I have been modeling for 42+ years, since I was 5 years old. Of course I had a little help from my dad in the beginning. I joined TCAH in February of 1972. I was the youngest member at the time and found out about the club through a local hobby shop in Bloomington called Hobby Hut, run by one of the club members at the time. The first model I recall building was an Airfix DO-217. It was molded in silver plastic and I remember painting the drop tanks, tail-cone and other areas in dark blue paint. As a youngster I always was drawn to the Airfix kits because of the cool box art they had at the time. The last model I built is a Hasegawa BF-109G-10 in 1/48th. Nothing special about the model other than it is 109 #59 in the collection as of 2/1/03. As to the theme of my collection, one thing is constant and that is the fact that 95% of the models I now build are of WWII in subject. Mostly fighter aircraft (take up less room!) with a large section of those models being Luftwaffe. My favorite aircraft is the BF-109. My moniker 'Mr. 109' was giving to me by the club due to the many ME-109 models I have built over the years. Since 1979 I have built 59 1/48th scale 109's. Why is it my favorite airplane? Well, my favorite variant of the 109 is the E-4 as used in the Battle of Britain and those aircraft were colorfully painted compared to the Allied aircraft. The same holds true as the war progressed. Many of the Luftwaffe fighters were more 'interesting' in regards to paint schemes than the Allied counterparts. As to my favorite kit I have built, well there have been many over the years but the most recent was the 1/32nd scale ME-109G-6 by Hasegawa. That was the most fun I have had building a model in a long time. Partly due to the scale and ease of assembly. It was just a refreshing change of pace. As to the number of kits I have built, that would be impossible to even guess at. In the words of the late Carl Sagan......'Billions and Billions....." I have around 50 unbuilt kits. I have some collectible/nostalgia kits that I do not plan on building but those number less than 20. I consider myself an all around modeler. I have built many different subjects. From the Aurora Movie Monsters to Formula One Racing Cars. As kids I think we tend to build whatever sparks our interest, whether its because of neat box art or the latest monster movie we saw on TV. As adults, I think we tend to settle on something that makes us comfortable. My other hobbies involve the shooting and history of firearms, the Old West, Formula One Racing, Books, collecting fighting knives amongst other things.