How about some Re-Introductions?

[Barbo]

Hi....My name is Miguel Barbosa , I live in Puerto Rico. I am married and have two sons (18 and 24) I am Drafter , B.Arch. and Model Builder. I work at home and work part time as a College Teacher in Drafting and Archtectural Model Building . Also as a volunteer teacher in a junior high private school. I have always been interested in miniatures , as a hobby and then as my daily living. I have participated in scale auto model events in Puerto Rico and United States. I also llike Model Railroading and remote control cars . My goal was to have a event in Puerto Rico that would gather the best scale model builders of our island once a year to outstand there habilities . With special guests , inovations, new ideas , and best of all the growth of freindship among all . It hasn't been easy but thanks to a great amount of modelers in Puerto Rico, special people ,sponsors , friends and family it has been accomplished.We are now celebrating our 5th aniversary , and every year it gets better . Its not the best event in the world , but it is a great event ''THE CARIBBEAN SCALE AUTO EXPO'' Thanks to all that in one or other way as been part of the game.............Be Happy ......Barbo.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Barbo

[Gregg]

Steve, I have to thank you for starting this post.

I will send you another one of your favorite PINK MCM T-Shirts, size small, right?

Seriously, what a great thread.

I'm glad I thought of it....

Well, for me, not much to say that hasn't been in the rag already.

I'm 39 (will always be that age as far as I am concerned), married, twice to the same gorgeous woman who will remain nameless (right, Kelly?), have four kids from a prior "engagement", two grandkids, and a whole lot of debt.....

I have been in Hawai'i almost all my life.

over 40 years now, so I guess that throws my age thing out the door.

I got into building model cars back in `87 or so when my ex-inlaws gave me a kit for christmas to keep me "entertained" following what would be the third of five back surgeries.

I was a mechanic who got hurt on the job, broke back, surgery after surgery, and finally voc-rehab put me in the legal field.

Did legal work for years, some of the bigger cases in Hawai'i were so much fun and cool to work on (Tyke the elephant, Woolworth fire, etc.).

Got me in a position to be able to work for myself, GFH Legal Services, which was a total blast

Got an offer from a great attorney, did that for two years.

Bought Plastic Fanatic from Roy Sorenson in March of `97 (which I began writing for back in `90 or so).

Went to mainland in `98, tried to make PF grow, but I have a problem with money: I get it, I spend it.

Needless to say, PF folded, and I started MCM with Golden Bell Press.

Got to the point that it was going so good, someone had to throw a stick in the wheel.

Major car accident the week before I was set to come back to Hawai'i basically stopped my life

Got back to Hawai'i in `01, was discabumalated for the better part of five years, and am now back in better shape and form then I have ever been, minus that huge bald spot on the top of my head.

Oh yeah, models, I guess I build them, when I can.

I build whatever I can, from rods to bikes to race cars, to Tuners, customs, etc.

I have a passion for 43rd, and that is where I will concentrate on in the future

Don't have space for the big cool stuff.

The best thing about this hobby is the people

I have met so many builders who have become life-long friends that my phone's address book is almost filled up!!!!!

Seriously, the friendships I have been blessed with are the payment in full for all those years of struggling.

I can go litterally anywhere in the country and be able to hang, chill, crash, and maybe indulge in some distilled pleasures with some of the best people in the world.

Who says model builders are geeks and dorks?

BITE ME, whoever thinks that.

I would be honored and blessed to welcome each and everyone of you in my home, well, at least for a drink or two.

There's no room with all those darn kits, computers, and women in thongs lying around...... (oops, sorry honey)

:-)

Well, that's my four cents (It's expensive here in Hawai'i, remember?)

Let's keep this thread going.

I want every single one of the (hold on, new page to see member total) 1,471 members post their bio here.

I will be saving this, maybe for a future article.

I will change the names to protect the innocent.

And Steve, thanks again for starting this.

I have had a great time reading every single one of the responses so far, yes, Billy, even yours :-). (you do write well, I must say)

Aloha

Mahalo

and Mai Tai.....

[LVZ2881]

Hi, I'm James, and I'm addicted to styrene dust!!!!

Lets make a not so long story not so short......I'm 30 years old, married to my 2nd wife, Briana, and have 2 kids from my previous marriage. My daughter is 7 and we are headed to the LHS next weekend when I have her next to pick up her first kit, on our way to the craftsman truck races, which she asked me to take her too, so I think I've raised her right. My son is 2, and as often as i catch him playing with the stuff on my bench that he shouldn't be playing with, he's a future modeler!!! I have an uncle thats about 12 years older than I am, and my family blames my modeling addiction on him, as he has been building since the 70's, and every time we would got to his house, I would sit in front of his display and stare at his completed builds for hours. It is also this same uncle , who in about '86 or '87, got me my first kit, the MPC Pro-Street Mustang II with scenic backdrop. I didnt paint a thing on it, and used atleast half a tube on it, but it was fun.

fast forward some 21 odd years,and with a short drop-off in my modeling time in my teens to play with both women and a 1:1 '79 Z28, I currently have over 300 unbuilts in my stash consisting of mostly '60's and '70's musclecars, with a few modern cars, exotics, street rods, trucks and foreign kits thrown in. I am what you would consider an average builder, but I enjoy it. I am a car guy with a huge lust for Camaro's( I have owned 7 already at my ripe young age), especially '70-'73's and '78-'81 Z28's, and I am currently hot rodding a T-Top, Tuned-Port, 5 Speed '88 IROC into a weekend toy to take the family out for fun in. I have lived in Las Vegas since '98, and hated EVERY minute of it. I grew up in Oregon (otherwise known as god's country, which is not Texas as some would lead you to believe ), and the wifey and I plan to transfer with my job as an insurance adjuster back home to the Salem, Oregon area sometime early next year.

[JackieCheyenne]

Hi, my name is Jacqueline Cheyenne Whitecloud. I live in Modesto, CA at present. I'm a California Native and, with the exceptions of Reno and Las Vegas, I've never left the state. I grew up in a "car" family. My father was a certified car nut and my mom was also very into the culture. My father always wanted a son to share his hobbies with but there was just my older sister and myself. I took an interest in his hobby of building model cars when I was about 7 yrs old. My father was always encouraging me to keep at it as, appearently, I had a talent even then.

I won my first local contest at 11 with a custom 68 Falcon. That same Falcon won another first place at another local contest. While I enjoyed the wins, I was never really the "trophy hound" sort. I just enjoyed making three dimensional creations from boxes of plastic parts. I've never strayed from the hobby, even during the dismal 70's and 80's. At it's peak, my collection had some 1300 built models and the Goddesses only know how many unbuilts. I also had a promo collection that reached over 800 at it's peak. My major interest was Mustangs, anything Mustang. I had a collection that had over 1000 pieces and covered everything from "N" scale to full size. If it was a scale Mustang from 1964.5 to 1973, I had it.

While I'm not employed at the moment, due to a permanent disability, I was a cop for a few years and then went to work in a "safe" job at Hertz Rental at San Jose Airport. In the seven years I was at Hertz, I went from lowly lot person to Station Manager. I left that job shortly after my mother passed away. My father passed away in 1984, my mom in 91. Those were my only two careers, other than seller on eBay.

Women don't like discussing age but I will say that I grew up in the "Leave It To Beaver" generation. You know, back when society was a lot less dangerous than it is now. My partner and I just celebrated 29 years of commitment in August. Yeah, I'm the "L" word I still build occasionally, with my latest collection being 1/25 scale Hot Wheels. I now have the Sweet 16 duplicated in plastic with the exception of the Ford J Car. I also collect the F&F Post Cereal cars, specifically the 57 Fords, and the JVZ 69 Mercuries. I'm also collecting the Sabra/Gamda Koor/Cragstan 1/43 diecast cars made in Isreal in the 60's and, just in the last year or so, started collecting the AMT 1/43 scale kits that were originally from the 60's, with some just recently being issued again. I have the complete series of the first six customs from 1967 and quite a few of the stock kits made from 1968 on. I'm working on colour variations now.

That's me in a nut shell (accent on "nut"...LOL)

*Jackie Cheyenne*

[Gary66]

OK, I'll go next. I don't post much here but I lurk all the time and I do subscibe to the magizine.

I am Gary Lyles, 41, and I live in Kannapolis, N.C. ( yes, the same one a certain famous racer named Dale is from).

I have been married to a wonderful woman since 2000, she lets me be "me" and doesn't mind the endless stock piling of kits for "down the road"...LOL. I work in a metal stamping company setting up and operating big steel stamping presses and handle most of the ISO paperwork that we have to do.

No kids but I have numerous nieces and nephews. I come from a long line of honest, hard working poor folks. Both of my late Grandfathers were already working in the Textile Mills around here before age 10. Cars and trucks have always been a big part of the family, a lot of my uncles terrorized the local Dragway back in the 1960's and some took a turn racing stock cars.

I like racing, building model race cars, fishing and traveling the "back roads" of the Tarheel State looking at old scenery before it all goes away to development. From late March to early November, most Saturday nights I am at a race track around here, either Bowman Gray Stadium, Concord Motorsport Park, Caraway Speedway, Hickory Motor Speedway or any other track within a decent driving distance of my home. Building scale model race cars is how I "race", been doing it off and on since I was about 11.

My building style is heavily influenced by Jerry and Jackie Sims ( Luke57 and Gator on most of the boards) who I am also proud to call my friends, along with Bill "Ancient Modeler" Little ( who coined the term "darkside" that has become the catch phrase for pre -1972 Nascars), Jacky Ireland, and all the guys on the darkside section of Randy Ayer's Nascar board. I also have a great group of guys I hang with twice a week ( Thurs and Sun @ 9 PM) thru the chat room Brian Fowler( Monoped) has on his site, including Ricky Moore ,Andy Wyatt, Randall Cooper, Mark Hadley, Mark Bailey, and everyone else who pops in from time to time over there. Fred Sudlow runs a great and clean short track forum off his site for Resin parts that I like a lot. I post more at Fred's and Randy's than the other places, not because I don't like other boards ( like this one) but simply both are geared toward race car models and that 95 percent of what I build.

ok,who is next?

[Lyle Willits]

I was going to tell you a little bit about myself, but Billy Kingsley took up all the bandwidth!

[Lyle Willits]

Okay. I was injection molded in 1948 and originally released on January 6, 1949. I was reissued on December 4, 1999, after a heart attack but, unfortunately, I had the same old parts and the same old packaging.

Since 1997, I've been president of the Maryland Automotive Modellers Assoc. (MAMA) primarily because I show up at all of the meetings and nobody else wants the title. I've done a bunch of masters for Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Md., used to provide hundreds of photos and books and proof-reading for The Model Car Garage photoetch sets and I've been fortunate enough to have had one front cover on Model Cars Magazine. (my avatar).

To earn money, in between Nigerian email scams, I work as a biomedical technician. A few years back, I did a few marketing study model cars for the Franklin Mint and was payed an obscene amount for those silly little metal cars!

I used to have a couple of kids, but they've been full grown adults for many years now. I have one beautiful grandaughter in California so I don't get to see her very often. Last, and most certainly NOT least, I have a wonderful wife who is my best friend, goes everywhere with me and completely supports my hobby.

[Harry P.]

I was going to tell you a little bit about myself, but Billy Kingsley took up all the bandwidth!

I've just finished reading chapter 26...think I'll rest now and get back to it later...

[Modelmartin]

My name is Andy Martin and I can not shake this case of model car OCD. I just hit the five-O and have been building since I was seven years old. My dad started me out. He built models from the 50s on to the early 70s. He built them all stock and rarely painted them. When they were done he would stick them back in the box with the instructions and give me and my brothers all of the custom and racing parts! I wish I had access to his stash of probably about 100 models but unfortunately the garage where it was all stored burned down in 1976!

I had a brief period not building in my late teens, early 20s when I attempted to build a street rod (34 Plymouth 4-door sedan with a 4" chop), a street machine (66 Chevelle SS) which got turned into a bracket car. I came to my senses and returned to scale cars when I was about 23 or so.

I discovered in '79 that the MPC contest series was still around. They quit coming to the twin Cities in '73 when I won 1st senior with my IMC Beetle turned into a NHRA gas class car. I drove down to Omaha to enter the best model I had ever built in my life thinking I was going to clean up. Well I did not win a thing but did not care because my life changed.

I got to meet a bunch of model car builders who to me seemed famous from the pages of Car Model Magazine such as Tim Boyd, Tom Woodruff, Chuck Helpie, Bruce Owen, Dave Berry, Wayne Saunders and many others and got to see all of the Best of Show winners from around the country. They were handing out subscription blanks for a not yet published magazine called Scale Auto Enthusiast! I haven't looked back since then. I have been a contest and NNL junkie since then doing up to 5-6 events a year from coast to coast but mostly midwest. I do not care if I win or lose. I go to have fun, meet people, see friends, be inspired. I have won an occasional trophy which is always nice but have never won a Best In Show which was my goal when I started out. Maybe one day............GSL '09....hmmmmm.

I have lived in the Twin Cities since I was 4 years old, married to Ann for 16 years , have no kids, no pets. Do have a Porsche 914 restoration project, just sold my 1960 Mini (sad day), many home improvement projects, and those pesky 500 or so kits that are clamoring to be built! Car and model car interests are many and include Bugattis, classic cars, Porsches, Minis, drag racing, occasional wild rods and customs, and anything else that strikes me as cool.

I have been a professional model car producer for many years punctuated by brief periods of employment. I currently am operating as Aardvark Models and Modelmartin producing resin kits and conversion kits. I refuse to grow up.

I enjoy this forum becuase the average IQ seems to be significantly higher than most others and there is a broad range of interests and personalities. I can't handle single subject clubs or forums. There is too much cool stuff in this world. There is even cool stuff beyond cars and model building!!! Yes, there is.

[Jeff Johnston]

Well....talk about myself ? Not my "thing" usually...honestly I am more interested in reading about you all LOL.

I grew up on North Central PA, right on the NY State border. After school I moved to Ithaca NY for more School. I then moved to Rochester, NY where I worked at The Univiersity od Rochester Medical Cetner for 5 years. Then I moved to Boston (again for work) where I thought I'd finally find my pot of gold and get that Ferrari I always dreamed of. yeah right... LOL 6 weeks later I met my wife (of 14 years now) at the Hospital (in 1991), and we have been together ever since. I have a boy and a girl, 10 and 12. Both build beautiful models when they build...which now is prety much never. They have thier own hobbies, and are great kids.

I now live in a small town in Southern NH right on the Mass Border (Mass is is literally one mile from my front door). This means I have the benifit of living in a small town, about 45 minutes from a big city (Boston), without having to pay any sales tax or state income tax.

I have been building since 1974. I was born about 6 months after the 64 1/2 Mustang rolled off the assembly line

I have been building steady except for about a 5-6 year lul between 1991 and 1997. I built during that time, but not like I did before or after. I am have been back into it "heavy" since about 2001.

I build mostly Factory stock cars from the 60's and 70's...not "Stock cars" but showroom stock. I sometimes build a exotic car and even less sometimes a rod or custom. Though, I did buy 2 49 Mercs...

I have a 1:1 69 Mustang which is my avtar. I work on it when it needs something, and when I have time. I have less time these days due to long work hours, and family stuff. I tend to build models on Friday and Saturday nights. I sometimes get to shoot paint job or sand a kit body other days.

I attend 2 shows every year. Classic Plastic in Mass, and the NNL east. I've been lucky to meet some great people at these events, and I enjoy seeng them every year.

Like Len mentioned, I am also somewhat of a lone wolf builder. Though there is a local model club, I've yet to join. I guess I have no real excuse, other than I just forget or have too much going on most Saturday's to do it. Or maybe I'm just too lazy. LOL None of my friends build models, but most of them know I do. I've built many kits for friends, replica's of thier 1:1 cars.

If you called my house you'd hear some pretty thick accents...my wife and kids have the classis Boston accent. I don't think I've acquired it even after being here 16 years (yeahs), but some of my PA friends tell me they hear a hint...haha

I enjoy building tremendously. I only have about 40 unbuilts, which my wife thinks is a lifetime of kits...if she only knew.

I've loved cars since I was born. I have built a total of one non-car model... a plane.

I enjoy this board as well as the Spotlight hobbies board. I also post on a modal car board called "Sharks Realm", which is a small group of guys, but a really great board.

[Steven Zimmerman]

Name's Steve Zimmerman(aka theZman) ,I'm 56 years old,and I've been building model cars since I was about 10. I live in Meadville Pa,about 30 miles south of Erie Pa. I build mostly Pro touring,custom,Street rods,and a Pro street now n then;and mainly CHEVIES(grin)....I love sedan deliveries,and have built a lot of them,mostly resin. Steven Zimmerman

[MonoPed]

Still haven't finished Billy's memoirs, so I'll keep it simple.... Just a one legged guy in Florida that builds models and has a website for them...

[Andy Wyatt]

I'm Andy Wyatt, just turned 44 and I reside in York PA ( by the way Randy...York is only 40 minutes from New Holland ). I'm a member of the CPMCC and MAMA clubs which between the two has more talented builders than you can shake a sprue tree at. Don't get to build as much as I'd like to here of late but I still keep interested. Here's a link to some of my builds.

http://www.freewebs.com/modelsbyandy/

[Howard Cohen]

My name is Howard and I am a 'Caraholic' Applause! Applause! Applause! (don't want to be cured)

I got my first taste of cars watching my cousin work on my uncle's '57 Buick Special.

I started building model cars when I was 12. I was in the hospital and my mom's friend brought me a model car kit...it's been uphill since.

I attended my first 1:1 custom car show in November 1963 when I was living in Montreal. I bugged my Dad for about a month to take me. There was a Revell-Testors build table and I started the Revell Attempt 1 Bonneville car and didn't finish it (surprise, surprise, surprise). The following year I had my 1st model car display at the car show and showed at several dozen shows over the years. I won a few prizes, met a ton of people and made lots of friends at car shows from Bob Larivee to Darryl Starbird and a few hundred others. I currently help with Performance World Custom Car Show in Toronto every spring.

During college, I helped a friend tour his hot rods and showcars around Ontario, Quebec and the northeast U.S. Oh, I also attended a few classes I am currently working on a Big Deuce trying to replicate one of those cars.

I build a wide variety of models from showcars to vintage to racers. I often think out of the box and seldom build showroom stock. I build all scales from 1/64th to 1/8th. I often do BMF demos at shows and I have been called the BMF King...by a man who needs new glasses

I did some work for Revell-Monogram of Canada about 10 years ago doing some box art builds for shows, make&takes, trade shows and kit research (they gave me a kit to build and I researched the heck out of it). The Jacques Villeneuve F1 car was not my idea but I did some of the work, including the original and a few that were sent to Jacques. I did a few movie models that R-M ordered (they gave me a case of models, asked me to build 3...then sent me $...it was a tough 3 days)

I am an original member of Group 25 Model Car Builders Club based in Toronto and stretching across southern Ontario. We used to slot race and at one time had over 60 members. No more slot racing and our membership is about 30.

I have an online photo album at WWW.FOTKI.COM/HOWARDCOHEN where you can see some of my photos including my favourite antiques.

I play baseball and have since 1958; I used to tap dance; I did DJ work for about 10 years; I played Groucho Marx quite often, and not always on Halloween; I have read every Sherlock Holmes & Nero Wolfe mystery, have a few 'Man From U.N.C.L.E.' paperbacks and I am currently reading 'My Years at General Motors' by Alfred P. Sloane. There are some great car industry books out there.

Questions? No? Okay, that's it folks...NEXT!

[MrObsessive]

A lot of y'all know me but for those of you that don't, I'm the big guy that does the somewhat impossible details with little plastic cars!

Anyway, I'm soon to be 46...........(October 10th) so I was born when doowop music was still the rage and tailfins were just starting to fade from the new automotive scene. I was exposed to a LOT of different types of cars as a youngster.........from the normal run of the mill of the time (Corvair) to the extremely rare and strange (Amphicar) which a neighbor owned. My parents divorced when I was around 5.......... but soon after my mom would begin dating someone that I swear had a different car every three months.

A '57 Buick, '59 Mercury wagon, '60 Corvair, '60 Olds 4 door hardtop, '58 Rambler, to name a few. He was a state worker and had access to all types of vehicles so I got my taste of riding around in what would be obscure vehicles even at a show today.

I got started model building rather late (17) when a lot of guys my age were getting out of it. I started as a senior in high school................and have built pretty much steady since then. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the builds of those first years or so............some I gave away, or were damaged in some way and were tossed out.

I've never been married nor do I have any kids so those of you in my position know what that means..............No wife, no kids, = more disposable income. (Models!!) I do have two cats though so I guess those are my "kids"!

Clubs I belong to here in Central PA are the CPMCC and the MAMA club which is just over the PA border in MD. My model building tastes run from anything that was on the road in the '60's.....so that could range from late '40's cars to Muscle Cars................all the way to some of the neat cars of today.

I do have a weakness for the older European classics and exotics, and I LOVE old '50's-'60's road racers!

I work as a soldering trainer/machine setup for an electronics company........I work strange hours too as I usually work third shift, but occasionally need to swing to first shift to train newbies for a week or two.

[didgeytrucker]

I've snuck in a few replies here and there under the radar but it looks like I've been caught.

I turned six in 1963 when all the really cool models started coming out. I tried a few, even the Revell 1956 F-100 (just like the real one my grandfather had), but it was just too much for a six year old. I would open the box and look at all the parts every few weeks but it never got put together.

I had a younger brother (three years) and over the next few years he and I would try to put some kits together, straight out of the box, white plastic and all. He grew away from the model cars but I didn't. Later he would "play" with my finished models and break them so I quit building.

On a family vacation (August 1974) to Florida we traveled away from the tourist traps and got to see the "real Florida". There was a local drug store next door to the motel we were staying at. (Remember when drug stores sold model car kits?) In there I found a 1963 issue Revell 1929 Model A pickup kit and paid the original price, still on the box. I brought that home and in a year or two started what would be my first comeback to model building. It was also my first "kitbash" using the racing engine from the '55 Nomad, the quick-change rear axle from the Orange Crate and some wide five spoke mags to match the skinny five spoke front mags in the kit.

I still had trouble with my brother so the kits went into storage again. My brother thought I was done with them and presented me with a big burned melted blob of plastic one day.

I started realizing that the kits I had seen on the store shelves in the last few years that I wanted to build weren't there anymore so I started buying and storing them again. I gradually opened and started a few in the late 80's. I got married in 1992 and moved from Kentucky to North Carolina. That didn't end very happily and I returned to Kentucky in 1995 without the huge stash of models that I had to leave in North Carolina, including that Revell 1929 model A kit.

Back in Kentucky I heard about a little store (Gary Williams' Antioch Hobbies) south of Nashville that had some old kits. I drove the 1-1/2 hour drive to the store and found an original issue AMT 1953 F-100 and that started my collecting old kits and I met up the Music City Modelers.

One day while visiting a model building friend he showed me a kit he bought from a traveling vendor who stopped in Gary's store one day. It was what was left of MY Revel 29 model A pickup! Since then I have found another original issue of the kit and I have started gathering pieces to build a re-creation of my first kit-bash, using only the parts that were availble in 1975. I have also found an original issue Revell 1956 f-100 that I do plan on finishing this time!

Over the years I got into full size cars, mainly Fords. I owned a 1969 Mercury Cyclone with a 428CJ that I sold while I was married. In my garage now are a 1965 Mustang fastback project (GT-350R) and a 1956 F-100 panel project. On the weekends I drive a 1966 F-100 pickup painted black primer with flames. I'm still involved with what is left of the Music City Modelers.

Rumor has it there will be a Music City Modelers show/swap meet in 2008!

Tracy Reynolds

[BIGTRUCK]

I built models in the 60s and gave it up in 1977 or so when I got married , got back into it on a fluke when my brother in-law came in for a visit and asked if I would take a ride to ''Al's hobby shop''with him. That was Christmas of 2000 , and now 1100 kits , die-cast and promos take up the entire basement....I dont build anything special , but love to re-do a busted up kit or someones discarded build. I'm 53 and been married 30 years and have 3 kids , son #1 works in radio, son #2 decided being a mover was more glamorous than ''med school'' [but he did make me a proud grandpa this year]and a daughter in culinary school....wife works in accounting so telling her kits only cost a few bucks don't work...Been driving trucks since 1976 and been moving furniture and trade shows cross country for the last 12 years..I love going to NNL events , Milwaukee and Toledo are on my list every year now and would love to attend the NNL east next time around. I wish I could spend a little more time building [or build a little faster]but I never regret taking that ride 7 years ago.

[MicroNitro]

Hi, I am Jim from Indiana. I got into models from my son Joe. We had a 27 ford roadster in the shop I would put Joe in with race car models to keep him busy while I would work. In 1999 I had a stroke and had to quite my job running the composite shop at McKinney Race Cars. After spending a year in rehab I stared building models with my son and then started a few of my own untill I was hooked.

I now have two sheep farms www.dancingbear-farm.com (no sheep jokes please) in Indiana which is a slower pace than building top fuel funny cars but I do have more time to spend with my wife and son.

Lately my son and I have been building machened aluminum and resin part for 1/25 drag race cars and have been selling them on the internet. www.micronitro.net We are having fun and getting better at it but I think it will be a long time to pay off the CNC machines and autoclaves.

Jim Littiken

Edited September 15, 2007 by MicroNitro

[MikeBoyle]

I'm Mike Boyle, 32 and currently living in Fruita, CO (no plans on leaving any time soon either). Single, no pets (stupid landlord's rules) and a born again Christian.

I have been building as long as I can remember. Started with airplanes, since thats what Dad built (he stopped building when I was in elementry school) and progressed into automobiles as my interest in cars grew. In Jr. High I started having unexplained medical problems and became extreemly depressed and eventually suacidal. It was a subscription to Streetrodder magazine (given to me by my god father) and model cars that kept my mind occupied enough to keep me alive. Fast forward to my senior year in high school and I finally (after 5+ years) convince the Dr's that there is really something wrong with me. One trip to a sleep speciallist and I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy. I've been in a drug indused state of euphoria ever since.

My interest in anything automotive led to my career choice and now I spend my days fixing other people's junk.....er, I mean I'm an automobile/light truck mechanic. Knowing that I was likely going to spend the majority of my life working on cars I attended Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ where I recieved my Associates in Automotive Business Management as well as my ASE Master certification. I currently work for a mom & pop repair shop in Grand Junction, CO mainly specializing in under car (brakes, clutches, suspension, etc...) and some heavy line (engines, trannys, etc...). I always dreamed of building street rods as a kid, but that dream faded when I got interested in off-roading/rock crawling. I still love rods and customs as well as anything propelled by an internal cumbustion engine.

As for what i build, not much of anything lately. I guess you can say I hit a road block and other than a quick HO scale project I haven't spent any time at the bench since before GSL this year. When I do build its mainly whatever interests me at the time. I love to detail and scratch build, but sometimes I will just throw something together just to break up the monotony. I can't build anything "box stock" and I don't know why. Hopefully I'll get back to building soon and mabey get some of my langushing projects finished.

[We Haul]

Hi, I am Joe. I'm twelve years old and I have been building models for 6 years. My hometown is DeMotte, Indiana, but we are getting ready to move down to a town in the middle of nowhere Quincy in southern Indiana. I have started a never ending project by building all of the NHRA top fuel and funny car champions and U.S. Nationals winners. I also build some gassers. I am a big racing fan. I got my dad back into models and he builds top fuel, funny car and alterd models. I am building a 1:1 1957 Wolkswagen bug. I love to make parts out of turnned alluminum, make resin parts and make decals also. Lately I have been fabracating more parts for my models. My dad and I have started Micro Nitro Motorsport Models an internet business. We hope to be at a few model shows next year after we move. Joe Littiken

[Howard Cohen]

Joe - I have a good friend in Quincy and he builds model cars and 1:1 hot rods, so there is some life there. His name is Chuck and you will meet him as Quincy is not a big place.

[Marc @ MPC Motorsports]

Now that I've spent all afternoon reading this thread, it's time for me to waste a little bandwidth.

My name is Marc Nellis. I'm 47 years young, been married for 21 years to the same beautiful woman, and I have two wonderful daughters, the oldest is 18 and a freshman in college and a 14 year old freshman in high school. I have a BS in Accounting from the University of Tulsa and have been a licensed Certified Public Accountant for over 20 years. I am currently employed as the Controller for Red Devil, Inc.

I was destined to be a car nut. My Dad was a gearhead when he was young and hid Dad was a auto mechanic. My Grandfather was an early performance guru who told stories about the likes of Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. These two notorious outlaws were customers of my Grandfather, who tuned their cars so they could outrun the authorities. My Parents have always told me that the first words out of my mouth as an infant were "Chevy" and "Ford", not "Mama" and "Dada" LOL!!!

I started building models at the age of six. I was spray painting models by age 8 and was raiding my Mother's sewing basket for thread by the time I was 11. I became a subscriber to Car Model and Model Car Science when I was 9. along with Car Craft magazine. Made my first mail order from Auto World at age 12. I built models until I turned 15 and focused my energies on 1:1 cars, girls, and everything else a teenager in the mid-late 1970's did. Even though I stopped building models, I never stopped thinking about the hobby. Every store I would ever shop at, if they had a toy department, I would go look for the model kits.

As an adult, I've been lucky to have owned a 1969 Firebird and a 1974 Camaro, the latter of which I restored and drove daily for nine years. But once the Camaro was finished in the fall of 1994, the model bug bit me again. My favorite local book and magazine shop carried Scale Auto Enthusiast and Car Modeler and one day, I bought SAE. It was the February 1995 issue. Shortly thereafter, I bought my first new kit, an AMT 1967 Mercury Cyclone. The early years of my adult model building were hit and miss...mostly miss. I did not have a place indoors to build but I had a workbench in my garage. But Oklahoma weather the way it is, it was usually too hot, too cold, too wet, too something to build. That all changed in 2002 when my Wife gave the "OK" to a workbench inside our extra bedroom. That was a major milestone and thus began the "MPC Motorsports" era. Five short years later, MPC Motorsports has taken over the whole bedroom and now features an indoor paint booth.

I like all cars, but my build preference leans toward pro-touring styled muscle cars of the 1960s and 1970s. But I go against the grain of many of my peers by building vintage "metal axle" kits. My collection of unbuilts, builders, and resin kits is somewhere north of 500 and consists almost exclusively of vintage MPC, AMT and reissues thereof. I do have some modern kits that I rob for detail parts. I also hoard Aoshima wheel sets for my future G-Machine projects. I've mastered parts for several resin casters and have dabbled in resin casting myself.

I travel to at least three shows annually, the MCMA Showdown, Heartland Model Car Nationals, and the Lonestar NNL. I have met many model builders in person at shows that I previously only knew online. Many of these builders I consider some of my best friends. My "things to do before I die" list include attending other shows around the USA, including GSL, NNL East, NNL West, Toledo, and whatever the NNL in the South is called.

I also enjoy the various model car forums on the internet, without which my building skills would have never progressed to the level that they are today. The internet has also taken a individual hobby and turned it into a group hobby to be shared with all. Except that I have now used up all the excess bandwidth and nobody will be able to access the world wide web until more bandwidth is released.

[ismaelg]

Hello,

I'm Ismael "the Corvette guy" Gonzalez from Puerto Rico. I'm an electrical engineer and work for Motorola mobile devices (14 years). Married, 2 kids. I've been building models since I was 8. I'm 37 now. My modeling interests are of course Corvettes, Ferraris, modern exotics, sports cars and high performance cars. I'm also an aircraft modeler, mostly helicopters and airliners.

I'm the webmaster of ScaleCorvettes.com and I also have a personal page for my other modeling subjects: My other models

Thanks,

[Jairus]

I‘m a mystery and will never tell…. Quit twisting my arm Gregg!!

[novadose71]

Twist away