Mum and Dad bought me a box of Aifix Cowboys in the mid 70's.

I won't be terribly original here, but the Airfix plastic figures did it for me as well. Along with their Atlantic colleagues : I have fond memories of the ancient Egyptian and Greek series and the big boxed sets - the Trojan horse, the Greek galleys and the mammoth Roman Coliseum among others. Those plus the Funcken books on the arms and uniforms of just about everybody throughout the history of mankind.

Should I be ashamed that I Was in my late 20's when I bought my first airfix product?!

for some strange reason always had an interest in things military got some airfix figs one xmas ( remember lying in bed on xmas eve pretending to be asleep when my dad or father christmas brought in about 8 boxes of figs) I recall the yellow Napoleonic Highlaners that eventually got a blue kilt painted on them but just about bugger all else and some French Cuirassiers. Later as a final year student 1982 picked up a copy of MW in Smiths and was hooked. A few weeks later my wife went to London to visit a friend and called into Bill Brewers shop in Pekham and asked for some Naps - didn't know what just a few packets she left up to him and came back with some French and Brits. Later got Bruce Quarries Napoleon's Camppaigns in Miniature and now some 9,000 Naps later here we are :clap: :clap: :clap:

What got me started? A combination I'd say of some Timpo, Airfix and Britains toy soldiers given to me, some Britains rail fencing (which I used as a barbed wire belt when it was laid flat on the ground), a fort made for me by my dad, the Crossbows and Catapults game and then the Hamlyn book "Wargames" by David Nash. Somewhere in there too is borrowing a book on twentieth century wargaming from the library though I can't remember the exact title. Oh and Prince August moulds from the local Toymaster coupled with a visit to an early Colours show helped move forward into metal and precast figures.

Like wooly and I guess most of us I too always had an interest in military history. I think it began with mom getting me booklets in English in an effort to teach me English herself before I even got a proper teacher. These were small books for kids ( most published by a company called Ladybell I think or Penguin) and they were filled with beautiful illustrations and of course simple text. Mom knew of my fascination for history (she shares it) and the vast majority were on historical subjects. I still have a lovely one on Trafalgar and another on Napoleon. Growing up I had the immense luck to find an Irish lady who taught me English from the age of 8 to the age of 15. She eventually gave me every book in her library to read and she had lots with a historical context too. In all that time I was buying the only toy soldiers I could find here which were plastic 54mm figures, set in the WW2. I remember spending hours in my granny's terrace setting them up etc. A breakthrough came when coming back from shopping with grandma we passed by the local toy store. I guess she responded to my plaintive look 'cause we went in and there I saw the most brilliant sight I had ever seen. A huge box with British soldiers fighting the Zulus on the cover!!!(I had seen Zulu of course! lol). It was an ESCI box with 1:72 minis which ALSO had terrain in it!!!! A vacuformed piece of terrain depicting Isandlwana. That truly hooked me to toy soldiers. It was the smaller size of minis that I loved I think. I went from a kid like all other kids who play with toy soldiers to an addict! After that I also got the ESCI box with the Romans fighting the barbarians. That had an even cooler piece of terrain with the Romans defending a piece of low wall. Divine stuff! My interest waned as I grew up and discovered basketball then girls (in that order). I always kept my minis though and did on occassion take out to fondle (yes even as a teenager! lol) At 19 I left home for the UK to study at uni. Stayed for 5 years. It was during that time that I found out that there was an actual hobby revolving around miniatures, that there were metal minis, actual rules etc. A critical role was played by the Spanner and Yank website ran by Mike and my beloved Dal which showed me the AB minis. That was it. I was hooked for life. The rest is history as they say :-)

Always fascinated by Military when I was younger, Movies, Books, etc. My Grandad used to give me lots of his books, mostly Naval and Arial Warfare - but he used to take me to airshows and museams etc - at one I picked up an Airfix Churchil Tank and my love affair with models and miniatures started. Year later I found Donald Featherstones 'Battles with Model Soldiers' I think I probaly read it 25 times at least.

My Mum and Dad instilled an interest in military history long ago. Had loads of Timpo and Britains plastic knights, and of course it was inevitable that they gave me a bunch of boxes of the Airfix Napoleonics. The first ones I bought myself with my own pocket money, though, was the WW1 Royal Horse Artillery set which I still have somewhere (along with those knights and a castle to go with them!) As far as actual wargaming goes, it was probably this book; Along with Featherstone's Battles with Model Soldiers and Wargaming the Ancient and Medieval Periods.

I've played with and painted plastic and lead figures since I can remember. I had a decent number of Airfix Naps and WW2, and then ancient Greeks and Egyptians by some other manufacturer. I was heavily into fantasy gaming with my school chums by age 12, and that ran concurrently with "wargaming" until I went to university. But there were 3 events that made me realise what wargaming proper was about, all of which happened when I was 12/13. First, I had a long chat about it with Paddy Griffith (who is my brother's godfather) one Sunday afternoon; he devised a game with my plastic ancients ans gave me a copy of a book of strategy games he had just published. Secondly, I found a copy of Miniatures Wargames No. 11 in WH Smiths and discovered wargaming with lead figures in different scales. Third, I acquired a copy of Bruce Quarrie's "Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature" which was advertised in that issue of MW; I think it had just been published in paperback. Shortly thereafter the Battle Honours 15mm Nap range first came out and I spent the next 5-7 years collecting Naps and also became interested in the Colonial 25mm figures that the Perries were producing for Foundry. I lapsed a bit at university, but kept collecting and painting (always on Friday afternoons, in between my last tutorial of the week and getting hammered in the college bar). I then "collected" and "painted" all kinds of things, until about 2002 when I discovered the "General de Brigade" forum and started actively participating in games. I've always regarded myself as a "wargamer", because that was always the end to which my "collecting" and "painting" was striving towards. But in terms of actual "gaming", I suppose I am a relatively new participant.

I guess I went down the same route as most people Airfix models/playing with soldiers, reading Battle, Warlord and Victor comics, Commando weekly etc However, the moment I progressed to 'wargaming proper' is still fresh in my memory. I was about nine of ten years of age. It was the BBC TV series in the mid 1970's, 'Modelworld'. I'm sure many people here remember the series. One episode featured wargaming and from what I can remember a particular game set in the AWI with a young Arthur Harman I believe. After that I wrote my first set of rules and my best mate and I played our first wargame (with dice!) two days later. Apart from a gaming blip when I was at Uni I haven't looked back since. Now looking forward to passing the gaming torch to my new son in a few years, I hope.

Due to contact with veterans of WWII and other wars(Stepdad & his father, mum and a lot of Polish allied soldiers that I delivered papers/ran errands for) had a love of history and huge collection of Airfix figs and tanks. Wargaming proper came about when my older sister married a guy who wargamed and gave me an introductory game. Immediately went out to the library and borrowed as many wargaming books as I could and read them avidly.That was about 1976 I think.

I've always had an interest in history & modelling & in childhood it was toy soldiers on the floor - Airfix, Timpo, Britains etc'. Probably the first quasi historical games were between the Airfix French Foreign Legion & Arabs on a brown sheet over books on the floor, at about the age of 8 circa 1973. (I had the boxed 'Fort Sahara' set). Then my mother got me a copy of John Tunstills book (different cover to Stavkas) & I've had an interest ever since, although with varied degrees of activity.

Fort Sahara played a big part for me - being the centre of multiple battles in the back garden involving a mish mash of airfix napoleonics, acw, foreign legion, awi and cowboys (all at the same time) using a set of rules that my dad wrote (no idea what made him do that since he has no interest in gaming) Got into boardgames after being bought a book as a present that had a number of games in it (from memory pacific war, battle of britain, d-day and eastern front i think) Started playing proper games after a friend at school introduced me to Middlesbrough wargames club - my first proper game there being a 1/72 ww2 battle hosted by a lad with seemingly hundreds of tigers (he played germans of course)

Lots of airfix troops. Military Modelling had a wargaming section. Either Bruce Quarries Airfix WW2 rules or a booklet about wargaming which was in a series about mainly sports and chess if I recall. The series was called Play the Game. Soon after it was Featherstone books etc