What got you started in the hobby and who/what were your major influences?

I started building in 1979 when i was 9. By then i was already interested in military history thanks to my dad. And though he never served, i kow that that all i wanted to do was join the army. In that year my parents seperate and my dad moved into a flat. The guy who lived in the flat below brought a welcome present for me and my younger brother. I can't recall what he got, but he brought me a 1/72nd Airfix F-86 Sabre. He helped my build it and i remeber that we painted it black for some reason.

I built the kit again a few years ago, and was lucky enough to find a 1970's boxing of it, though this time i did it the proper colours.

After that first kit, i was hooked. And other than my dad getting me interested in all thing military, and the neighbour who got me the kit, the otehr major infulence was Shep Paine. In the mid 80's i was building anything that took my fancy in any scale. I got the Monogram 1/48th B-17G and it included a pamphlet with Shep's crashed B-17 diorama. From that point on i knew i wanted to build dio's.

I remember long ago going over to my great aunts house for Thankgiving. My second cousin, who was way older than me, built model cars and I was fasinated with how well he built them. Ibuild a couple model cars, try to emulate my second cousins quiality and not being anywhere close. I have always been interested in WW2 and aviation. I credit getting seriously into modeling when the old TV show Black Sheep Squadron was on TV. My best friend and I went out and bought/built the old Revell 1/32 Corsair and Zero. That was when I got my fist airbrush for Chrismas. We slapped those kits together with the best paint jobs in the world (strictly our own opinions). We would have our dog fights in the yard with those two kits. Great memories

Here's Ezra's flying lesson!

Dodgy

I hear you Toshi. I also think it is very important that we pass on knowledge and skills to the younger generations. Not always easy, but when its something that ticks a box for them they lap it up. 

In Australia we have an organisation called the Returned & Services League, (RSL), a similar organisation to your American Legion. I am a member and have been for something like 40 years. When a veteran passes away, if the family wishes, we conduct a memorial service at the funeral that recognises that persons service to their country. I have conducted many, many, such services over the years, which means that I have attended many funerals. I get emotional every time I hear a grandchild stand up at these times and tell stories about what they were taught by their grandparents.

I am lucky enough to have 5 beautiful grandchildren and I hope that when my time comes, my grandkids will be able to do the same.

 

Your friend's, Toshi & Ezra

I hear you Toshi. I also think it is very important that we pass on knowledge and skills to the younger generations. Not always easy, but when its something that ticks a box for them they lap it up. 

In Australia we have an organisation called the Returned & Services League, (RSL), a similar organisation to your American Legion. I am a member and have been for something like 40 years. When a veteran passes away, if the family wishes, we conduct a memorial service at the funeral that recognises that persons service to their country. I have conducted many, many, such services over the years, which means that I have attended many funerals. I get emotional every time I hear a grandchild stand up at these times and tell stories about what they were taught by their grandparents.

I am lucky enough to have 5 beautiful grandchildren and I hope that when my time comes, my grandkids will be able to do the same.

My dad used to build those thin balsa wood rubberband powered planes for me to play with.  As time went by, I got a gift from his friend of a Revell Funny Car.  He assembled it and of course I destroyed it.  Little by little I would ask my dad to purchase a kit here and a kit there.  Mostly Monogram WWII fighter planes, especially the Corsair!  

"Baa Baa Blacksheep" the TV series was a big influence on me.  We both used to watch Robert Conrad depicting Greg "Pappy" Boyington with great zeal!  Of course I built several Revell "Blacksheep" kits of which the folding wings always didn't work.  Too much glue!  

My biggest surprise was when my grandmother from Japan sent me a Tamiya P-51 Mustang kit to me.  I was elated.  Taking my son out and building everything with him including kits, Legos, Erector sets etc.  It was about this time that Nintendo/Atari/X-box became popular and like the rest of the world, my son was taken in by the digital age, but that was also a great learning curve for him and my daughter.  I now build kits with my grandson Ezra.  He's a character but does well.  I also built the same balsa wood rubberband powered planes with him and he now takes part in collecting stamps.  He has his own mint state commemorative album from Mystic Stamp Company.  

I feel it's very important to pass down the knowledge and information, old school and new school to the generations that follows.

Your friend's, Toshi & Ezra

If I had to pick the one major influence it would have to be my older brother, he was mainly a car guy. I would sit and watch him build models for hours on end. The other significant thing to influence me was my fathers tenure in the Army and Air Force. I was born an Air Force brat in 1959. So being around aircraft, radar, and military ground vehicles from birth then later watching my older brother build them definately pointed me in the right direction.

I went into modeling feet first (all in) around 1967 starting with the old Airfix 1/72 armor kits. Within 4 years I was building aircraft, ships, cars, etc. There was a small stint during basic and AIT (around 18 months) where I did not have the opportunity to build. But I started again on my first duty assignment. I remember one time while stationed in West Germany (Cold War) that I built the Revell Constitution and the 1/32 F-14 for a Captain friend of mine. I also built many 1/72 ground force vehicles for our S-2 Intel Officer that he used in military vehicle recognition classes.

An influence within the modeling community would no doubt be Shepard Payne. His soft books on shading, perspective, diorama layouts and construction, and scratch building opened a whole new world for me in the early 80's. Later I got hook on the techniques of Bill Horan and his figure painting dioramas. Here are a few more things that influenced my modeling:

- Autoworld Model Magazine

- Tamiya Model Catalogs with the showcase models

- Fine Scale Modeler Magazine (first editions)

- Verlinden and his color model (resin) magazines

- Early Airfix modeling magazines

- The strong surge of IPMS Clubs in the 80's and through 2015

- A local hobby store chain in Columbus Ohio (Hobby Land)

I know I'm missing several, but I have always been involved and influenced by modelers since the mid 60's. Heck, I believe I could say that I may have been influenced by some of you at various model shows, contests, on-line, etc. 

v/r,

Ben

My dad was a USAAF air traffic controller in Puerto Rico during WW II, and it was his stories of the airplanes he had seen plus some Strombecker and Comet wood kits he built that got me interested. As a kid I built Revell, Monogram, and Hawk plastic kits until discovering Airfix and Frog kits in the pages of a copy of RAF Flying Review that my dad brought home with him one day while we were living on the Texas Gulf coast in the late 1950s. I've been a dedicated 1/72 airplane fan ever since bit dabble in other subjects and scales.

Back in 1982 or so there was an article in the paper about a local guy who built models.  I was really taken by the article and saved it.  The guy was a member of IPMS, which I had heard of, but never attempted to join the local chapter.  I was only a kid and didn’t want to nag my dad to drive me all the way to Pearl City.

A little over 10 years later I was working and had a car, and remembering the article, I decided to drop in on the monthly local IPMS meeting.

Lo and behold, the guy in the article was president of the club!  It was like seeing a celebrity for me!  So anyway I did join the club and got to know a bunch of great guys.

One of the best things to come out of this was that we organized two trips to Japan to see the All Japan Hobby Show.  Several guys had never been to Japan, so it was really fun watching them experience culture shock!

This made me realize that model shows were within reach no matter their location, so I started going to the IPMS National Conventions on the mainland.  A friend and I even made it out to England for Scale Modelworld at Telford.

I had no idea that newspaper article would have had such a profound influence on my hobby.

BTW, I saved the entire section of the newspaper, which had a treasure trove of details of life in the 1980s - Only 5 TV channels (3 network stations, PBS, and the Japanese station), adult movies playing in theaters, and new cars for under $10K!

 This started back in Wichita Kansas when I was almost 6 (1957) when I saw some model planes a neighbor had, I was hooked. I always specifically remembered that old yellow unpainted Zero he had..... he was about 15 ... and a bit high-minded and reluctant to let me just touch it.

 And living next to the Boeing (B52's) factory (hear the roar?) where my Dad worked and would sometimes bring me a model from the actual factory. I remember a white unpainted B-36 on a stand with the clear propellers and about a 12" wingspan. That was also part of what put me into this hobby.

 And also around that same time, Mom/Dad and I went to the drive in and I remember a scene in the movie where a guy parked his classic MG roadster. By magically waving his hand near it he then put the miniaturized result in his pocket and went on about his business.

Neat way to park?

That also did a lot to get me into miniatures.

I never saw that movie since and have no idea of the title.

These kind of "snapshot event" memories I still see in my mind and it has constantly kept me in this creative pastime.

How I miss the way things were.....

I got back into the hobby in 1992, thanks to the June 1992 issue of Scale Auto Enthusiast. It had a bright yellow 66 Ford Fairlane I was smitten with. The rest is history.

Like most other builders here, my parents, especially  my father were big influencers on my hobby..  Shep Paine was huge in the early '70's.  I have slammed together  lots of Aifix, Monogram, Revel, ESCI , AMT and many others, kits.  Then in 1969 I started air brushing  Tamiya and Monogram kits.  I joined IPMS and moved to Denver in 1976.  I started going to contests then and I learned a lot from fellow club members and did judging and entering as well.  IPMS club membership has done lot for me.  The internet has had zero influence on me.  I guess I am to old for it.  I also have no military service.  I spent my life outside with Surveying, later Paleontology, don't tell Sheldon.  ( Hey, we found some first Jurassic dinosaurs in 1879 here in Colorado.  Well,  some the first were found in New Jersey,  long story.)  Long story, much shortensd.

Funny that you should mention the old Eagle kits Rick. In my nautical 'bits box' I have the remains of the Altmark from that series and was waxing nostalgic over them, thinking I'd like to build them again. I managed to pick one up a couple of months ago, but can't make up my mind wether to build it or not.

 Wow Bill. You certainly walked me down memory lane with some of those old tv shows. Funnily enough I have a Johnny Horton album with sink the Bismark on it and just talking about that made me remember all those old black and white movies about war at sea.

Yeah Tanker, I can sympathise with that. My old man died when I was 13 and we went from being financially ok to poor almost overnight. My mum was amazing, she made me wooden shelves out of dowell and pine for the models I already had. No new models for a long time after.

Bill,
That Pyro set of 1/1200 Sink the Bismark series, with the movie, was a huge factor for me, too.

A few years ago, Lindberg re-popped a few of them and I got the KGV/ Dorsetshire combo for nostalgia.   
I started with the cruiser, and after a bunch of hours of work, it got bumped to the backburner.  What a piece of junk!  Parts weren't shaped properly and fit was out of the question.  I wonder if we wrestled with these problems in 1963 and just didn't care, or if the molds were no good anymore.

Having been excited by that Pryo series, and learning that they were originally molded by Eagle in the UK, I have accumulated a bunch of Eagle/ Eaglewall kits, but haven't wanted to build one of the old collectors' items.  Now I suspect they may be pretty miserable kits anyway.
Rick

It was 1960. I heard Johnny Horton's song "Sink the Bismarck". Then, I saw the old 1/1200 Pyro "Bismarck" model kit on the shelves in my local Drug Store and bought it for $0.50 and built it when I got home.  I returned the following week and found all the ships in that line ranging from $0.39 and was hooked.  Ultimately, I saved up for the Revell and Aurora ships.

Then, I saw "Combat" with Vic Morrow and Rick Jason and wanted purchase an Airfix Panther.  I soon discovered the Aurora 1/48 tanks and bought them all.  Later TV shows like 12 O'Clock High, The Rat Patrol, McHale's Navy, Hogan's Heroes, and many movies cemented my interest.

My Mom helped.  Soon after I started building, she bought me a Hawk kit of the Super Sabre which she helped me build.  It was great!  Then my Dad came home from sea (He was Navy.) and got me a 1/48 Halftrack.  So, my parents were instrumental in helping me develop as a model builder. God Bless them!

I have a long family history of military service.  Learning about each ancester helped seal the deal for me.  They are my inspiration!

Bill

Hi;

    You just sparked a memory. Things were tight for us and My B'Day came about and food for the family was paramount. Hadn't gone to Social Services. I refused to! Wifey and the Kids, GOD Bless them. Got me a present anyway.

    A 1949 Ford Tudor in the series pictured. I remember seeing an Australian car called a " Ute" ( Basically an Australian Ranchero.) So that's what I built it to be. Best Model car I ever Built. Years later, In my Big Office in Town I had that little car on my desk in a Homemade case.

   Folks would ask about it and I told them, "That's a reminder on how tough things can be sometimes and to never forget it."

Hi,

Its funny.  Thinking back now I can remeber alot of the models that I built as a kid, but I have no recollection of my first kit.  I'm pretty sure that my older brother likely helped me with the first couple kits that I built and suspect that the first one may likely have been one of those old Lindberg/Lifelike 1/32 scale kits that they used to sell at the 5 & Dime store near us.

Pat

I'm not sure what really pushed me to build. My father built wooden sailing ships when he was younger. When I was 7 dad sat down with me and built the MPC Pacer Wagon. No paint just glue. I was hooked. Was spending every penny I had on kits until I was about 14-15. Then girls, cars, and life got in way. Started building again in my late 20's and haven't stopped. It seems as I've got older I'm building more and more.

This was my parents kitchen table. I was about 14

My dad got me 2 WWI 1/72 models on my 5th bday in 1964.I don't remember the maker but i blame him for getting me hooked all these many years

In my earlier years, my dad would sit me on his lap and show me WW II airplane books.  I don't recall if he ever read me a bedtime story, but I knew what a P-40 and Zero looked like before kindergarten.  He tried to make some kits for me, but he was obviously not a model builder.

In grade school, by best friend got me really started when he showed me his 1/72 Revell B-17 "Memphis Belle".  It had it all - moving turrets, flaps and retractable landing gear!  Baa Baa Black Sheep also aired on TV around that time, which I think reinforced our enthusiasm for WW II fighter planes.

Heading into middle school, Star Wars and Tamiya were huge factors in expanding my modeling interests into sci-fi and armor.  Those Shep Paine diorama sheets in Monogram kits were just amazing and we coveted them.  I became aware of guys like Steven Zaloga, Cookie Sewell, Francois Verlinden, Alan Clark and Tony Greenland.  Looking at all the great stuff they did made me want to get in on the action.  This was the turning point in my modeling, when I realized putty and an airbrush were going to be required.

Since then, the momentum has carried me all the way to this day.  I don't know why, but I just love building stuff.

I started when I was about 5.  My Father would pick up one of the old Strombecker wooden kits of a bomber or a solid wing Aurora WWII fighter now and then.  My brothers got me into the early Revell and Monogram aircraft as well as Pyro ships, mostly because they were cheap and it kept me out of their way.

Eventually iit became a way to fill in time because I didn't really have much in the way of friends during school.

I was a farm kid, in North Dakota. Once I saw a crop duster spraying in our neighbor's field, an Aeronca Champ, and hot footed it to watch the guy doing the job. The guy doing the flagging saw me and waved for me to come to him. He told me all about the reason for spraying, and a little bit about the airplane.

The flagger had a "batch truck" in the field, which supplied the Champ with spray loads. When the pilot landed and shut down to reload, he let me sit in his seat. The little airplane seemed as exotic as the Concorde to me, really impressive.

I was eight, and that got me started with building models. That would have been in '49, not much in the way of plastic kits then, so I built balsa free flight models from Cleveland Model kits and plans. That opened a whole new world for me, I began pilot training during university years and went on to my career as a commercial pilot, retiring at age 60 in 2001.

Patrick

When I was 5, my dad gave me my first model kit, a Model T.  I remember it as a Lindberg kit, but I may be wrong.

That was followed by Pyro "Prehistoric Monsters" kits, because I was crazy about dinosaurs when I was a kid (still am, 50 years later).  I assembled those kits with Duco Household Cement.  I can still remember the smell of both that plastic, and that glue.

As I got older and could handle more intricate work (ie, slathering Testors on with a disposable plastic brush), my parents started giving me Revell ship kits in all scales, and Monogram armor, and Aurora monster kits.

I had an uncle, too, who took me to a nearby Kiddie City, when I visited my grandmother.  He would let me pick out a kit to build.  I usually picked a Monogram airplane.

I read a lot-still do-and so, building models went hand-in-hand with the subjects I built, all WW II planes, armor, and ships.  I also built some sci-fi subjects, like the original AMT Enterprise from Star Trek, and the first-generation of Star Wars kits.

By the time I was 11 or 12, I would ride my bike to my local hobby shop (Penn Valley Hobbies, Lansdale PA) on Saturdays, to buy a kit or supplies with my allowance, and later, my paper route money.

I had bench in the basement, an 8'x4' sheet of plywood that started life as a Tyco train layout, then it got a 1/72 airstrip in the middle, and by the time I was in high school, it was mostly a Waterloo wargame with Airfix' figures.

All that time, it was my parents and family who encouraged me, and friends who also built models.  I had no idea of mail order, or of any clubs, IPMS or otherwise.

I gave up the hobby when I went off to college (1982).  But while I was a student living in Germany, I found a set of homecast toy soldiers at a flea market over there.  That led me to start collecting toy soldiers a year or 2 after I graduated.  And I took up casting, too. 

In '90, after reading about it in a book, I visited the MFCA show in Valley Forge, and joined the club.  Around '98 or '99, we started holding our meetings jointly with the local IPMS club, the Delaware Valley Scale Modelers, which I also joined.  And I started building scale models again.  Today, I belong to those clubs, and also to a local club we started 3 years ago here in the Lehigh Valley.

So in this second incarnation of the hobby for me, it's definitely the fellowship of other hobbyists that supplements my own interest.

So that's my journey.  Now, I have a stash that I'll never finish, and a gray army that I do expect I will.

Best regards,

Brad

My parents bought me a model kit, Aurora's "The Wurst" a hotrod hotdog truck that was based off of an old 1930s fire truck. I would guess this was Christmas of 1968 or 69.

It took some pestering to get my dad to build it for me. Afterwards, I know my mom had bought me a set of old style cars that were by Pyro that came in a set together. They were all molded in brown. Those were the first models I built on my own.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/pyro-c171-200-chevy-stock-cars--1182803

Later, I started picking out my own models if I had money. I know my early modeling years I built the Aurora prehistoric scenes dinosaurs. The Saber-toothed Tiger and Allosaurus were my first two, followed by a caveman throwing a boulder. I bought the Saber-tooth with money I got as a gift and the Allosaurus was a birthday gift from a friend.

Aurora monsters and super heroes like the Phantom of the Opera and Spider-man were some other kits I built around the same time.

My biggest influence was the sci-fi TV shows of the day like Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Star Trek along with the Adam West Batman TV show. I bought and built kits from these TV shows.

My friend's big brother had an extensive collection of Renwal 1/32 scale armor kits. They were beautifully built, painted, shiny, on display on a high shelf. He showed me a few of them that had working features.

I never could figure out why he didn't play in the sandbox with those tanks with us. They were so large and awesome that he would win every battle. That was what got me into building armor kits.

I bought an built most of the American armor kits by Aurora and Lindberg. I remember being confused when the MBT70 had both American and German (the "bad guys") decals. I still have that MBT70 kit, but I rebuilt it with parts from a second hand kit I bought for $5 in the early days of eBay (1996 or 97).

Not going to talk about modeling as a young kid.I built stuff to play with it, the,monsters, military stuff, I wasn't so interested in building as in playing with them.

So I will refer to the restart in my mid 20's. What got me started again is my love for military history.Making models brings the history alive,off the pages of a book on to my display shelf.It also brings a sense of accomplishment its something that I can do fairly well and my family and friends appreciate it the same as if I painted,carved,sculpted,sewed or the like.

No influences that I know of.

When I was 6, one of friends and his dad were into flying models and I started there. Built most of the Guillows and Comet kits growing in proficiency slowly to large free flight and gliders. Then one fateful day at my friends house we went to his local HS for some supplies and I picked up the 1/72 Revell Fokker Eindecker. I was hooked and built many of the Revell and early Monogram kits then discovered Airfix, Heller, and Scale Modeler (a precursor to FSM). Dad (a WWII fighter pilot) and mom were always very supportive, but a friend of my Dads was probably who galvanized me the most - Bill Anders, the Apollo 8 CM pilot would come for dinner every couple months and his first stop was always my bedroom to see what I had finished. You can imagine the impact that had on a high school student.

Things slowed down considerably during college, but picked up again during grad school. After we moved from Boston to the Philly area I joined the local modeling club, DVSM, and was a member for many years. Work, kids, and other hobbies swamped out modeling, but I kept picking up modeling mags at the bookstore. When I retired and the kids moved on additional time appeared and the bug bit again. My first task was to repair the fleet which was very satisfying. I always had this plan to build all the airfield equipment in 1/76 scale at some point, so I'm starting there since my workspace is minuscule.