What got you started? (Maybe be an old subject) Building that is..

In the early 1960's I watched my Dad build a Monogram Hellcat. He gave it to me when he was done.  It was a toy to play with, which I did.  She was a beauty.  That led to Dauntless, Wildcat, Avenger, and Aurora Lightning, Mustang and on and on.  In the early 1980's it was the Monogram B-17, a Christmas gift that got me back into the hobby.  So I've plugged away at it, off and on, since.  Rick

I was in grade school during WW2.  All boys were air-minded then.  Fighter aces were the big war heros then.  My dad did a little modeling, not much.  Relatives would give me model kits for gifts.  These were all balsa flying models (stick models) so for a couple of years I couldn't read the instructions well enough to finish them, but finally just after war my reading was good enough that I finished my first model.  Then, I never stopped building.

Actually, finished a paper model before that. Kix cereal offered as a premium two actual flying models in card stock, a P-40 and a Zero.  They used a penny as nose weights.  Completed both, and they flew okay.

I was about in eighth grade when plastic models first became available, and for decades built both flying models and plastic display scale models.  Also built model cars.  Tried my first ship when I was about in nineth grade (it was wood also).

I think I was about 5 when my dad brought the AMT Eagle from Space:1999 home for us to build.  We put it together and did the decals, but skipped the paint since he guessed ( and was right ) that it would soon become a toy.

He wasn't into building kits, though, and that ended up causing some problems when I was 9 and started getting interested again.  The next kit for me was a cheapie small-scale Yamato.  That kit and the little kits-in-a-baggie aurplanes he bought for me didn't stay together very well because he didn't realize Elmers white glue isn't the same as cement.

After we got that issue sorted out, things went much better with the Corsair, Viggen, and Voodoo I got for my 10th birthday.  Been building off-and-on ever since.

Like many of you my father introduced me to building models. I remember he had a couple of plastic fire engine kits in his closet. He was a civil war historian by hobby so history played a big role in our house. I used to spend a lot of time with an elderly friend of the family during the summers and that's how I passed much of the time. We'd go to walmart and buy whatever they had and I happily built it. My first two armor kits were lindberg ones that I got at walmart. It was a couple of trips to the library that really got me wanting to improve my modeling though. A man by the name of Jimmie Lockett often displayed his models there and I vividly remember gazing at them for hours wondering if I could ever do something so perfect. That was in in the early 90s... In my mid 90s my father passed away but the history and modeling bug had latched on tight and my interest never let up. In 2003 I finally met Jimmie Lockett through the local club. We became very close friends and we commuted the 70 miles to the club meeting together many many times. This past year my friend Jimmie passed away leaving a legacy in the local model community for tirelessly teaching and coaching children and young modelers into the hobby.

There have been times when I built less, mostly because of other commitments but building models is literally a way of life for me. I met my wife at a model meeting and we're very very active in the model community together.

In 1969 maybe 1970 when I was 9 or 10 years old, my dad took me to NAS Willow Grove to an airshow.  Not only was I fascinated by the static aircraft on display (especially the Kawanishi N1K1 Rex floatplane - OK so I didn't know exactly what it was back then ), but the Navy Blue Angels were there flying F-4J's and I just had to have one!!

To this day the F-4J is still my favorite jet.  Although my passion currently runs toward WWII Japanese aircraft.

Mom bought me a Spitfire kit while we were visiting my aunt & uncle back in '66... My cousin Danny was a couple years older than me, and built models.. I was mesmerized by them, so when Mom and my Aunt went shopping, they picked up a kit for each of us.. One was a HAWK F4U, and the other a HAWK Spitfre.. I chose the Spit...

I was already hooked on airplanes, since Dad was a fighter pilot (flying F-100s at that time) and had been since WW2... I also had two other uncles that were pilots, John flew P-39s during the war, Bud was a B-17 driver and was still on AD in '66 wiith SAC, flying BUFFs..  Dad and Bud both stayed on AD until 1971...

After that first Spitfire, I was hooked on model planes plus, I had a helluva reference-source in Dad and his squadron buddies...

Glue fumes...

I was about 7 when I started watching "Tora Tora Tora" with the old man. For years after I was into ships and naval battles. My first models ironically were Monogram planes. A few years later I picked up a Monogram Pz IV, because my friend had one. I've never looked back at armor since.

Manstein's revenge

Glue fumes...

"What got you started" Manny, not "why do you still do it"....

Dad built some.. and showed me how.. then I got an AMT 3 pack of cars.. Monogram 1/48 fighters.. was in the Monogram or Revell?? model of the month club for a while in the 70's...