I got started as a kid, too.  I was 6 when an uncle gave me a Model T kit--I remember it as Lindberg, but that might not be correct.  My parents encouraged me to build models, and I built a lot of WWII subjects--ships, planes and armor, and sci-fi, following my interests.  I also had a couple of HO train sets.  All of that got to the point where I had a 4'x8' wargame of the Battle of Waterloo, with Airfix figures, by the time I was in high school.  And I had just started to experiment with casting, by the time I went off to college and left the hobby behind.

A couple years later, living in Munich, I found a set of homecast German toy soldiers at a flea market, and brought them home.  I started reading up on toy soldiers, took up casting again, joined a club, and then our club merged with the local IPMS club, and I came full circle and took up scale modeling again.  So I do both.