Do You Remember the First Kit you built?

I built my first kit in 1959 after getting out of the hospital from a broken leg; it was a 1960 mercury convertibale. I wish I still had it but was lost during a move in the air force

mesa modeler

Monogram's F4U corsair. Through it together in a day. I am pretty sure it was in pieces by the end of the week. Very basic kit, not cockpit detail, wings folded and unfolded.

Travis

Sigh, I'll tilt a glass in his dad's memory this holiday season (a Lancaster bomber crew member from WWII...)

I'll tilt one with you then...

Wow! I'm impressed that most of you guys remeber the actual kit name etc. that you first built!

I think it means that you have great memories of that build!

As for those that don't remember the exact kit or built a kit only to drop "one or three"  fire crackers on it, well lets just say "been there done that"...

WE took my friends early kits and added a little gasoline to the firecracker mix... Hehe  man was his dad  pissed as we actually melted a spot on the drive way ...

Sigh, I'll tilt a glass in his dad's memory this holiday season (a Lancaster bomber crew member from WWII...)

All the best this Holiday Season!

My first one was built with my step dad and it was an OLD monogram Sprint car. At the time, it was the highest build level possible. 

The first ones on my own were the 1/48 Monogram Avenger and the 1/48 Glenco Duck. Both kits were done about 16 years ago.  Both are long gone, but I did make sure to reacquire the kits to build.

My first model built with my mom was a Revell 1/48 scale P-80 Shooting Star. I played with it till it fell apart.

My first model I built by myself an MPC 1/72 scale Focke Wulf FW190D. I also painted it by myself. I still have that one. It lost all the landing gear, propellers and bombs and the canopy is all fogged, but I still have it!

The First? No.

But I remember building many Monogram and Aurora offerings. I distinctly recall the old Aurora guillotine model. Another that comes to mind is the Monogram Zero. I blew it up with firecrackers.

We had fun back in those days.

Hi Jahhdog-

I'm like you, I don't remember exactly what it was. 

My older brothers gave me Car kits for christmas ever year from about age 7 to 13, so it was most likely some kind of hotrod from AMT or Monogram.

Yeah, good times.

Merry Christmas,
-Ray

Mine was the TWA Moonliner model by Strombecker, circa 1963. I got it when my father took me to Disneyland.

Glencoe rereleased it about 10 years ago as the Mars Liner, but they are too expensive.

But lo and behold, I found a free download of a paper model from Disney! Going to make that dude!

First kit ever was a Brontosaurus, I think by Pyro or Lifelike. The next was the Revell 1/720 Prinz Eugen. Both were built with my dad. And panted with Testors Gloss Dark Green... And long lost to the garbage man. I doubt they survived very long. As for my first solo build I am fairly certain it was one of those Hawk 1/72 single engine WW2 fighter, but I dont know which one... I built so many at that time.

My first kit was a 1970 Dodge charger. I got it when I was 13 and it has been setting on my shelf finished for two years.

My father and I started building kits together when I was about 5 years old in 1958.  One of the first ones I remember was the old Monogram box scale PBY.  I kept it for years, even though it shed most of the detail parts (landing gear, engine cowls & propellors, etc.) along the way.

The first kit I remember really doing "on my own" was the Monogram 1/48 F4F.

(My father had been a 3rd class petty officer/avation metalsmith in the Navy and was my "resident expert" when it came to building all the old Monogram 1/48 WWII carrier planes - he had patched holes in all of the real things during his time in the service).

Some other personal milestones: 

The first kit that I ever painted was the Monogram SB2C, which I built when I was in third grade. I used Testors gloss enamels to brush paint the interior green, the undersurfaces gray, the prop tips & the dropable bomb yellow.  Hand painted all the canopy framing freehand.  Left the uppersurfaces in the molded blue plastic.  It was a big milestone for me at the time and I was very proud of it.  I also remember breaking off one of the prop blades and I was never able to glue it back on so it would stay.

The Revell 1/196 USS Constitution also sticks in my mind.  I built it around 1965 and remember spending seemingly countless hours working to get the rigging right, adjusting the tension so that it didn't distort the masts.  It came out well enough that my parents asked if they could put it on a shelf in our living room rather than hidden away with the other models in my room.  It was still there when I left for college, but it didn't survive when my parents moved a few years later.

The first kit I ever spray painted (with a spray can) was a AMT 1964 Impala that I built for a contest at a local hobby shop, probably around the 1965-66 timeframe.

My first airbrushed model was a Revell 1/32 F-14A Tomcat back in 1982, using my new Badger 350 and a spare tire as an airsource.  I mixed my own light gull gray and every batch came out a bit different shade/texture.

One of the "failures" that sticks in my mind was the Monogram Phantom Mustang that my grandmother gave me for Christmas in 1962.  I could never get the main landing gear to work without binding and as a result never glued the completed fuselage to the wing/base assembly.  I put it aside in frustration and never went back to it.

Mark

1/72 Hawk Mk 24 Spitfire in 1967...

First kit I ever built? A sharked mouth P-40 , from memory I think it was 1/72 (by size) and it came in plastic bag with cardboard top to hook on the display board. I built it with sticky tape after after waiting for so long for my parents to get me some glue (age 9).

First kit I ever built with glue and paint? Matchbox 1/72 Stuka, man I used to put the paint on thick back then (about 10 or 11 y/o) I used to use it as gap filler and all LOL. Many more matchbox 1/72 followed, I have thought about getting some for the nostaglia factor.

Andrew

I remember them all. The first model kit I ever owned was an Aurora Hot Rod Hotdog vendor truck called 'The Wurst'. I bought one on ebay about a decade ago. My dad built the original one for me.

The first kit I ever built was the Aurora Saber-toothed tiger snap-tite kit. The first tank kit I ever built was the Aurora MBT70. I still have the MBT70.

 A little snap-tite A/C carrier that I built with my dad. It was my favorite bathtub toy!!!

First A/C was Monograms 1/48 F-4 (with the playboy bunny on the tail)

First one, all by my lonesome was 1/72 Thunderbirds F-16( circa 1982)

Monogram 1/72 SnapTite F-18 Prototype.  Stil have (most) of it. The years have not been kind to it, but maybe someday I'll restore it.

It was Aurora's #374-198 PBY-5A Catlina. I remember because I had it as a paint mule up till a few years ago. Maybe I need to get another one for old times.

Monogram 1:72 B-25 was one of my first, and I still have it as well as many of my initial builds as a kid. The B-25 is on display in my display case and the rest are packed away.