Greetings from Belgium

johanvanacker

Active Member
Hi all,

First of all, best wishes for the new year !
I'm Johan and I got directed to this forum during my search for papercraft examples.
As a teenager, I build a lot of plastic model kits. I stopped when I started working, married, got kids etc. About half a year ago, I got interested in papercraft after I saw pictures in an online magazine. I already build a few free models, mainly robots and one computer game character.
For now, I'm not interested in designing any models, but I love building them. I'm still learning and hope to improve my skills by learning some tricks on this forum.

Regards,
Johan
 

silveroxide

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. I believe that you will enjoy the forum extensively here. There are many models to choose from and be sure to read the rules, and the policy for the free downloads section. While awaiting to be approved for the free downloads, there are many threads here that have direct downloads and links to free paper models. Choose your genre, start building and pleas post some photos of your works here.

As for your modeling background, many of us here started with plastic models and graduated to paper. There are a few of us here who still use that medium to help enhance the paper models.. The name of the game here, is to enjoy yourself. Again, welcome aboard and see you around the forum.
 
Z

Zathros

Please, post some of your builds. We would love to see them. I have been to Belgium. A beautiful country! :)
 

johanvanacker

Active Member
Actually I've never taken pictures of my builds. Something to do over the weekend I guess ...

@Zathros: Thank you for your kind words of my country. I love living there :)
 

silveroxide

Senior Member
My first visit to Belgium was back in 1973, and I visited the famous battle sites of Bastogne Malmedy and Waterloo. Waterloo was unique, in that when I asked for directions to Waterloo, the Belges did not recognized as such but I believe they called it Shal-aqua (Dirty water?) My French was much better then and I took the Commando Course with the 3rd Commandos, which the school had the crest of the Who Dares Wins. The Unit I trained with had as its crest a Knights helm with crossed chained braces. We actually were billeted in a Castle near a river (The Rhine I believe.) We went to the channel and there were many areas still off limits, because there was still munitions washing up on shore. One of the best things I loved about Belgium, was that the people were some of the most friendliest on the European continent. Good memories of my visit there. Encore une fois, bienvenue à bord.
 

johanvanacker

Active Member
1973 is a long time ago, even before I was born.
I never served in the Belgian army, since they abolished general military service 2 years before my 18th birthday. On one hand, I regret not having to this, since a lot of people including my father have good memories about their 1 year service. On the other hand, it is a year of your life wasted ...

The river Rhine doesn't pass through Belgium, so you were either stationed in Germany, or it was another river.

What most people outside Belgium don't know is that the majority (including me) speaks Dutch and not French. I do speak and understand French, but language is a bit a sensitive issue in Belgium as you may have heard: the last government negotations took more then one year due to huge differences between the Dutch and French speaking part of Belgium. But that is a story too long to explain here ...
 

silveroxide

Senior Member
As for languages, a most interesting thing happened on the second day that we were there. The other interpreter and myself were in formation and the formation commands were given. The other interpreter and myself looked at each other and were very puzzled as to what the heck was going on. The Belgians kind of looked very amused at our discomfort, That is how we found out, that the language is French, but the commands were given in Dutch (-Flemish). As to the river, I cannot remember which one it was but the training ground was close to the Channel. Memory does have a tendency to fade but it was a good time. There are a few more stories but the friendship was enjoyed by all.
 
Z

Zathros

I think you have some nice looking models there. They show you have the skill to make whatever you may wish. Next time, put a link to our gallery location, it helps out a lot. Nice workmanship! :)
 
Z

Zathros

You didn't delete it, new members posts get flagged it they post a lot of pictures. That will not last long. If you ever make a post and it does not show, send me a link to the page, and I will approve it. I have merged the two posts. :)
 

johanvanacker

Active Member
You didn't delete it, new members posts get flagged it they post a lot of pictures. That will not last long. If you ever make a post and it does not show, send me a link to the page, and I will approve it. I have merged the two posts. :)

Ok, now it all makes more sense. I thought I had done something wrong after I linked the photos to the thread.

I started first with the robots, since they are easy to make as they consist mainly of boxes that need to be glued together. I did the pixie figure last as a challenge since I consider it more difficult to make. I'm now searching for a new figurine to start a new build.
 

RonaldoM

Designer Extroadinaire
hello johanvanacker, if you like to create on paper, you'll probably find it more interesting than the plastic kit because you can create freely. This is unsurpassable!
 
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