Yes well Shep got me going again on this stuff. I built models since I was about 5 or 6 up till I was “too cool for school” around 15 or so. I found the same pamphlets you referenced in a Monogram kit by Shep and it was BINGO !! I wanna do that! Haven’t stopped since.
Thanks again sir for the very generous comments,
J
Similar story here as well. Probably not an uncommon one across the hobby. As you get older other interests and life in general get in the way. I stopped building but kept collecting (pretty common too) for a “rainy day.” My “forced” time off has led me here to other like minded individuals. I love scratch building. To be more accurate I love seeing others scratch build. I like doing it to but on a smaller scale. I kit bash and scratch build to fill in the gaps or reproduce an offering I made to the carpet monster. Scratch building on a larger scale is expensive. That Evergreen ads up. I also like researching and building some obscure item that would never be made into a kit. I also love finding out later someone is starting to reproduce the very obscure thing I made. I actually don’t like that. Just happened “recently.” I make a 7.5cm ig 37. MSD suddenly produces one but the war ,sadly,has shut them down and now Custom Scale makes a conversion. Of course I have to get each kit to see how I compare.
I also like converting figures. Generally it’s to make them “fit” but even if the figure was a perfect fit ootb I’m still going to change something.
And more than anything I like seeing the fine work that people like you produce. It gives me inspiration and enjoyment.
On a side note did you purposely give that Tommy with the crate those “British” teeth?
Well first off I echo your positions you just wrote. When I had my resin airplane biz it seemed every time I built something new or spent months getting a complete kit ready for production one of the big companies released the same thing ! Killed my sales of course and eventually killed the whole biz. So I returned to building figures and vehicles which is what I like better any way so although the extra cash is now missing at least I have my hobby back.
And,yes, I painted the Tommy ala Austin Powers,heheheheh and I wondered if anybody would pick up on that. Good eye!
And I hope you forced time off is not from injury or illness ?
J
Hey I take offence to that … you Americans with your perfect Californian veneers lol … I love my hideous gnashers lol … 
Well I do strive for accuracy in my scenes ! Heheheh. To be fair, I noticed yesterday that even the new Monarch has kinda wonky gnashers! Nobody is immune it seems.
J
I appreciate the sentiment. Let’s just say I’m now a member of a very large club. A club you don’t want to belong to and one you’re a member of for life wether you’re “active “ or not.
The plus side is I have a lot of free time. The negative is I have very little energy to use all that free time. So I’ve been organizing my kit stash onto shelving in one place so I can see it all and labeling each to denote if it’s a complete kit or if it’s not what’s missing. When that’s done I have another desk in the garage that I’m going to move inside as a painting station. And maybe ,just maybe I can start producing some dio’s and vignettes that I have bouncing around in my head. I have over 50 kits built. A quarter of them conversions and only one has any paint on it and that’s just primer. They are all artillery pieces and a good many of them have crews that I’ve put together. The problem is I have all these ideas of conversions /kit bashed I want to do that as soon as I’m done with one I can’t wait to start the next so I made a million reasons as to why I didn’t paint them. And while I enjoy painting and it doesn’t intimidate me ( I was a graphics art major in college) it’s not as exciting as the research, gathering what I need in pictures,plans,measurements,……etc. and seeing if I can bring that vision I have to life and I have so many ideas in my head. I’m working on a Hungarian anti-tank gun now but I have a list of lesser know German,Romanian, and Italian guns waiting to get out. Guns that I’ve already acquired the research and materials for, just waiting for their time under the knife. I know once I get my painting station just right and sit down and start painting it’ll become an obsession and I’ll be doing that until the “shine” wears off and I move on to basing and making the dio’s I have in mind which in my mind will require another work station. My sons grown and out and there doesn’t look like he and his woman are interested in kids so my den/living room has become mine to do with as I please with the wife’s blessing.
So I watch a lot of YouTube channels on the subjects and read a lot of articles and excellent posts ,like yours, squirreling away information so I’ll have it when I need it.
Sounds like you have made the best of it and have a good plan so we can just sit back and wait for what you have in store for us then,
J
It’s a horrible plan BUT it is a plan.
One of my conversions that is waiting. 12.8cm K81/2 in 1/35. But that’s enough of me hijacking YOUR thread. I’ll take pictures of them all and put them in the “ scratch building thread.”
Wow mate that is some outstanding very clean work right there !
J
Thank you
The Germans attempt to put something in the field to counter the 152 mm Soviet gun. They settled on 12.8 cm because it was already an existing naval caliber so the tooling was there. When I got back in the hobby I became enamored with German /Axis artillery because of the variety. Now since being on this site I’ve become interested in German recon vehicles. God help me out of that rabbit hole. I’ve only ordered a hand full of books and a few kits but I can quit any time. 
https://forums.kitmaker.net/t/scratch-built-conversions/25735/531
Once upon a time I was fascinated by German 105mm guns. I scratchbuilt the last version of one with the spoked wheels and new muzzle break and light version of the carriage and trails.
I also scratched the limber in the LfHbz 18/40 style.
Love it. Now you can pretty much get it in any flavor even 10.5 cm GebH 40.
What caused the fascination?
You wanted a variant that had no available kit? I understand that.
I like that you put a different muzzle break on it and yet still covered it. That’s perfection or OCD …I won’t judge.
A Platoon advances during Operation Epsom in late July’44. You can see parts of 3 sections in wedge formation with the following platoon just getting into view.
I love that photo… I can “see” the grass ripple in the wind.
As to what you’re trying to tell me about the different haubitze variant my brain and eyes are Not picking it up. But don’t tell me I’ll figure it out. Meds I’m on dull my brain and blur my vision (the cruelest trick of all.)
I’ll look at it again in morning when I’m a bit fresher.
On a side note Andy from AHHQ is in Japan and he had a tour of Tamiya and in their museum I saw one of THE Shep Paine dios. I remember from my youth. An airwaffle gun crew manning an 88 ,deployed on it’s cruciform base , firing at a ground target from inside a church. Alter, stained glass…etc.
This “operation” continues to be as inspirational (if not more) as the dioramas of the great modellers of yesteryear that I used to pore over in books in my youth.
That looks really good, a scene a former grunt can relate to. Seeing the eashed out sky, smoke and ripples in the field. Amazing work Jerry
I saw a few of Sheps dios at the Philly figure show. Gundeck of HMS Victory and the turret interior of the USS Monitor. Fabulous.
The last version of the Haubitz had the trails and cradle of the PAK40,the double baffle muzzle break and the steel stamped spoked wheels.
J
Thank you sir. Very generous and kind comments indeed !
J
Thanks buddy. My never ending meager attempt to show the reality of service life. I wish my skills were equal to the task,
J
