a couple weeks later the squirrel had mercy on me. Both road wheels reappeared! Only one with significant chew marks!
And I have the finished build on my shelf now. Not too bad in the end, though my KV will always bear the scars of it’s birthing pains. Hope this entertained. 🙂
My time in the hobby spans nearly 30 years as an armor modeler.When I was in the 8th grade (spring 1986), I got a copy of “Eastern Front” by Steve Zaloga. It was a momentous event in my life that affects me to this day. In it was coverage (albeit sketchy at some points) of all of the armies that fought on the Eastern Front. The Finns, Bulgarians, Hungarians and Romanians, etc were all there. I thought to myself that I would LOVE to build models of these vehicles, simply because they were DIFFERENT from anything that was being done currently. Through High School, I tried converting existing decals from aircraft (when I could), repainting or trying to hand-paint then when I couldn’t get usable decals from anywhere else. But nothing seemed right. When I returned to modeling in the mid-1990’s things had really changed. In my rediscovery of the hobby, I found an article in Finescale Modeler covering making your own decals with an Alps printer! I HAD to have one of these machines sent to us from on high, so I could make those obscure markings I’d always wanted. In the summer of 1999, with part of my tax-return money, I went onto E-bay and bought my first Alps printer. In order to recoup the cost, I started the decal company Decalcomaniacs! a one-man operation that specializes in obscure markings for AFV’s. I’ve been at it for almost 15 years and have sold close to 3000 sheets of decals.
Back in 1996, I was a single dad raising my four year son. He lived with me but his mom had him for the weekend, so I decided to fly to Tamiya Con. I took three old Tamiya Centurion builds with me. My flight, rental car and hotel room were all procured from frequent flier mileage.
After the contest, I was congratulating myself on what a good time I had for virtually no money. I won a door prize, and even received a nice trophy for one of my builds. I was in another room discussing a guy’s model with him, when I heard Mr. Tamiya in the adjacent room talking about a special award for four modelers – a trip to Japan. I thought that I certainly could not be one of them, so I paid no attention, until I heard the final name called – mine! One of the gals who worked for Tamiya told me my eyes glazed over to the point I looked stoned. So I went from going on a trip to California on a whim, to going on a one week jaunt to Japan. I made some great friends in Japan and in the states, all of whom I know to this day.
I started trying to type this @ 11:59 when I stumbled on this page from Armorama.
I’m so old school I hunt and peck for long periods of time…trying to get my synapses a chance to catch up and make some sense of my words. It doesn’t help that just now “@ midnight” came on.
My earliest model building memory…hmmmmm..I think it was in ’65, my dad was military, Sharpshooter, Paratroopers, Amor, ..I grew up, climbing all over tanks. I built and blew up every kind of military hardware that came in plastic. I could crank out any OOB Tamiya tank in hours, and so when my dad was stationed @ Ft Ord I was asked to build 2 dozen models for a tactical diorama (this was Waaaaaay before any type of computer was available.)
But through all the years I was never asked to paint my models.
After my dad passed, I was hanging with a younger friend, who is into game playing; and he dragged me into our (now defunct) Hobby store. I saw a collectable Ford GT Mk.II, and It brought up the memories of my dad (’67) trying to slow down my building and be neater. He had bought 2 of the same kits and we had a build off…. This last year or so I bought the Trumpeter kit. My dad earned 3 bronse stars, and yet I remember the tender style of Teaching.
~C
http://chrisjohnsenphoto.tumblr.com/post/90541336425
I started modelling when I was about six years old. My late Father was a Construction Manager in the motion picture industry and I frequently would go to the studios or on location.
Having been for a walk around a large town set that had been constructed on the lot at Pinewood studios, I was sitting in my Dads’ office while my Dad had a meeting with the Director, Cameraman, and Lighting Gaffer. On my Dads’ desk was some sheets of card and some drawings of the set. Grabbing some scissors I started to cut out shapes of the various buildings. My Dad walked in, and with a slightly odd look on his face, gave me some sticky tape to put the buildings together and headed out again.
I carried on building my collection of houses and putting them in position according to the plans Dad had on his desk. This took me up to lunchtime where I promptly went off to sample the usual delights that the location caterers had that day, everyone from the stars down to the labourers eat the same food so it was always superb.
After lunch I headed back to my project, only to discover that it had disappeared. Angry and upset I went to find my Dad to alert him to this heinous crime. When I tracked him down I was relieved and rather puzzled to see that he had my model and was showing it to several large gentlemen, when you’re six everyone is large BTW. Anyway the Gentlemen were very happy with my work, and were using it to position lights, cameras, and other necessary equipment.
And that as they say was where it started, I was paid, given my own set of equipment (after being thoroughly educated about just how sharp scalpels are), and spent a lot of my free time creating set models for my Dads movies. Forty-seven years later I still have some of that original equipment, as good now as when it was first given to me.
I wish that I could tell you about the time that I accendently CA-glued my finger to my nose or the time that I sliced of the tips of three fingers with my Xacto, but sadly neither of these things has happened. In fact, my time in the hobby has been relatively solitary and uneventful. The thing that I can say, though, is that I have met some great people (Micky Bates, John Robinson, Frank Blanton, etc) when I was able to hang this the Central Virginia AMPS guys for a year or two (way back when). Also, the number of people who have been willing to share so much knowledge through the internets (Roy Chow, Herve Charbonneau, Pawel ”Vodnik” Krupowicz, Paul Roberts, etc) continues to just blow my mind. So, I will just say that it’s a great hobby that’s populated with some great people, and that I’m proud to be able to participate.
dave
How to get a Jagdpanzer IV for free.
Last year I was talking to a good friend, modeller as well, with a couple of beers between us. He told me his kids wanted a dog… and his wife also. I said you are doomed… soon I will see you walking the dog. He said no, I’m not gonna buy it. You will. Absolutely not! -I bet you a Dragon JagdPanther… ok!
I have to say he managed to keep his word for six months or so, which is not bad at all. But finally he surrended and I got my kit (he graciously accepted to replace the original JagdPanther by a Jagdpanzer IV).
In exchange, when built it will carry the name of the dog on the gun barrel…
Jake, nice to see that you are branching out with the blog. I have seen some of your posts over on Armorama and it is always fun to see the student become the teacher. Kudos to you for keeping this hobby alive. Cheers.
Well I guess my tale goes way back. My father was a printer back in the 70’s it was during the 80’s when he downsized his business. He produced work for Mecanno and I often had Dinky toys as a child, I was sorting through his studio equipment and found an airbrush….. I still have it and it is a Conopois, I fact I can still get needles for it. We’ll apart from the fact that I found out that it was hand made and the only other that I know about resides in a display case with the Airbrush Company and is considered a bit of a museum piece. It still works and was only replaced with an Iwata around five years ago.
It is the one possession that reminds me of my Dad and that it was my parents that encouraged me into the hobby.
[…] winner of the Tank Art 3 book is Aaron ! Aaron will be getting his book in the mail shortly. Thanks again to Rinaldi Studio […]
[…] the first Monday Giveaway was a great success. So let’s do it […]