Why an “Armor Special"?

I took my first steps in modeling at the tender age of six. I remember when my father bought me a bag with an Airfix kit inside, it was a Sikorsky S-55 chopper. From that moment on, sharing my time with my love for paper models and other games, I met my teens.

Then, I realized that modeling was something more serious, and devoted myself to building nearly all the available Monogram 1/48 aircrafts. Since then, the history has been even rather confused, with in between breaks, and trying several and different subjects, RC aircrafts and 1/8 plastic models shared with no resentment, my hobby… showcase…and wallet.

The 10 years prior to beginning Modeler Site, were devoted with passion to cars and motorcycles, except for the break I took, during 1994, when I decided to build 40 armored vehicles, straight from the box and the way I could….but in the end , I enjoyed them indeed, discovering another unknown face (at least to me) of plastic modeling…and still nowadays, I know quite a little about certain aspects.

I apologize if I bore you telling all this, but was just to use it as support and reference to the concept that gives impetus to the spirit of those who make Modeler Site, PLASTIC MODELING IS ONLY ONE, after all.

Since the very beginning of Modeler Site, I knew it should be devoted to subjects of all kinds, thinking that we shouldn’t be an elite group, speaking a language that only a few people could understand….What would it happen with newcomers? How would they learn if they were able to hear only about those meticulous details? And the basic topics? And the reference articles?

Why focusing all our attention just to a certain kind of subject?, if our own experience in life is different, why to become in gurus?...when modeling has so many different facets, and actually, this is what makes it so appealing…

Many questions, unfortunately, we don’t have all the answers, but we do everything our best criterion and wisdom advises,… a modeling magazine with a longer view, like we’re sure it must be, even more when Internet is plentiful in space….if you pay for it.

Since over one year ago, we’ve been working very hard to have articles on armored vehicles that meet several requirements: to encourage modelers and get them excited about a certain subject, to explain general techniques or the ones developed by the own authors…, showing then, all this information through articles about models, which were built step by step for our magazine.

Many of these notes have more than 3000 words with plenty of pictures (over100), something unusually seen in a paper magazine.

All our articles have been written aiming at sharing our knowledge and not just to flatter our vanity of being modelers or individuals.

We work quietly, perhaps not a lot of people speak about it, and neither do we, because we spend our time in creation, doing the necessary research and above all, supporting and encouraging our contributors.

Nowadays, we can say, with pride, that Modeler Site, have more than 90 articles devoted to military vehicles, and during this month you’ll find four new ones, and many are waiting on our desk to be published on next issues.

While others spend their time speaking about great modeling communities, showing incredible statistics and struggling to seem they are the best just to receive good rewards from advertisers, Modeler Site keep up working, as always, with humility, making a great effort to give you the best from us and from this activity.

This special issue on armored vehicles, is like so many others at Modeler Site, we only wanted to call your attention to say “here we are!!”, working as usual, for the benefit of modeling, without expecting that other people do our work.

It only remains for me to thank Mr. Scott T. Hards, President of HobbyLink Japan, for his unconditional support, and our contributors, because without their commitment and passion, this would not have been possible.