1. The 1/76 scale mongram vigilante press the botton under fuselege and a bomb is released from between the engines by a spring in side wow. 

No drama.  Kits were all pretty standard, at least in early sixties.  Pretty basic.  However, by late sixties some had advanced a lot, added cockpits, wheel well detail, etc.  So on a few kits there was delight, and hope for what was to come!

The glue, man!  The glue!

.

Rob - that's why I liked the Matchbox kits back in the nineties! I was 12 years old when the first shipment of "western" kits came to Poland and it was Matchbox - so much cooler then the "Plastyk Pruszkow" kits we had! Now I see it differently... Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Sandbox

The glue, man!  The glue!

 

~ Cobra Chris

Rob Gronovius

Back in the 60s, I was very young so when I opened up a kit, I was happy if it was molded in the color of the boxart. That meant I could build the main version without needing to paint the kit.

 

That makes them really hard to build in an afternoon after school.

And the smell of Testor paints...back then there were no warnings like 'vapors/fumes hazardous to your health'.

Amazement- When I finally found the Lindberg Stuka at Kmart. The only company we knew of that made the Stuka.

Dissapointment- When I opened the Lindberg Stuka from Kmart. Thin brittle plastic. Flash!!! Everywhere there was flash! The flash was so bad small parts like antenna, and landing gear were impossible to clean up and not destroy the part. This was before x-acto knives and sanding sticks. All I had was a small pocket knife and a cheap steak knife from the kitchen drawer.

 Ahh yes, the smell of Testors enamel paint. I kept all my paints in a small cosmetic suitcase looking thing. Opening it always produced that destinctive odor.

I've said it before, one of my favourite caveats from model boxes of the 70's, when they had photos of the completed model on the box cover.

"Model may be painted to match details on box. Cement and paint not included" 

I can recall building some Airfix kits in the 70's which had crude instrument panels printed on the instruction sheet. You had to cut them out and glue them in place.

I needed a note from parents to purchase glue.models were only .50 and i almost always stopped at park on the way home to build and complete model wih no paint.

the glue never caused dain bramage.

nkm1416@info.com.ph

And the smell of Testor paints...back then there were no warnings like 'vapors/fumes hazardous to your health'.

 

 

The stuff that really had the good smell was Testors dope, for those building balsa models!

I remember tube glue back in the 70s that smelled like citrus. LOL! I thnk it was Pactra tube glue.

It was from testors and took longer to set than the banana oil glue.

mitsdude

All I had was a small pocket knife ..
.

BlackSheepTwoOneFour

I remember tube glue back in the 70s that smelled like citrus. LOL! I thnk it was Pactra tube glue.

 

 

I remender tht nonsence aboot the ceemet cauzing bran darage... I ussd it al de tim an se hrow wel I tured out! 

nkm1416@info.com.ph

What's your notable reactions, amazements/disappointments, etc. when you opened up your early model kits?

Do you mean, when we were kids? 

None.  Absolutely none.  Back then, from the time I was six, and was given a Model T by a maker I no longer recall (maybe Lindberg, but I can't confirm it), through elementary school and Pyro dinosaurs, and Revell box-scale ships, and Monogram's 1/32 armor, and Monogram's early 1/48 aircraft, to junior high and high school, and Monogram's golden-age large bomber kits, and my first forays into casting and painting figures, I enjoyed every build.  The box art sparked my imagination, and on opening the box, the instructions and sprues promised an afternoon, and later, several evenings, of building and painting the model, all the while thinking about the subject.  I built exclusively historical subjects, and mostly WWII, and I thought of the stories I read, and the stories my great-uncles all told, about where they served, and the guys they served with.  It was a great part of my childhood and my teen years.  I don't recall a single kit that I opened and started building, that disappointed me.

And since I returned to scale modeling in 1999, I've tried to recapture that youthful enthusiasm, with some degree of success.  I stay out of rivet-counting arguments, for one thing.  Build what you want, the way you want it, as the late Al Superczynski used to say.

And in those early days, I used Duco Household Cement, because it's what we had on hand.  It wasn't till I was older and learned that there was glue made specifically for building plastic model kits.  Duco, in the green and yellow tubes.

I remember Duco brand cement! Until recently could get it at white trash mart (wally world). It's what I used to glue the wings together on my four foot X-wing! I loved the way it smelled. It reminds me of Ambroid brand glue. The Weld-On cement that they make now smells just like it. Ambroid smells good, but it takes too long to dry! I also remember when Testors started to offer the stuff in the blue tube that was water based - it SUCKED!! It never dried enough to glue anything together! 

~ Cobra Chris

MJames70

 

Gosh, I hated that stuff. Wouldn't hold worth a darn. 

I didn't like it when a kit came in a huge box but built into a small model.  Lindberg and Aurora were the primary culprits.  I also hated the tiny bits all sliding around inside - I was proficient at damaging the parts myself, so the help was unwelcome.  Of course, now small kits can still be found in large boxes, but most of the time it is because there are something like 1,200 pieces!

I also never liked the markings molded as raised lines on the plastic.  You had to get the decals on perfect for them to match, but that was not a realistic expectation from an elementary school kid.

But I think I liked more stuff than hated with the old models.  I looked for kits with operating features - retractable landing gear, no matter how badly engineered, would guarantee a purchase.  Glow in the dark parts, spring operated gimmicks, it was a lot of fun.  Raised panel lines and rivets were still fashionable, and nobody cared about color accuracy.

But like childhood, you can never go back, until senility hits.

Paint? Didn't cross my mind cuz I was too busy slapping the model together in one day. The decals was my favorite part. I remember doing a Monogram DC3 about 1965 or so and forgetting to add the interior parts. I just wanted the darn thing together.

Every time they come out with a 'snif-proof' glue, along came a new and improved sniffer.

My earliest recollection of building a model was of a 1/700 WWII battleship.  Glue everywhere.  B turret glued where the A turret should have been - AA battery of B turret now under the main guns of the upper turret.  No paint or decals to deal with.  Now in some landfill somewhere ever so slowly decaying.

My first models were in the late '50s. I remember the Revell "box-scale" models, especially their B-36 and B-47, and how cool I thought they were. Sometime in that era I built the small USS Forrestal kit, but left the planes loose so I could play with them, doing launches and landings.

Nothing much has changed since then.

Cobra 427

I remember Duco brand cement!...I loved the way it smelled...

That triggered more of a memory about Duco--wasn't it lemon-scented?