Blast From The Past,,,

bruceuncle

bruceuncle
Hi everybody, I'm Steve (I'll explain "bruceuncle" in a minute) from a city called Goulburn in New South Wales, Australia. I was a member of this forum back in 2008, when I had just discovered card modelling. Started with some simple models from the Canon site (yes, I'd just got my first colour printer) and had also made a Fiddlers Green GeeBee. It looked so good (not that the Canon stuff wasn't fun) and it got me hooked on card 'planes. I was all ready to get into a Fokker E-III build but life (well work and a mortgage) got very much in the way :headbange:. At that time we lived on the coast around 80km south of Sydney. I was an analyst programmer in my professional life, specialising in database architectures and interfaces. Freelancing at the time and working far too hard. A few years later, we moved inland to Goulburn, which is around 200km southwest of Sydney and around 700m above sea level. This gives us a quieter life (pop. 25,000 compared to 400,000) and a less humid climate. The coast is getting unbearable in summer now as the changes in climate have meant higher temperatures, higher humidity, and persistent thunderstorms in the summer So we now dodge the unbearable humidity at the cost of freezing cold winters (yes it does snow in Australia!) and frying hot summers. But that drop in humidity has made all the difference. And more and more people were pouring into the NSW coastal strip every year. Too crowded by far. And all those day-trippers from Sydney each weekend. Too much!

My forum name "bruceuncle" is courtesy of my niece and nephew in the UK. When they were growing up, they were mad keen Monty Python's Flying Circus fans. So when they learnt I had an Aussie girlfriend, and we were going to Australia to get married, they always called us Uncle Bruce and Aunty Sheila. So bruceuncle was a natural for a forum ID. This probably means nothing to anyone who wasn't a fan...

Anyway, years rolled by and just lately I came across some old prints of models I had not even started back in 2008 thru 2010. So here I am again and it looks like the Fokker E-III is up for a build after all.

I'm retired now so have a bit more time to get involved (in theory at least). Other interests over the years have been (and still are):
  • Lego Technics and Mindstorms - started way back in 1979 not long after Technics was introduced. Progressed through the Cybermaster, Scout, RCX, then a long break due to work again, and now the Robotics, Spike Prime and Powered Up hubs.
  • Just about anything to do with computers. Lately, a lot of retro work on the Commodore Amiga and the AMOS language.
  • I play Tenor Recorder in a small Ensemble with my wife and her piano teacher and some others.
  • Very recently I've been making some of the UGears wooden models - which provides a little support for Ukraine as they're manufactured in Kyiv.
Back to today. When I first became a card plane addict, I downloaded and archived a lot of stuff. Including some build threads from this forum relating to some free download models. I had many of the sites from back then bookmarked and subscribed to a few. Sadly, most have disappeared now, so I'm grateful that I archived so much info. My design project back then was the Sopwith Schneider Trophy in 1:33. The build project was the aforementioned Fokker. I'll certainly start the Fokker but suspect I'll chicken out of the design project.

The set of card plane models that I downloaded back then came out of some threads on this forum. They were professional quality and have now disappeared completely from the web along with the site (as have so many others). The Fokker is one of these. So I will be posting these back into the community over the next few days in the Resources section. The moderators had to grant permission for this as there are some things to consider in this situation. Firstly, were they genuine free resources? Yes they were, so that's okay. The original publisher was very friendly to hobbyists and it seems likely that these were just poor sellers with a couple slightly flawed - but you'll find more info on that in the Resources posts. Secondly, the original site's URL is visible and these days leads to a domain taken over by a reseller complete with a malware trap with intrusion threats. And finally, archived build threads from this forum that I'll also be uploading, relating to a couple of the models, are also littered with links that are now either just broken or sometimes lead to hacked sites that have taken over the domains and pose severe security risks. Not a good scenario! These last two mean that all the related documents will be uploaded in PDF format with all the links disabled. But they will still appear as text. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO COPY AND TRY TO FOLLOW ANY OF THESE! And similar warnings will be in all the uploads. Actually removing them all would be an horrendous task, so that's the best I can do. You have (and will be) warned!

That's me :cool:. So 'bye for now and see you in the Resources section "real soon now".
 

Rhaven Blaack

!!!THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Hello Steve,

Please let me be the first one to welcome you back to Zealot! I am glad to see that you rejoined the forum! As you have seen, things have changed quite a bit over the years. You have come to the right place for all things model building as a whole, and to build and hone your skills. We have many designers here (of varying skill levels) that are willing (and able) to help you. The members here are very helpful.

I am glad that you were able to archive many of the older models. Archiving model templates is one of the things that we have worked on (especially from sites that are no longer available). We (now) host model templates that are no longer available anywhere else. So, thank you for doing this!

When you start a new project, I would like to invite you to post a build thread. Build threads are a great way of show off your work and skills. Not only that, but if you run into an issue with a model you can highlight the area that you are having problems with and we can offer you some suggestions on how to deal with them.

So, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, need help or advice. Please feel free to ask and we will do what we can to help you (or at least point you in the right direction).

Once again, welcome aboard. I hope that you enjoy yourself here. I look forward to seeing your work.
 

mijob

Tie designer
Staff member
Moderator
Welcome back here Steve and thank you for youri ntroduction. Looking forward to see your building thread. Have fun with us.
 

micahrogers

Moderator "Where am I, and how did I get here?"
Staff member
Moderator
Welcome back to the "Alive again" crowd, And thank you for the detailed introduction post.
I'm one of the resident "Experts" here, and These folk's do stuff with paper that I can only dream of. Please feel free to contact any of our top notch staff if you have any questions.
 

Revell-Fan

Co-Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Hello Steve,

I am sorry for being so late to the party, but I too wish you a great time here at the forum.

Welcome and have fun and enjoy! :)

Marcell
 

zathros

*****SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR*****
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Great to have you back. Many have archived models. If you're looking for something specific, just ask, someone may have it. ;)
 
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