Heiner was born in 1944 in former Pommerania. As a young schoolboy his first contact with modelling in the early fifties was a Wilhelmshavener Modellbaubogen with a Torpedo boat, which had to be cut out, folded and glued. With increasing skills the ships became bigger and bigger and at least one of the big battleships were on the table, soon to be followed by his first plastic model which was from Airfix the Santa Maria, flagship of Christoph Columbus, shortly followed by the Arizona from Revell. One of the Airfix kits at that time was the 8-ton halftrack with the famous 88 mm Flak, which attracted him more than ships and planes, because he saw the first Bundeswehr vehicles in reality training in front of his grandparent’s house.

Then another period began: music from Chris Barber & Ken Colyer, later from the Beatles & Rolling Stones and many famous bands. Trying to imitate Monty Sunshine on the clarinet was the climax of his career as a hobby musician.

It was in the last year on university that he saw after many years of absence from the hobby a Sturmgeschütz III from Otaki in 1:35 scale and that was the start of his second modelling career. Many models of the German Army period between 1930-1945 followed in this interesting scale and when all were built in the late seventieth and no new kits came on the market anymore from Tamyia and Italeri, he enjoyed Bandai’s growing range of 1:48 kits.

Reading modelling magazines brought him in contact with Tony Greenland, who was a frequent author in Military Modelling Magazine and he admired Tony’s perfect models. Since that time inspired by Tony and other fellow modellers he began to superdetail his models. With only little reference material on hand he began with Tony to visit public and private collections of German WWII armoured vehicles, taking photos and measurements.

On one of these trips to the famous collections of Aberdeen and Fort Knox both had born the idea to share their growing photo collection with their fellow modellers and Nuts & Bolts was founded after a bottle of fine Jack Daniels was emptied on a rainy night in a lousy Motel in Kentucky. Some months later Vol. 01 on the Jagdtiger came on the market.

Motivated by the success both published the next volumes, but it was not possible to carry on with this amount of work. With new authors the concept of Nuts & Bolts changed from a sheer photo collection to a journal, which covers technical, historical and modelling background.

His input in Nuts & Bolts Journal is very parallel to his job in real life, where re runs his own company: Planning and surveiling a new project from the idea to selling the books. Beside that he is researching on his most favourite subject: Reconnaissance vehicles of the Wehrmacht.

As a child I used to make the old Airfix 1/72 scale model tanks, however even at this very early age (under 10) I only made numerous Tigers and Panthers! These were inevitably destroyed in “battles” fought in my front garden! It was not until my early thirties that this interest in modelling German Armour of WWII was re-kindled. An interest (or obsession?) that remains to this day! In this period with my two Nuts & Bolts colleagues we have travelled most of Europe and North America collecting information and photographs. We probably collected back in the mid-nineties more photos of Museum or privately collected German vehicles than any individual or group. From this collection, we super-detailed the rather poor quality of plastic kits (by today’s standards) originating largely in the 1970s. From this mania to improve the standard kits was born the concept of Nuts & Bolts.

From those who have supported us with the purchase of all volumes they will recognise the transformation of the journal. From literally a few pages of captioned museum photos to todays standards has been a remarkable journey, ably supported by such regular contributors as John Rue, Martin Block, Nicolas Hettler, John Nelson, Volker Andorfer, Karlheinz Münch and many others. Our special thanks must go to all theses persons, and those not listed for the continuing success of Nuts & Bolts. My own speciality of modelling continues to provide me with my evenings entertainment, even if those parts of my body (eyes, hands, motivation) that served me so well for the past thirty years are showing signs of accelerated decline! For the modeller can it get better than now? The Chinese manufacturers have provided us with an un-dreamed of selection of top quality German models to make, with a standard that we could only have dreamed of a decade ago.

It was always my belief that a model built with the best reference available at that time would always give greater satisfaction than straight out of the box with a misplaced reliance on the manufacturer’s ability to collect, assimilate and produce an accurate model including correct camouflage, details and history. We hope that our journals enables the historian, modeller and those interested in the technical information to fulfil their quest for accurate knowledge on any aspect of specific German Vehicles of WWII.

Tony Greenland, June 2010

Born in 1971 and since 2000 part of Nuts & Bolts Detlev Terlisten is the younster in the team. The first six years of his live he leaved in Wildflecken, formerly one of the greatest military basis of the US Army in Germany, and obviously it had a great influence on him to see US tanks driving through the village every day. At the age of twelve he started with modelling, building aircrafts at first. His first kit was a ME 109 Ausf. E from Airfix in 1/72 scale. But quickly he switched to building military vehicles, first with Roco tanks in 1/87, then for a short time models at 1/72 and 1/76, and finally models at 1/35 scale. His main interest are vehicles of the German army from 1930 - 1945 with a special interest in armoured halftracks and anti-aircraft. Another special interest are field conversions and other oddballs.

Within the Nuts & Bolts team he is mainly responsible for technical things like photo preparation, translations and things like that.

In business live he works as civil servant in a small county in Northrhine-Westfalia.

Born in May 1964, living in Landshut, Bavaria, Germany.

I began modelling as an 8 years old boy, collecting aircraft models of the German Luftwaffe in scale 1/72 as well as military vehicles in scale 1/87. In the 1970s this was a common hobby among young boys.

At the age of 20/21, I switched my interest to the scale 1/35 and my first real kit was a Tamiya Horch 1a with a 2 cm Flak. Since that time I stick to this scale. Mainly I'm building vehicles of the former German Wehrmacht, but also of the French Army of 1939/1940 and since recent time I also have a grown interest in the Hungarian army until 1945.

My main interest is the technique of those old vehicle but also the often outer appearance of the different tanks, half tracks and so on, but also field conversions as one can find them on old archive or privately owned photos.

I especially like to build models of the cottage industry which require a certain amount of modelling experience, improvisation and also creative capabilities.

For me this hobby is a very nice balance for my job as a clerk in social insurance.

Born 1956 in Burg Stargard, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, I'm living since 1958 in Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In my daily job I'm working as an IT technician for a local publishing company. Already very early in my live I became interested in military technology, mainly tanks and aircrafts. In 2001 my first book "Der Panzerkampfwagen 35(t)" was published by Motorbuch Verlag. Via Detlev Terlisten I met Heiner Duske who encouraged me to support Nuts & Bolts. Since 2008 I'm the layouter of this series. As I have specialised in the Pz.Kpfw. II, I prepared in 2009 the Nuts & Bolts Vol. 24 "Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. D/E and variants", Vol. 28 "Maultiere", Vol. 30 "Nebel-, Panzer- und Vielfachwerfer" and more to come in the future.

Editor: For Nuts & Bolts Joachim has taken over the layout from Vol.21 to Vol.35 and more to come. Thank you, Joachim, excellent cooperation

Born 1958 near Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, Germany, I'm living since 1983 in Münster, Northrhine Westfalia. Married since 1986, I ran a retail store in Münster together with my wife until 2014. Currently I am working as an accountant for a medium-sized mechanical engineering company near my hometown.

My first interest in military history was born in my young years as a plastic modeler. But soon I changed the interest from modeling to the historic background. My subjects changed from time to time, but from the end of the 1980s onwards I concentrated on German tank and anti tank units of WW II. During the first few years, I drew my knowledge exclusively from the use of secondary literature. Beginning in the late 1990s I began to obtain documents from the German Bundesarchiv-Militär Archiv in Freiburg i.Br. and the US National Archive NARA in Washington, DC. Thanks to the internet, I came into contact with likeminded people all over the world. This enabled me to use my growing collection of documents to provide other authors with primary source information for their various book projects. Already in 2001 I met Detlev Terlisten from the Nuts & Bolts team and during the following years was given the opportunity to participate on a number of Nuts & Bolts issues covering the “Marder“, “Grille“, “Wespe“, Jagdpanzer IV, Panzer IV/70 and others.

Born English. Modelling from an early age, before leaving the hobby behind and coming back to it periodically. Modelling eventually came to serve as a release from the pressures of teaching science to kids that didn't want to learn science. Eventually offered the position of unpaid Managing Editor of a large website, before moving to a paid position doing the same. Afterwards I founded ModelArmour.com and still teach occasionally too.

Despite dabbling in other genres, armour has always captured my enthusiasm. Mainly I model German WWII armour, but will venture to other areas if a particular kit takes my fancy. Although I'm neither a historian nor real vehicle enthusiast, I recognise the value in good references, and like to add extra value to my models in the form of detail.

Carlos de Diego Vaquerizo, born in 1967, Madrid

Born in Madrid (Spain) on 16th October 1967, he assembled a scale model for the first time when he was eight years old. After achieving his drafting master and working for several architecture offices, he joined the ACCION PRESS’ team and started to work as a professional modeller in 1994.

He has assembled and painted all kind of models in scale and dioramas, he has also made some “masters” for several Spanish “garage” firms, and has designed photo-etched sheets and made technical and colour drawings. His works have been published in modelling magazines, encyclopaedias and history publications; all this publishing material has been translated to different languages throughout the world. He had ruled, as editor in chief, the first 34 issues of the magazine PANZER ACES/ARMOR MODELS. Since the early 2010 he works as a free-lancer exclusively working on AfVs’ colour drawings.

Editor: For Nuts & Bolts Carlos has created the artwork for Vol.21 (Sd.Kfz. 251/9), Vol.26 (Grille Ausf. H), Vol.27 ( 2cm Flakvierling 38), Vol.29 (RSO), Vol. 31 (MArder II), Vol. 33 (Wespe), Vol. 35 (Sd.Kfz. 231 & 232 8-Rad) and more to come

I was born in 1963 in Flanders near Gent, Belgium.

As a little boy my interest in the military was fueled by the stories of the elderly about both wars. My father experienced the war as a young man.He was fascinated by the planes in the Flemish sky, so he started carving them out of wood. Unfotunately non survived, so I gues it is genetic. My first model was the H.M.S. Campbeltown by Airfix in 1:600. Going through various scales and genres, even paper models, I got interested in Scratch Building. Since drawing was part of my education in construction it is evident that it would be useful in Scratch Building. Some twenty years ago I took up CAD drawing and I have been doing that almost every day ever since. With my technical background I have a facination in 3D printing and CNC milling.

Amongst others I have a special interest in German artillery and airplanes both first and second world war.

I was born in Gießen, Hessen, in 1975. Since then, I have been living in Muecke, a small town on the western border of the Vogelsberg district in the centre of Hessen. After taking my A-levels, In 1996 I fulfilled the conscripted military service in Pz.Gren.Btl. 52 in Rotenburg Fulda. There, I was trained as an ammunition and fuel warden and dangerous goods driver. After that, I started to study. In 2010, I completed my studies with the grade of a diploma geographer. Since than, I have been job-hunting.

As a child, I experienced many military exercises of the Bundeswehr and US-Army in the central region of Hessen which regularly took place until the 1990s. Most probably because of this; my interest for military vehicles developed. I can remember that I have built some models in 1:35 scale (Italerie) and 1:72 scale (Airfix, Revell) at the age of five or six. My interest shifted to the model railway sector in the following years (Märklin 1:87) whereby the model railway layout was crowded by numerous Roco-Minitanks. At the age of 14, I bought the first 1:35 US-Army models from Tamiya. Several years later, I shifted to the Wehrmacht topic. Since then, I have built several hundred models in the scales 1:35, 1:72 and 1:700 (Waterline) with the focuses on Wehrmacht, US-Army, Red Army Bundeswehr as well as Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine.

In the course of time the interest on more reality grew up. Therefore, I collected hundreds of books and picture books over the years, in the last years also documents, military organisation tables and technical manuals. In 2004, I obtained several photos and photo albums. From this a collecting passion arose which still continues. Over the years, I collected more than 6,700 photos with mainly a technical aspect. In the past, several of these photos have been published in Nuts & Bolts issues. By the collecting of these photos, my interest in soft skinned wheeled vehicles of the Wehrmacht arose. Sadly, I came to realise that the available literature was un-satisfactory on this topic. To cope with that, I started the works on my internet site [www.kfzderwehrmacht.de](https://www.kfzderwehrmacht.de) which got online in summer 2008.

At the moment, the main areas of interest are captured motor vehicles, the special superstructure variants (Kfz.) of the Wehrmacht and trailers. Further areas of interest are the camouflage finishes and markings (unit signs, tactical numbers etc.) of armoured vehicles of the Panzertruppe from 1939 to 1945.

Born in 1963 my father gave me my first model as a Christmas present when I was six or seven years old. It was a sailing ship, the Cutty Sark, which I built with my father. Sadly it couldn’t swim as I expected and so it disappeared quite quickly. My next try were planes at 1/72 scale, from which I had in the end quite a considerable collection. Additionally the first tanks at the same scale joined the collection. In between I also built some ships at 1/350 scale, but again they sunk. At the age of 12 or 13 my grandmother gave me my first “big” tank, a Jagdpanzer IV L/70 from Monogram, which was at 1/32 scale at that time. Now again additional tanks and planes at the same scale came to my collection. Already at that time I began to specialize in Wehrmacht vehicles in 1/35 scale as there were so many available on the market. And so my collection slowly grew. Some of my models I even camouflaged according to the season, until the different layers of paint became too thick...

Then the first vac-formed models became available and I vividly can remember my first trials with models of lorries by Schmidt Modellbau. And I was very proud of my first 18 ton halftrack. Later came resin models by Verlinden, from Albstadt and from Härle. Many of them were never built and remained in their boxes until today. Today the focus is still on Wehrmacht vehicles at 1/35 scale and Luftwaffe in 1/32. Regrettably the spare time for the hobby has decreased more and more, but sometimes I still find the time to model a bit or even to finish one of them. While I certainly am no rivet-counter, updates-sets are used when they are useful. I only build vehicles and planes, but no dioramas or figures, but the collection of not built kits grows more and more.

When I was studying mechanical engineering the idea came to my mind to visit and photograph the real thing. In the following course of time I made more and more photos, met Heiner Duske and some day I began to write my first volume for Nuts & Bolts. It was very interesting and gave me a lot of pleasure. And so I hope that I can deliver the next volume in the not too distant future.

The modelling hobby was first introduced to me by my brother when one day I discovered a box of Airfix kit in his drawer.

Its a long time ago when the world was without video games, internet so modelling became my best indoor hobby until today for more than 30 years. Like many others, I have a special interest in the ww2 German AFV because of its advance technology and superior design. I have started k59 production in around 2001 and I hope that my kits will bring some fun to the modelling industry.

Laurent has done this beautiful camouflage artwork, starting from Vol. 22. He writes:

I started modelling at the age of 11 with airplanes and then I moved quicly to the dark side : tanks and AFV, ....anything that have tracks or tyres. My interest is covering all the vehicles from the WWI to the 21st century. Since I always had 2 hobbies (drawing and modelling), I finally succeeded to combine both of them in 2003 when I started to produce my first profiles after moving to Tokyo.

I am still modelling now when I have some free time, even if I spend most of my time on my graphic tablet, studying photos of vehicles and trying to make some illustrations. Editor: For Nuts & Bolts Laurent has created the artwork for Vol.22 (Grille M), Vol.23 (PzJäger I), Vol.24 (Pz. II D/E), Vol.25 (Flakpanzer IV), Vol.28 (Maultiere), Vol. 30 (Panzerwerfer), Vol. 32 (Wehrmacht trucks), Vol. 34 (Sd.Kfz. 7 - 8 ton halftrack) and more to come.

Jari was born in 1962 near Helsinki. He inherited model building early on from his father who was not only a modeller but a skilful “do it yourself man”. Jari’s first model was Airfix Folland Gnat that received a dreadful all bronze coat of paint. Other air planes soon followed accompanied with toy soldiers and tanks. Later on the boys in the village where Jari was living got an idea of playing an outdoor tactical war game where 1:72 models were used as game pieces. This soon led to a veritable “arms race” and almost serial construction of models. It also meant a lot of hard work because the money for the models had to be earned by clipping grass, ploughing snow etc. However, there was still time to read history books and before he was 10 Jari had for example read the World History series by a Swedish historian Carl Grimberg.

In his late teens Jari moved over to 1:35 scale and started building armoured vehicles. The first was Tamiya Tiger I followed by Monogram Brummbär. Over the years many other models followed but Jari’s construction and painting skills did not evolve much. As most of the available models were German at the time it was only natural that Jari not only built German armour but also became interested in their history.

After conscription in 1981 and serving his 11 months in the army Jari begun his studies at the university in the faculty of Social and Political Sciences. Apart of his major, national economics, Jari also had the opportune to study political history at the faculty. Reading books on political history has been an important pass time for him ever since. After his studies Jari started to work in banking business, founded a family and built a house. All this meant a 10 year break in modelling. However, with the house came the hobby room that made it possible to start modelling again in 1993.

Jari joined the Finnish IPMS and took part in competitions. Competitions brought a new aspect to modelling; the need to improve both building and painting skills in order to perform better. This led to adaptation of new techniques like casting parts in resin, making photo etched parts at home, learning how to solder, learning how to paint with an airbrush and so on. Improving skills meant also more background work and need for better background material. Over time it also meant international contacts, first in the net and later on at Euro Militaire show where Jari became a regular visitor. At Euro Militaire he also got to know Tony Greenland and Heiner Duske. When Jari entered into the competition a scratch built Grille M, Tony and Heiner asked if he would be interested in assisting in writing a volume on Nuts&Bolts series about the vehicle. Jari said yes, but it took almost 10 years before he had to make good for his promise when the Nuts&Bolts team decided to publish their volume on Grille H.

I started out my interest in German AFVs during the mid-1980s, when I tried to assemble various Tamyia kits. I quickly found out that my modeling skills were left to be desired, but I still was fascinated by the subject. I didn’t know why I was fascinated but, William Auerbach, now editor of Panzerwrecks, best summed up the fascination when he wrote the introduction to his photo essay, “Last of the Panzers:”

“…I asked myself why German armour has long held its fascination for those of us predisposed to such things in the first place. I believe it is because they looked the part: capable, efficient and, above all, lethal. One can imagine the Panther, with its sloping armour and vaulting drive sprockets, ranging over the ‘75’ until the odds against them simply became overwhelming…” The first book that started my collection was Tiger, the History of a Legendary Weapon in 1989. Shortly after this I began to be familiar with other authors such as Thomas Jentz, Walter Spielberger, Uwe Feist, and throughout the 1990s, began to slowly purchase various releases from Schiffer Publishing and J.J. Fedorowicz. By the mid-1990s, with the advent of the internet, by interest in the subject deepened when I discovered George Bradford’s AFV News online. Finally, I was able to discuss and connect with other people who had the same interests. After enrolling into several discussion groups, I was able to get my hands on my first copies of original wartime documents in the form of a generous gift from Niklas Zetterling in 1998. He had sent me several copies of the issue records for panzers from the General Inspector of the Panzertruppe, and I was hooked. For me this was the key, as it answered so many questions that the books that I bought did not answer. At the same time, however; it brought up many more questions, and in 1999 I met Martin Block through a discussion group. Because of his vast collection of German language books he began to fill in major pieces of puzzle.

Martin also became interested in original wartime documents, and in early 2003, we organized a trip to the Bundesarchiv Militaer Archiv in Freiburg. From then on Martin would order copies from BA-MA, and I ordered microfilms from the National Archives in the US. Martin took great lengths to digitize many of these microfilms, while I was busy in finishing my Bachelors of Arts Degree in History at California State University, Fullerton in 2006. With Martin’s vast help, we’ve written several articles for AFV Modeling Magazine, and contributed to Nuts & Bolts Volumes 14, 15, 17 and 18. Martin’s efforts has also landed a contribution to J.J.Fedorowicz’s Combat History of the schwere Panzer-Abteilung 507 in 2003. In recent years, I have been sidetracked in researching the Sturmgeschuetz and Jagdpanzer Kompanien in the various of the Infantrie, Volks-Grenadier, Jaeger, Gebirgs, Luftwaffen-Feld, Marine and Fallschirmjaeger Divisionen. The complexity and vastness of this virtually unknown subject had forced me to put down writing for a couple of years, but recently I have taken it back up. At the same time, Martin has continued to be an indispensible part of the this community and the Nuts & Bolts team and deserves every accolade that he has earned.

Model making since the age of 6, David is the Editor and founder of AFV Modeller magazine. A graduate in Fine Art he became a Graphic Designer working in advertising for 15 years before establishing AFV Modeller. His main area of interest has always been WWII German vehicles and he provided the colour Profils for nine of the Nuts and Bolts titles as well as establishing the new styling for the series with Volume 19. David is currently working on a long-term project to build Trumpeter’s 1:16th King Tiger with full interior.

Editor: For Nuts & Bolts David has created the artwork for Vol.13 - Vol.20, developed the new layout and layouted Vol.19 and Vol.20

John has been involved with military history and modelling since the late 60’s whilst serving in the Royal Navy.

After serving his time John became involved with Naval aircraft as a civilian radio/radar fitter until relocation in the 70’s when he took up a Government training course as an engineering draughtsman. With an interest in armoured vehicles it wasn’t long before he was producing his own drawings for modelling in 1:76 scale.

Joined MAFVA and contributed drawings for their publication ‘Tankette’. A number of drawings were sold to fellow enthusiasts but later John concentrated on writing various articles for a number of magazines including ‘Military Modelling’and ‘Flight’. In the late 80’s an opportunity arose, thanks to Terry Gander, to provide drawings for books on military vehicles published by PSL Ltd., including Bruce Quarries ‘Encyclopaedia of the German Army’ and Christopher Chant’s ‘Tanks’. A third book for Christopher Foss was illustrated but never published. Taking a step further John tried his hand at writing the development histories of German military vehicles including Flakpanzers, and the Sd.Kfz. 6 half track. These were published by ISO Publications of Westminster. A diversion into British Army equipment came with the publication, again by ISO, of the development history of the Alvis Stalwart. Unfortunately ISO ceased trading and no further contributions were possible.

Shortly after the publication of the first ‘Nuts & Bolts’ volume John was approached by Heiner Duske to illustrate further volumes in the series. This venture started with Volume 2 and John has since illustrated all but two of the series and was the author of two, ‘Saurer RK-7’ (Vol. 5) and ‘Panzerkampwagen 35(t)’ (Vol. 11).

Editor: For Nuts & Bolts John has created the drawings from Vol.2 - Vol.26 and more to come.

Thank you John

Heinz was born in 1968 in Southern Hessen. Whilst in the 3rd grade his interest in modeling was activated by a school friend and his first model was a Panzer III by Matchbox.

Captivated by modeling and his own family history, his interest in general history and especially in military history continued to grow even up to the end of his school days.

He gave up his desire to study history in favor of business management training. He retained his interest in Military History during this period and was fortunate to be able to collect books on military history. Later he increased his knowledge by visiting military museums, archives and made contact with veterans.

Accordingly it was only a matter of time before Heinz discovered the Nuts & Bolts series; once in contact with the team he learnt that a volume on the Panzerwerfer 42 was in the works. Heinz had already gathered an enormous amount of material and veteran reports on the subject and the other team of authors encouraged him to prepare a contribution to Nuts & Bolts. The result of this cooperation can be seen in Vol. 30.

Autor von Volume 46: Sd.Kfz. 166 - Sturmpanzer IV

Modelling German WWII military vehicles since 1974 in 1:35 scale. Since 1980 research of German Panzer units equipped with Pz.Kpfw. Panther and markings of Panzer units.

I was born in the US in 1956. I have been building models for as long as I can remember. My first kit was a Revell 1/48 H-19 Chickasaw helicopter kit. This has to have been sometime around 1963.

I built a lot of kits when I was a kid, and did the usual thing of playing with them as soon as I had finished the building process. I built most anything back then, cars, ships, aircraft and armor. Many of those kits ended up being blown up with firecrackers. I left the hobby for a while when I discovered girls, and later I started driving. I got back into the hobby when I had my first child in 1980, and I needed something to do that would keep me at home with the family. Back in 1984 I bought a hobby store in Pasadena California. I owned that store for 5 years. It was interesting seeing the hobby from the business side of things. I still think back to when I was a small business owner, and I still have the occasional dream going back to my hobby store owning days.

I currently am interested in, and build kits of WWII German armor and aircraft. I try to divide my modeling time equally between the two subjects. My other hobby is traveling to places near and far, and visiting aircraft and armor museums to see the real thing in person.

Although his very first model was Italeri’s 1/35 scale Willy’s Jeep, Mario did build quite a few 1/72 scale Airfix and Matchbox airplanes as a kid. In his teens he switched back to AFVs, mainly of German WW II subjects, which is what he has been building since. For many years now he has been publishing articles in various magazines, and recently a book on his Sd.Kfz. 11 Late halftrack, which featured in Nuts & Bolts Vol. 20, was published.

Jahrgang 1957, in Schwetzingen geboren und aufgewachsen. Wohnhaft in Schwetzingen. Verheiratet - ein Sohn.

Abschluss der Grund- und Hauptschule in Schwetzingen 1973.
Am 1. September 1973 Beginn einer Ausbildung zum Kartografen beim Ingenieur-Büro Junker in Schwetzingen. Nach Insolvenz des Lehrbetriebes 1975 Übernahme als Auszubildender beim städtischen Vermessungsamt Mannheim. Im Februar 1977 erfolgreicher Lehrabschluss bei der Berufsschule Karlsruhe und vor der IHK-Mannheim.

1. April 1977 bis 30. Juni 1978
Ableistung des Wehrdienstes im Geo-Militärischen Dienst der Bundeswehr auf der Artillerie-Schule Idar-Oberstein / Topografie-Batterie 900. (1984 und 1987 jeweils dreiwöchige Geo-Mil.-Wintex-Wehrübungen in Koblenz.)

1. Juli 1978 - Übernahme in den Öffentlichen Dienst der Stadt Mannheim und dort Ausübung der beruflichen Tätigkeit als Kartograf im Fachbereich Geoinformation und Vermessung.

Von 1972 bis 1985 Hobby-Modellbauer militärhistorischer Fahrzeuge beim Modellbauclub Mannheim. Veröffentlichungen erster Fachartikel in diversen Modellbau-Zeitschriften.

Seit 1985 bilden Nachforschungen zur Gliederung und Fahrzeugausstattung von Panzer-, Panzerjäger- und Sturmgeschütz-Einheiten der ehemaligen deutschen Wehrmacht den Interessenschwerpunkt. Neben der Nutzung von Dokumenten und Unterlagen aus in- und ausländischen Archiven steht auch das Auffinden von privatem Bild- und Dokumentenmaterial ehemaliger Angehöriger dieser Einheiten im Vordergrund.

Ab 1995 erscheinen in Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Autoren verschiedene Veröffentlichungen militärhistorischer Bücher bzw. entstehen eigene Buch-Dokumentationen zur Geschichte von Einheiten und Fahrzeugen der deutschen Wehrmacht. So erschien u.a. 1997 unter dem Titel „Combat History of schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 653“ in dem canadischen Verlag J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing/Winnipeg die Geschichte der Einheit, der die drei in Schwetzingen 1945 zum Einsatz gekommenen Panzerjäger vom Typ „Jagdtiger“ angehörten.

1966 in Kempten im Oberallgäu geboren, hatte ich schon als kleiner Junge eine Leidenschaft für Fahrzeuge und Ihre Technik. Die Faszination erweiterte sich bald auf Flugmaschinen aus und so begann ich mit ungefähr 10 Jahren Airfix Modelle im Maßstab 1:72 zu bauen. Mein Vater zeigte mir Grundkenntnisse an einer Ju88 von Airfix ohne Farbe und auch ich baute die Modelle zuerst ohne diese anschließend zu lackieren.
Erst mit 16 Jahren hatte ich mich an ein 1:35 Modell gewagt. Mein erster Bausatz war das Sturmgeschütz IV von Italeri im Maßstab 1:35. Durch Zufall konnte ich alsbald in einem Buchladen den Band 5 von Walter J. Spielberger erwerben „Der Panzerkampfwagen IV und seine Abarten“. Ich hatte bis dahin nicht die geringste Vorstellung, dass es solche Fachbücher über einzelne Panzertypen gab. Die Begeisterung kannte keine Grenzen mehr und ein Modell nach dem anderen folgte mit bescheidenen Ergebnissen. Bücher von Verlinden halfen mir meine Modelle zu verbessern. Später nach Unterbrechungen im Modellbau durch Gleitschirm Flugsport Begeisterung und Familiengründung folgte die Autoren Tätigkeit in den Modellbaufachzeitschriften Kit, Militär Modell Journal und schlussendlich in der ModellFan. Aktuell begeistern mich alle Themen aus dem 2. Weltkrieg und das große Angebot an Bausätzen im Maßstab 1:35 bieten ungeahnte Möglichkeiten diese spannende Militärtechnik im Modell umzusetzen.
Als Heiner F. Duske mich im Frühjahr 2020 fragte, ob ich ein Modell für einen Nuts & Bolts Band beisteuern könnte, sagte ich sofort ja.

Geboren wurde ich 1957 in Mannheim und wuchs dort auch auf. Ich bin verheiratet und lebe inzwischen mit meiner Frau in Oberhausen-Rheinhausen. Durch meine seit 1972 bestehende Modellbau-Affinität (Deutsche Militärfahrzeuge im Maßstab 1:35) befasste ich mich schrittweise auch mehr mit der Fahrzeugtechnik sowie der Einsatzgeschichte verschiedener Deutscher Panzerverbände. Hierbei lag und liegt mein Schwerpunkt bei der Funk- und Fernlenktruppe der deutschen Panzerwaffe, dem Sturmtiger und Sturmpanzer IV, den Bildwandler-Panthern sowie anderen „Exoten“. Ich habe in den zurückliegenden 30 Jahren sowohl Bücher und Hefte bei deutschen wie auch ausländischen Verlagen veröffentlichen können und unterstütze seit langer Zeit auch viele N&B-Autoren mit Fotos und Dokumenten. Bis zu meinem Ruhestand war ich Leiter der Regionalstelle des Technischen Hilfswerks in Mannheim

Like many of my generation, my interest in modelling began during my school days with the Airfix kits in plastic bags available for pocket money in the early 1970s. The rise of the model "cottage industry" with Verlinden, Shep Paine, resin and photo etched brass transformed my boyhood pastime into a much greater quest for accuracy, which further developed into my passion for conversion and scratch building of military model AFVs. Developing techniques and the availability of more products and information than ever before have made the satisfaction of this hobby more enjoyable than it has ever been. It has been my pleasure to have written features and reviews for various modelling publications, built master pattern models for model companies, and successfully gained numerous awards for my work at prestigious model shows such as Euro Militaire, where I gained five consecutive gold awards from 1998-2002. I believe the key to building a truly accurate model is 1) information, 2) interpretation, 3) technique. If you apply a problem solving approach to these three principles, then modelling offers successful and rewarding results. Tony Greenland and Heiner Duske have helped, influenced, and inspired me, and I count it a privilege to have my work associated with theirs. As already stated, I believe information to be an absolute for successful modelling, and the 'Nuts and Bolts' series is therefore invaluable.

Editor: For Nuts & Bolts Brian has presented his models for Vol.14 (Nashorn) and Vol.15 (Marder III 7,62 cm Pak).