How do you get into Modelism ?

Today, I finally publish small interview of several modelists. How do you get into modelism ? 

First I want to thank all peaple who responded to me, and thank you for reading.

EDIT of the 22/12 : Robert while reading this article wrote to thank me and added i didn't write MY story. Yes, I forget ! Please find mine at the end.

Alex Benvenuti.
His blog, very pleasant to read

It all started quite oddly... Dad was in the army so I saw many tanks when I was a kid. I was always playing with my green and brown spastic soldiers shooting them with some socks elastics. Around 12 I spent the holidays to a friend of mine and we each made each other a gift: a Messerschmitt Revell. It was the starting point but the "revelation" came much later. I was 21 when I really got into it. I was in the middle of my teaching studies and built and painted when I could. I became a teacher and had to leave it aside when I started, now I have more time...

I like his two models in particular.

Iain Hamilton.

I am very interested to hearo ther people's story! For me it was 3 fold: 1. Dad was a modeler. 2. The t.v. show " Black Sheep Squadron " was just to much for my brain to handle as a child. 3. The toys of airplanes available when I was a child were simply not cool enough for me....so I painted my own.

Find complete Iain Hamilton step by step on the Weathering Magazine !

Mig Jimenez.

When I was a child, I loved the tanks, trains, cranes, starships...all kind of vehicles and the environments. I grow up in a very humble industrial area in my town, a bit dangerous by the way, and my city was overflowed of political problems and terrorism. Most of Young guys liked to go in these conflictive directions but I preferred stay at home doing something. At the same time, I was a terrible bad soccer player, so, the cool guys don’t allow me to play with them. So, the modeling becomes my escape of that conflictive city. 

With the years I improved my skills, always based in art concepts. I went to the University to study art, design, audiovisuals, sculpture and more and I decided to apply many of these concepts in my modeling. During these years, the main inspiration for my modeling carrier was the art and real things more than other modelers. In 1995 I published my first article in a magazine, almost when I was 22 years old. That changed my entire life, and I become passionate of the articles. I focused my modeling in teach other some modeling techniques. To share my ideas was even better than to make models. During many years I was publishing my models in many magazines, until in 2002 I decided to change my life, leave my job of art director in a Music Record Company and create my first company Mig Productions. 

After 8 years I lose it and then I created AK Interactive. Five years later my friend and partner betrayed me and I lost (again) what I had created with so much effort. Actually I feel happy to manage AMMO and stay making models again, books and magazines and helping other modelers to publish like I made many years ago.

The complete view and effect here in the Weathering Magazine

Jean-Baptiste Grim Morin.

I started building airplanes with my dad at the age of 5 and my first model ever was a Spitfire. He's passionate with military history and he passed the virus onto me. Since then we've been building models together. I took a long break between 13 and 18, painting and playing Games Workshop's strategy games and came back to my dear models later. I discovered the pleasure of airbrush painting, advanced weathering etc... a couple years ago. I started building aircraft again but I soon found out that I preferred painting amor. Now I'm more enthusiastic than ever and I'm collecting all the information I can about how to make the most realistic tanks I can.

Carlos Cuesta.

My origins on modeling are the mix of several factors which working together bring me to our hobby. I played a lot alone in my home due to health problems.  My father was a creative man who painted on canvas and made a lot of other talented jobs and that push me to make the same. Finally I was always interest on military history. So when my big brother bought me a Tamiya zero I felt in love. Soon I begin to ask for my real passion: tanks. But nobody around me made models, so I made them on my own style. Assemble was not a problem, but paint was a bit difficult. I paint it with rest of paints my parents used for doors and furniture. Mixing bright red and green to obtain brown was my first approach to color theory. I am not sure how much paint kilos I wasted learning color theory… without notice! Learn what is a kit, glue plastic and mix paints were my lessons at this stage.

But paint was also a constant frustration for me because I couldn’t obtain the results I had in my head. I had no airbrush or good paints. I hadn’t people round me making models and teaching me. So after years “playing” with models I lost the focus for 4 years during the high school. But kits were always inside me, dreaming but not dead. But then, by accident I found a magazine called Euromodelismo and forums talking about models. Then I discovered I was not alone in the world and that was the final dose to became a total addict. Those medias teached me about new products, paints, techniques and brands and I began to experiment by my own for a period. This was my second leaning.

Once I found new products, magazines and shops, I enter in my local model club and begin to talk with other modelers. Also I visited my first shows. I made a lot of great friends not only for models. On this stage I learn the value of a community, critics, how to handle ego…. It is a big temptation work for months in a kit and lost perspective about the results. Feedback and critics should be the basis for modeling.

Then I bought Mig Jimenez´s FAQ and suddenly I felt somebody was replying all my questions… before I made any question! Luckily that guy lived not far from my home and I could meet him, work for him and finally we became friends. Since then 8 years has gone. Years with a very interesting journey plenty of learns in a lot of different meanings. Now I had less time than ever for plastic…. But I feel the same passion than when I was a sick child mixing paints in my home.


So, in my opinion environment is of critical importance to help us learn, improve and motivate us. It is very important learn and analyze by ourselves, but also listen what others have to say about modeling even if we don’t like it. There is always something to learn and improve. At the end this hobby is constructed on our love to go further and push our own limits.

Robert Deak.

When I was a little boy I built some models mainly from wood. That was the first time I enjoyed the smell of glue. Then a long break…

After a while my hobby was to investigate and enjoy the technical development of tanks from the early times till the end of WW2. It was a straight line to get back again to the modelling and I started to build tanks a couple of years ago.

Jose Ortega.

My passion started by the age of 10 year old, always reading books and real war history. Shepard Pain and Mig Jimenez were my ideal to follow,  buying absolutly each punlication they would do.

Before starting a project, I always have the finish work in my mind. Always trying to obtaine most realistic efects. I usually work on my projects arround 3 to 4 hours per day. Unfortunatly in Ibiza there are NO modeling shops, I have to buy online. I have ended having really good friendship with workors of shops online after so many orders. Expert Aitor Azkue and his wife Ana Hervas that works in Hobby Guinea shop.Have been at the AMT 2014 and that was my first contact with other modelers. Defenetly was my best experience. Now facebook joins us even though upon distance. 

PanzerMarch.

I think I started with this hobby around the age of 5 or 6. My dad had discovered this hobby together with his father and everytime we visited my grand parents all his tanks and infantry was on display in his parents big basement/workshop, so I got very curious at a young age. 

As far as I remember my dad bought me a 1/72 spitfire or something like it as my first kit and I remember it not turning out very good, but it did get my interest peaked even more. So from the age of 6 and forward I've been building and painting model kits together with my dad.

When I got older my little brother and I discovered Games Workshops Warhammer Fantasy and 40K which we really got interested in (and still are just to a lower degree) and we bonded as brothers painting these little figures together and playing the game once in while.

When I joined the army at age 19 I stopped painting and building since there just wasn't any time for it anymore, but I never forgot the awesome moments with my dad and brother so the interest for the hobby never disappeared it just got toned down for a couple of years while I was training and deployed with the Danish Army.

When I got back from deployment and started my bachelor degree my schedule cleared up a bit and once again there was time for painting tanks. However I felt like 1/35 (which was my preferred scale before) just took too much time, but then one day discovered a blog called something like OliveKhakiGrey (Sadly it closed some years ago) and this guy painted WWII tanks and figured in 1/72 and using a very simple painting method he was able to still get some nice results. This was the time when I bought my first 1/72 kit in probably 10 years (It was a Ferdinand from Dragon) and I had a blast painting this tank in a single day.

This was also the time where I started my own blog (www.panzermarch.blogspot.com) and this Ferdinand build was the first post, this is 3 years ago now. 

The next year or so I almost only painted 1/72 German WWII tanks in 1/72 scale and gradually got better and better, but still kept my painting methods very simple and fast.

Probably around a year ago a very good friend of mine introduced me to Flames of War and I was a bit skeptical at first since I thought my 1/72 tanks was small enough, however people like Rubén Torregrosa and Mig Jimenez demonstrated (to an insane degree) that it was possible to create works of art even in 1/100 scale. 

I was sold and have been painting them every since I still do bigger builds and Warhammer etc. but right now my primary hobby is painting 15mm tanks and figures and improving my techniques on every build.

Rick Lawler.
His website is very amazing, his models too.

I remember receiving my first model when I was 5 years old, a race car that I painted silver with a blue stripe down the center. I was bitten by the bug, and over the next years I continued to make models of all types; planes, ships, cars, rockets – anything that caught my eye. About the time I was 15 years old my love of modeling and my interest in history began to come together. Now, historical research became inspiration for models and dioramas. Over the next 20+ years I continued to build models, sometimes more – sometimes less, but I always had something on the bench.

Around 2004 I found a renewed interest in my modeling. The internet allowed me to see the works from modelers from around the world. I was inspired by them to increase my own skills. Finally, in 2006, I traveled to England to attend Euromilitare in order to see the models and meet the people that I had so much influenced me. It was here that I met Mig Jimenez and Adam Wilder who were at the time working with MIG Productions. I began a correspondence with them and in the next year I began working with MIG Productions, establishing MIG USA the distribution for the products in the US and Canada. During this time I also became very involved in building models and writing articles for magazines and have been very fortunate to be published quite often by some of the most popular titles.

Since 2008 I have continued to work with Mig Jimenez, Carlos Cuesta and Iain Hamilton – first with MIG Productions, then AK Interactive, and now with AMMO of Mig Jimenez, where my primary responsibility is Editor of The Weathering Magazine, along with building models and helping to promote the brand.

I  love his panzer III !

Ruben Torregrosa.
I make a translation of one of his best tutorial here.

My father and grandfather are the responsable. 

Unfortunately I didn't know my grandpa because he died when I was 3 months old. However, I collected his legacy. When I was a child and I visited my grandmother's house, I always picked up one of my grandad’s scale models. Tanks, planes, houses…1:72, 1:56, HO, etc…Little by little, beside my brothers, I created a very nice collection! Although I could never talk to my grandad: I would want to say thank you very much for this contribution to my life!

On the other hand, my father impressed the painting in my life. While my grandad loved assembling scale models, my dad also loved painting them. I cannot forget when I was a child and I realised the enamel smell when my father opened a Humbrol jar to paint some 1/72 soldiers. If he didn't give me a brush and some soldiers, I didn't let him to continue painting. I painted Romans, cowboys, WWII Germans…in 1/72 scale and 1:150 tanks in very weird colors. I experimented with these poor guys with very different colors and paints (for instance, I remember a fantastic tritonal M60 tank and how I destroyed it when I applied a varnish…It was so sad!). Learning process!

After several years a friend discovered me the Warhammer world, and I collected some WH40k and WHFB armies for several years. Althougt I was also interested in painting, my priority was to play games with my friends.  However, I gave up these fantasy world after several years. Indeed, I was more interested in painting at that time, and I just discovered a new game: Flames of War. History and wargames, that was the perfect combination for me! At the begining I started painting my vehicles with a brush, but then I found my father’s very old airbrush. And a new world opened to me! During next years I was “destroying” hundred of tanks just for fun. But  I collected an important background and little by little I was improving my skills. I also found the inspiration in great artists such as Mig Jimenez, and a good friend (Jose Luis “Porta”) introduced me the “weathering” concept.  
Now, seven years later, I almost don’t play at all. The painting has occupied the most part of my free time and I’m glad to see that the hobby has significantly increased worldwide.  It’s very nice when you can share your hobby with so many fantastic people! 

Recently, Ruben have published a fantastic book. 

This is the T34 which bring me back in modelism !

Guillaume (Me !?)

When I was young, I don't know why, the military subject has always been a big interest. Yes I was playing football, car video-games, look already to the girl and...all that a guy of 8-16 years old use to do. But military history took a great place in my hobby. I started by building Heller 1/72 planes, most of the time alone but my two cousins had this occupation too. If my memory is correct, the first I built was a Hurricane mk1. After lot of planes with 3tons of glue and painting (on each model) I go to Armors and especially when i found a magazine SteelMaster. I still have this one and i swear i read it more than it can be read ! Of course I shared this discover with my cousin Veccio (his secret-agent name for the Web), he bougth another and even, he suscribed during 2 years ? Maybe. While, we meet a modelism club near our town that permited to dive into this world. The club was very dynamic and the members bring us in many conventions. We were 16 years old, no cars, not much money but we were moving step by step thank's to the advise of the adults, very kind people. I may to mention that I lived in north of france, very near to belgium and this is a chance beacause modelism in belgium was very dynamic, lot of club and convention.

College, less-time, other occupations. Definitively, modelism was over for us. I can remember the afternoon in the living room of Veccio, watching Saving Private Ryan while sticking and painting Hetzer and Elephant... Sorry, my nostalgia invade me.

I'm almost 28, and only recently i back to this hobby. Because since two years, i discover wargame. WW2 wargame first, off course. But i'm also interest by other period. One day, i really wanted to have a good painting for my T34 (1/100 of PSC). Unfortunately or fortunately, my search come to the blog of Heresy Brush... Yes, the begining of spending time and dream : i want an airbrush !

We can say everything on the Big Devil Facebook and social network eating our time and private life, but thank's to this media, i could talking with many modelist. For exemple, Mig Jimenez. I read his articles and saw his models in magazines, but now big artists like him are easy to reach and very nice, always ready to help me. Maybe it's the reason why i'm so focused on "people in the hobby", everyday life is very individual and when we look in our hobby world, i see many people who encouraging and help other, many photos of people together. Did i told you that I'm a romantic ? :D

Here somes pictures of my tiny tanks for wargame, it's not in the level of pictures of the other in this article but i try to improve ! Soon i will work on a Zis-5 in 1/72, bought specially to applicate Weathering Technics.