I live in Ixonia, Wisconsin. I have 2 dogs, a black and a yellow lab. My daughter Katelyn is also a modeler - prolific too!

I started building models when I was kid, like everyone else. Even when I was 6 and 7 years old, I jumped around from aircraft to armor to ships, even a few cars. I started to build "serious" models (filling seams, painting, etc.) when I was 13 or 14. I've been building ever since.

 After moving to New Jersey in 1992 I caught a public access program called "Wings Over NJ", and they were looking for interesting aviation stories. Since I had more than 500 1/72 models built by that time, I gave them a call and appeared on several episodes, talking up modeling and the history that ties it all together. I think we had an audience of about 45 people... The host of the show was also a board member of the NJ Aviation Hall of Fame, and eventually I became the director of the museum in 1996. I remained at the museum as Director until 2004, when I was lured away to Wisconsin by an editorial opportunity at FineScale Modeler. I worked for them for a total of 18 months before leaving. A few months later, I decided to start my own modeling magazine. MODELx was officially born at the 2006 Nationals in KC (thanks fellas!!), and the 2007 Nats will mark the one-year birthday of the magazine, complete with the official unveiling of the 1st issue.

 Despite an aviation background, I consider myself a ship modeler. I still love aircraft and still build them when the mood hits, but during my museum tenure, working on and being around 1:1 vintage aircraft made me lose much of my enthusiasm for aircraft modeling, so I moved into ships.

 I joined IPMS in 1990-something at the behest of some "Joisey boyz", Bob Hester, Bob Lapadura, and Martin Quinn. I became active in NJIPMS and most folks from Region 1 and 2 will recognize my ugly mug. Living in Wisconsin makes the NJ commute rough, so I'm passively involved in the IPMS Bong Chapter (Milwaukee) and IPMS Mad City (Madison).