Modeling-fifty plus years worth.----an ESSAY

I would say that my journey began 40 years ago, after I met one of my oldest friends. His father was a submariner on the USS Dace during WW II. He struck down one of Kurita's CA's, Maya, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 

My friend had a fleet of ships, mostly 1/420 and other oddball sizes. We quickly realized that we shared a common interest in military and WW II. We then proceeded to Monogram aircraft that were around $1 or so a pop. Didn't take a lot resources, even then, to acquire our burgeoning air fleets. We never even painted them. Slapped them together in a day. All we wanted to do was get them up and running and play the heck out of them.

Within a year or two, we gravitated to Monogram armor. My guess is they were around $3 and change. Our interest in the Eastern Front forever changed our modeling habits. It's stayed the course for almost 40 years now. 

We started to paint our armor with Pactra and Humbrol enamels. Plentiful and cheap. Even for a kid.

One day my friend showed me Tamiya kits. It boggled my mind how much they then cost, but the detail was so much better then Monogram. We'd go berry picking, collect bottles, mow yards to pay the "expensive" $7.99 Squadron sale prices for Tamiya's Tiger, King Tiger, etc. My first kit of theirs was the 75mm Pak 40 for $3.99 back in the early-mid 70's.

Needless to say, high school came along, but never completely deterred my building, it just slowed me down. The old Monogram A/C were gradually replaced on the shelves with Tamiya and Italeri armor. 

Well for most of the 80's, modeling sat close to dormant as I was working steady and cruising for girls. I settled down in 89 with my ex. Modeling almost disappeared as I was working two jobs to support the family. We dissolved in 94. 

I met my current wife soon after, and it wasn't until about 1995, that modeling again came to the forefront. It was the newer Tamiya Tiger with detail i had yet to see in a kit. It was also the first kit that I used an airbrush on, a Badger 350. The results were better then I expected. This model would be my best for many years, even despite the historical inaccuracies and a lack of zimmerit that I discovered later in the Finescale Forums!

Discovering the forums on my wife's birthday no less, has led to an amazing explosion in growth of kits, knowledge and of course new friends. That day some 9 years ago has fueled a new flame in my modeling world. With the addition of the web, new companies such as Dragon, AFV Club, Bronco, new processes (slide molding) and products (photoetch, AM barrels, zimmerit), there has never been a better time to be a modeler. The sky is the limit.

I don't know where I will go from here with the hobby, but I can guarantee as long as I can physically do it, I will continue on. I so look forward to retirement someday, so I can have all the time I need to build my growing stash. I'm thankful that even if I were to finish that, there are countless more projects that I can find to build. Hopefully, I can get some  grand-children to teach the hobby to and pass the torch.

Quote Tigerman ............."With the addition of the web, new companies such as Dragon, AFV Club, Bronco, new processes (slide molding) and products (photoetch, AM barrels, zimmerit), there has never been a better time to be a modeler. The sky is the limit."

Ditto Eric ....................

I have been modeling for over sixty years, and also started on balsa wood (or in some cases pine) models.  Although the first model I actually completed was a Guillows model, most of what I built was Comet, since they were cheaper than Guillows, Ott, etc.

I remember my first styrene kit, a P-80 that my Dad and I built together.  I forget the brand that was on it at the time, but was in the same series sold now under the Testors banner and has the racing planes in it (GeeBee and such).

I continued to build- never left the hobby- although I gradually increased the number of non-flying scale and did less flying models (maybe build one of those every two to three years).  So I have acquired the PE and resin and airbrushing skills gradually as they were introduced into the hobby.  So it is not as great a shock as for someone re-entering the hobby.  I would say this is a golden age for scale modeling, and the hobby has never been stronger.  The amount of aftermarket stuff is fantastic.  When I was a younger modeler, no one made aftermarket stuff.  You got what was in the kit and if you wanted any extra detailing, you scratched that stuff.

One final memory- I remember when all modeling paint was gloss. If you wanted flat finish, you mixed talcum powder into the paint!

Good gosh, DON, I forgot all about that when I wrote the ESSAY.Yup,that,s a fact,and DON, I and many senior modelers can attest to it.We made flat paint byaddingTALCUM POWDER.More produced a flatterfinish.Less of course gave you a semi-gloss finish.Do you remember the ship models that required round toothpicks for prop shafts?

There is certainly a lot to be said for todays modeling.How many times I,ve turned shells for open top armor so I could have shells in the storage boxes.Now,like with my "DICKER MAX, I just call my LHS and buy them.No more tearing apart coffee filters for mesh etc. hmm where did I put that old mesh anyway?      TANKERbuilder

When I was a younger modeler, no one made aftermarket stuff.  You got what was in the kit and if you wanted any extra detailing, you scratched that stuff.

After 45 years, some of us still do it that way...    The same kits you had to do that to are still out there...  

Gizmology is a dying art, IMNSHO...  It's gotten to the point that one can't tell if a modeler actually did a really good job, or it's just that he has a really good job...

When I was first modeling, there were two kinds of model airplane kits, the stick and tissue flying model, and the solid wood shelf scale model that most of us just called solid models.  In the later, the fuselage was furnished sawed to the profile view, and in some kits it also had the plan view sawed out.  You carved the fuselage to sectional view by carving to fit templates, cardboard, supplied with the kit.

I find today that folks who built those wood solid models are far more ready to scratch build, either a complete model or a major conversion, since they learned the hardest part of the skill in doing a scratch model.  Yeah, too, even with a kit you needed to carve the airfoil for the wing- it was just a sheet of wood sawed to planform.

Hey Guys, this thread is a real trip down memory lane. I'm 77 and have been an aviation modeler since I was 6. Any of you remember 'recognition models' for the WWII effort? I do and I built 'em. And Don S. mentioned 'solid models'. Well, that branch of modeling may have been very largely replaced by scale plastic models but it ain't quite dead yet. As proof, here's a pic of a 10 cent Comet kit I work on every once in a blue moon. With inflation and such, I paid $3.50 for the kit over 10 yrs ago - couldn't stand the thought of using the original balsa so what you see is scratch with the original print wood and fuse block also shown. Hope to finish it one day. When I'm in the mood, I put other stuff aside, get the razor blade and sandpaper out and make dust. Makes me feel 12 yrs old again.

Hans von Hammer

 

When I was a younger modeler, no one made aftermarket stuff.  You got what was in the kit and if you wanted any extra detailing, you scratched that stuff.

 

After 45 years, some of us still do it that way...    The same kits you had to do that to are still out there...  

Gizmology is a dying art, IMNSHO...  It's gotten to the point that one can't tell if a modeler actually did a really good job, or it's just that he has a really good job...

And not just kit prices.

Might someday require a very well paid job to afford normal every day living expenses and then the luxury of fast internet connection, latest computer , printer and a 3D Printer to download and "print" the kit.

Modeling some kits may only be possible by direct download from the manufacturer.

As for my model building-

I started during the middle of the last century ( mid-60s ) building AIRFIX aircraft, armor and ship kits, then AURORA and graduating to Monogram as I began wanting better detail and had access to real live hobby shops such as Stanton Hobby in Chicago, Il .

Left the hobby in the early 1990s when multimedia kits were still a novelty; returned two years ago to find a major improvement in kit detail as well as a very large jump in prices for many hobby items as well as kits along with the surprise that my favorite Floquil Rail Road paint is no longer made. (such is progress ) 

I expect to continue learning new techniques and hope to continue building so long as the economy allows me to do so.

Bick

Hey Guys, this thread is a real trip down memory lane. I'm 77 and have been an aviation modeler since I was 6. Any of you remember 'recognition models' for the WWII effort? I do and I built 'em. And Don S. mentioned 'solid models'. Well, that branch of modeling may have been very largely replaced by scale plastic models but it ain't quite dead yet. As proof, here's a pic of a 10 cent Comet kit I work on every once in a blue moon. With inflation and such, I paid $3.50 for the kit over 10 yrs ago - couldn't stand the thought of using the original balsa so what you see is scratch with the original print wood and fuse block also shown. Hope to finish it one day. When I'm in the mood, I put other stuff aside, get the razor blade and sandpaper out and make dust. Makes me feel 12 yrs old again.

I did that with a race car kit, an old "Ace Midget" kit.  I replicated the balsa sawn blocks, and saved the kit and built it from the new stock.

There are several companies that have revived wooden solid models for us old timers- most didn't stay in business very long, but one seems to have stayed.  Kits are available from Penn Valley Hobbies.

The company I am thinking of, Scale Model Replicas or something like that, kits repro kits of actual old kits like Megow and Comet.  Most of the kits are flying models (stick and tissue) but there are a couple of solid models in their lineup.

Any of you remember 'recognition models' for the WWII effort?

While I'm way too young to have built any of them, I ran across a box of mostly broken ones (but a few were complete) at a garage sale once... Paid three bucks for the box (a lot of money back then)... Fixed 'em (as well as a 12-year old could), painted them, (all y'all groan at once now) then played with them until the they broke again, lol... 

Didn't know what I had back then, though..  Nowadays (if un-broken), they fetch a pretty high dollar-amount on the WW2 collector markets...  Seen 'em as high as 125.00..