Only new in a certain sense. I am in my forties . Since early teens I have had a keen interest in affairs military and historical - with emphasis on WW2. I also have a passion for cars, and waste (?) a lot of time and money keeping old Citroens going - something I picked up (like a disease) when I lived in France. I an now living back in the UK and getting on with life - I design and write illustrated books for the 6-16 age range, so my work is quite varied. So why wait until now to join a Forum? Well, I've never considered it before - being firmly entrenched in a specialist car forum or two, I must've been a little blinkered! What are my main areas of interest in WW2? • The Machinery/technology, particularly AFVs and aircraft, • The air campaign over Germany, • The Eastern Front, • The 'home fronts' and lives of ordinary people in occupied territories, • The later Pacific campaigns, • 'Secret' strategies, missions and weapons... Obviously it's not an exclusive list, there are other things outside those broad areas that interest me, such as U-Boat operations, but essentially if I have to categorise my key interests, that's them. I will spend some time going through previous threads and getting a 'feel' for the Forum, but it does look like a place I will get something from - and I hope I too can bring something to the party. I have, on many occasions, participated in the design of 'Military subject' books (RAF, US Civil War, Submarines, Special Forces etc...) , but these days I don't get involved. What disappointed me then and even more so now is the awful quality of so much of the editorial in 'big' miliary books. Some books - I have a hilarious one on Wittman translated from the German (?) - are truly bad. The standard of captioning is often laughable and the factual content is flawed... Case in point would be the atrociously designed, written, edited (and so on) Janes series (Harper Collins) that includes such tiles as 'Battles with the Luftwaffe'. But before I ask 'what are your top five WORST and top five BEST WW2 illustrated books?' -I'll spend some time on the threads - and who know's someone else might have got there before me
A warm welcome on this forum. Feel free to post some of your works on this forum. I am particulary involved in the design of aircraft Artwork as some of the work I gather on this forum ends up in a drawing designed by one of my friends . He uses illustrator and some of his art can be seen here on my signature, and on that of Alex Campbell (his Lancaster)
G'day mate and welcome from down under I have to say, a most impressive first post and 'new member' post, I hope there are more like it. We have here some very imformative people about all areas of ww2 some in the publications of ww2 area, so I am sure you will find someone to chat with.
Welcome ArmchairGeneral! Good to have you here! Don´t worry about the "lost years" not having been here. We still got time to get things right! Just watch out you might get hooked on this Forum...
Hope you enjoy it here, sounds like you have alot to bring to the table and we will enjoy your posts.
indeed Welcome. I'm happy to read "The 'home fronts' and lives of ordinary people in occupied territories" let us not forget them,shall we. Friendly Belgium Greetings Arneken
hey ya A. Chair I think your question at the bottom of your post has been answered some time ago in the books forum via the Archiv's ~ check it out Gruß E ~
Well, thanks for the warm welcome! A truly global community. I did ask a question here, but it's probably not the place. I'll have a good root around in the forum archives first...
welcome, I am sure you will like it here. Also nice name I subscribe to armchairgeneral magazine aswell.
Welcome, Armchair General. As mentioned, great introductory post. I look forward to discussions as I am currently writing and illustrating a book on my parents begining with their lives in the Second World War. See the sticky sharing documents. You will enjoy the Forum.