User:Martin James

By training, a nuclear physicist. By trade an IT consultant (aka "scapegoat"). I am old enough to have grown up in the heyday of Minibrix, Bayko, Meccano, Lotts Bricks, Brickplayer, Betta Bilda (never liked Betta Bilda, far too flimsy), and eventually Lego -- all of which I had in large quantities. But things like excess of family, and consequent shortage of money and time, got in the way, and these pastimes turned into fond memories.

Then I stumbled on the world of virtual building, and all my passions were fuelled at a stroke -- a love of computers and a love of modelling. My primary interest is still Minibrix, just for historical reasons, as it was the construction medium that started it all off for me, back in the early 1950s. But Lego comes a close second. It didn't take long to discover that using LDraw as a base, I could recreate everything I needed to take up Minibrix modelling again. I publish a complete library of LDraw parts through my thriving Virtual Minibrix web site (http://www.virtual.minibrix.com), and also host the "real" Minibrix enthusiasts' site (http://www.minibrix.com), to present a united front. My main interest is in modelling buildings and interesting examples of architecture, and in particular recreating historical buildings. The Virtual Minibrix site has several galleries of my creations in both Minibrix and Lego.

And just to prove that LDraw really has no limits, I have even developed an add-on to Microsoft Excel that turns data into 3D constructions of Lego bricks. This has turned out to be a great Executive attention-grabber!