TOPIC: New member from New England

Hello all!

Just joined up today and looking forward to meeting all of you, and sharing what I can. Some of you may know me aready from other forums, but for those that don't:

I live in New England in the USA, and was invited to check out this amazing site today, of which I immediately joined . I got back into modelling back around 2008, after a 30 year hiatus, and build primarily WWII armor; though my interests also encompass aircraft, ships, and sci-fi. I still consider myself as a newbie in the craft, but am learning with each model...the wonderful thing about modelling! The past few models have seen my beginning steps with newly purchased airbrushes, and a slow beginning in the techniques of weathering ans scratchbuilding. I've not yet experienced the use of PE or Fruils....but I will!!!

I am also an avid wargamer....including the building of metal and resin 15mm armor miniatures for use in my games, such as Axis & Allies Miniatures, battlefront WWII, and Flames of War. This also incudes diarama construction for use in miniature games. Besides miniatures, I primarily play board wargames, such as Lock 'N Load, Panzer Grenadier, Advanced Squad Leader, etc. I also design wargames, as a hobby, and am working on two sci-fi games at the moment...both miniatures games...of Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica.

Other interests are: Musician since 1970's (Percussion Caption Head/Instructor/Show Designer, inclusive of DCI Drum & Bugle Corps)...drummer, and now learning acoustic/electric guitar, though hearing issues has sidelined drumming, LOL. I am a fine artist, working primarily in oil, pen&ink, graphite, colored pencil, and watercolor. Taught sculpture for a time back in the 80's. I am an avid WWII buff, gaining my interest through my father, who was in the Canadian Army in WWII. And I am a huge hockey fan....GO BRUIN'S!!!!

So in a nutshell....that's me! I look forward to meeting you all and exploring this great site.

Awesome work here, Gaz!!!!

Nice to see you Rook,

maarten

I don't see it but I think Rook forgot to tell us his shoe size.

Welcome
Tony Lee:)

Apparantly he dresses to the left as well
Hey Em, welcome to the site nice of you to stop by mate. Thanks for the kind words, we've just started getting some teething problems which I'm trying to resolve, but stick around I'm sure it will be worth it. I know there is a pretty large Wargaming presence here in NZ (I believe Flames of War was created here after all) so who knows there may even be a demand for a seperate forum.
Gary

Thanks for the welcome Maarten, Tony, Gary! Great to catch up with you guys even more often now!!!

Tony....10 wide. And considering you're the only member listed here that I can actually drive to..... Just kiddin' I love a good joust.

Yeah, that was a bit long winded of me ....but: A) Everyone that knows me knows that I'm a talker; Like a bear trap, it's best to know what you're getting into when you befriend me; and C) the more I type, the less time I have to get into touble.

Great to be here! No probs on growing pains mate...I now it'll be worth it to be a member in good standing here. And yup....Flames of War is an NZ gig, and an awesome game system.

Being a talker is a bonus, in reality you are a site admin's dream come true as your ability to talk on most subjects at some length keeps the threads/boards alive and keeps health dialogue going. I didn't always feel that way but having seen you and the other "spammers" work your magic at the zone it makes perfect sense to demand your presence here

'New' England? What's wrong with the 'old one'

Actually, no, don't start me there!

Welcome to KW (as it's now listed on my Firefox browser )

Jim

KW? Ah yeah Kiwi Wodeller (are we ducks or just Quackers)

I blame that on the Spaniards. Rioja, to be exact

I can't even blame it on the keyboard layout....they 'M' and 'W' are opposite ends!

Welcome to the site
kiwibob

hi em, and welcome to KM nice to see you have joined here mate,

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone....I appreciate it!

@Gary....yeah, I know we saw opposite sides of the talking gig there for awhile. Glad you saw a method to my madness, mate

@Jim....Nothing at all wrong with Old England at all mate, LOL! I'm looking forward to visiting there one day. Last one in my family to go there was my dad, in the Candadian Army, just before heading out for Juno Beach.

@kiwibob...thanks mate, I'm looking forward to getting into the threads and meeting the fine folks here.

@Mickey.....Thank you my friend. Any opportunity to hang with you and my old friends even more is a wonderful thing in my book!

Kia ora, and welcome to the Assylum!

Gazza pretends to be one of the nurses here (even going so far as to dressing up in a nurses outfit) but in reality he's just another one of the inmates!

Seriously tho, Gaz has done a spiffing job of getting this site up and running, and between him and Bob thye've canvassed a lot of peeps to try and get membership numbers up.

Cheers

Mike A

Thanks for the welcome Mike....yeah, I'll try and add to the craziness here, but I'll keep my eye out for nurses with beards! Thanks for the warning!!! Great site Gary has set up here....I look forward to exploring more, and contributing what I can.

Hello all!

Yes, it's been awhile!!! I was last active here back 8 years ago. Yikes! Where does the time go?

I've checked in several times over those years, but I just made my way back here a few nights ago in earnest, with new inspiration gained over a rather unusual start to 2019: I was one of the folks caught up in the United States' Government Shutdown, with what amounted to an extremely lengthened, planned Christmas vacation, LOL. Hey, in many ways, it's the best thing to have happened to me in a VERY long time, because it allowed me a break to think, rest, and in many ways recuperate from year after grueling (and rewarding) year of head-long work. Sometimes, you just don't realize how much you get caught up in Life's Grand Ratrace.

One of the things I gained from that time off was, a rediscovery of my old goofy self from years gone by ...I know, sounds melodramatic; but truly, I realized I'd become a bit of a robot. Just making it through another day and recovering from the effects. After a little over a week back to work now, I am still happy, goofy, and relaxed. That kinda shocked me, to be honest. But I attribute this to being determined to learn from lessons past, and once again becoming a participant in my many hobbies, rather than a spectator.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I sat at my model and miniature wargame models workshop. It was likely with the last build sitting unfinished on my bench (in dust)...a P-51 Mustang. It was a horrible kit, which through me into Modelers Block, which didn't help things. This was, conservatively...maybe from three years ago (2015?). Well, that's not good!

I do run my own wargaming forum, and that has taken much of my spare time. And I've played a smattering of board wargames through these years. Touched upon a few other hobbies. But all along, I'd just worked my butt off in my day job.

So that leads me back to the start of this post and the Furlough: That led me back to wanting my goofy-side life back (the 'goofy' thing comes from a realization, and confirmation from my wife that we are seeing my old self back); which includes to build again, which led me on a very brief (like half hour) search of what remains for forums devoted to model building (seems' so many people have switched to facebook and Pintrest...modelers I had at my own forum, which has a VERY modest Model Building section have abandoned forums, including wargamers!).

I brought up KM and see you all postin'. I checked a few other sites out and was unimpressed (with the perhaps exception on BritModeller). What continues to impress me about this place is the camaraderie, and feeling you were with your pubmates... just all nice and relaxed.

So here I am again. I am going to do my best to get building again, and will post up my rebirth embarrassments (I really am quite curious to see what I've retained in skill, and lost in neglect).

I did my best to patch up the few old threads on old threads over the past couple nights. I was one of the folks that had his stuff on PhotoBucket, and lost my pics in the new charge to use era of the site. Much of those pics were found on thumbdrives, but much was missing; or curiously, reverted to thumbnails (probably pics I copied back of PB before deleting my account.

So I'll end this terribly long, rambling post with...Happy to see you all again! Best of luck with me as an active member again, LOL!

Em

Welcome back! Looks like we joined within about a week of each other back in 2011. Time flies huh.

Grant wrote: Welcome back! Looks like we joined within about a week of each other back in 2011. Time flies huh.

Hiya Grant! ...yes, time flies for sure...too fast, sometimes! Thanks for the welcome back.

Hey Em, you were never gone really, I did think my inbox was looking a bit empty lol
Welcome back anyway matey, it looks like WW2 Zone has finally gone the way of the Dodo it had the last time I checked, such a wealth of info and it's all gone to spam.

Good to see you back on the KM ,
Maarten

Thanks guys....looking forward to all the great inspiration and hobby talk here! I'm cleaning my workshop area and hope to start building again shortly. Feeling the Mojo come back.

LOL...yes indeed, Gary, I've tried to keep my PM and emails at bay, hahaha. I'm trying my darndest to understand forum management techniques with the back scenes stuff. For those that don't know, Gary has helped me enormously with my forum mechanics, and his tech-savvy has been invaluable.

On the WWIIZ...yeah mate, it was very sad to see it got to hell that way. The last days were riddled with porn and crap spammers. I'd stopped modding there quite a long tome before its demise, though I did offer to try and pull it back from the brink but alas, the Admin was totally MIA for anything related to WWIIZ. I really feel bad about it because, I wonder how much he may have felt abandoned by so many Mods leaving. As you say, a wealth of knowledge lost. I've a few of the wargaming lads from the old WWIIZ at my forum, and I know there are quite a few here for the modeling side. I am quite shocked at many others that seem to have disappeared off of any forum at all. Perhaps it's just society now, and the scourge that is "social media".

From all indications, it looks like you have a very strong base here, so KUDOS to you and the membership!!!