Thanks for the welcome. Nice to hear from like-minded souls! 
I suppose I'd come around to the 'I've not used it for years, so I don't need it' way of thinking, but as crazy as it sounds, breathing life back into the machine after such a long lay off was a very personally gratifying moment and a great feeling. It was like getting an old friend back! This particular A1200 and I go way back, as mentioned, and before the A1200 I had an A500+, so my Amiga adventure goes back nearly 20 years now. It was not something I wanted to give up on in the first place, more like circumstances dictated.
It's funny you know, it was only the weekend when I upgraded Amiga Forever 2008 to 2011, now I am running the real thing again! 
So, some initial 'being back' thoughts after the few PC/Windows exclusively years:
Hate how the machine is all but locked up so much when heavy IDE activity is going on (burning CD's for example).
Hate instant crashes that take the whole machine down.
Hate remembering how fragile the file system can be.
*Love* the general speed of use in Workbench and exceptionally efficient use of memory / disk space compared to Windows.
Love the 7 second boot up time!
Love remembering that I have TVPaint on the hard drive! It's the only 24 bit graphics package I've ever been able to use (far from an expert, mind!). Never got on at all with anything similar on the PC.
Love the Heath Robinson-ness of the inside of this thing! It really is a DIY mixed bag of bits and bobs, bodges, and workarounds (that I put together 100% by myself!) but it works! I certainly could NEVER imagine taking a soldering iron to the motherboard of my Alienware like I did on the Amiga! I must have had nerves of steel and great confidence or much stupidity back in the day!
Amused getting used to the mouse control of the menus, the menus themselves, the other side close buttons again, then pointing the mouse in the wrong direction / clicking wrong buttons on Windows 7 soon afterwards! :lol:
Anyway, I'm sure I will be posting a bit more on here.
Oh, advice - DPaintV with printed manual - sell or keep?
Whatever you do wit that DPaint5, can you scan the manual and put it up on EAB? I would love to have that manual.
