Greetings

Hello, I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself as I am very new to both this forum and to the idea of modeling in general. My name is Jeff and I live in Cedar Rapids, IA. At this moment I have never built a scale model diorama but was recently inspired to begin looking into this (hobby, pastime, addiction???) when I attended a lumberjack competition in Clinton, IA. The competition was being hosted by the sawmill museum there and near the beginning of the day I wandered in to take a look at the exhibits. Just past the entrance, surrounded by a Plexiglas barrier, sat the most amazing model of a sawmill. I walked around it, continually finding more and more details that brought this tiny building and all of its surroundings to life. Roughly an hour later, I walked back outside and returned to the viewing the competition, but my mind was still fascinated by the idea of how much time, effort, and attention to detail that it must have required to create such a thing. The display in the museum had only one piece of identification on it. It said "Fine Scale Model Expo 2012 Best in Show". A simple Google search led me to this forum and a post congratulating Bill on his award. I have spent the past couple of weeks reading posts here, following Bill's Quincy Salvage build and Paul's Shipyard Build postings, and finding myself more enraptured by the idea of creating these little worlds. I am still researching and contemplating how to begin but I wanted to thank you all for the inspiration and thank you all in advance for the answers to the countless questions I will have in the future.

Jeff