What first inspired you to build your first kit?

...mighta been an airplane flying overhead or one of the occasional trips out to the local airport (early / mid '50's)......or one of my uncles stories about being a pilot.........and the realization that there were plastic model airplane kits you can put together........
it's become so much a part of me i guess i've lost sight of where or why modelling began but, the inspiration is a flame that's never flickered....

My dad brought an old Eldon P-51 kit home from the post hobby shop when I was 6 and living at Ft. Buckner, Okinawa. I bullt it in about 30 minutes using a whole tube of glue. I've been hooked ever since.

hey chopperfan, I live in fresno, very close to tulare. Now the airfield has an F4 Phantom and a b-17 1:1 scale on display and I alwys like to look as I drive by on road trips to southern CA.

As for me I love the Civil War and I always used to play with my civil war army guys. So one day I asked my artist sister if she would paint one, she did and several days later I painted one at my cousins house in Atlanta while on vacation. Not very good at all. So I started out painting figs. a year later, my cousinasked if we had a hobbyshop near us. Since we were staying at my gradmas house, my grandma drove us and said we could each get a couple of things. Don't know why but I got a 1/72 italer M4 Sherman. After that Kit, I was hooked, for good. So I guess I have My cousin to thank, and my passion for American History, and miniatures. I am anxious to see if my modeling skills are better than his this year. Last year he blew me away. In fact, he should be on a plane right now. OWnder what kind of kit he will get..... aircraft, armor, helo..............

When I was six, my mother got tired of me whining that I was bored. So, she gave me two model ship she'd built as a kid herself. Of course, I broke them, and went to her and said, "Fix them!" She told me to "fix them yourself!" so I went and got some glue, (Elmers) and spent the day trying to fix what I'd broken. My mother noticed how engrossed I was in it, and several days later, she brought home a 1/48 scale F-80 Shooting Star and we worked on it together on the kitchen table. I played with it for weeks until it broke too much, and my mother tossed it one day while I was at school. Later, she started me on 1/72 scale planes, and I learned to play with them more carefully! It was my friend Emmanuel who really got me hooked, and taught me to paint too! 34 years later, I still have that 'first' model: a 1/72 scale Focke Wulf FW190D.

When I was a young boy my mother was diagnosed with cancer. The last few years of her life were rough so I was frequently sent to stay with my grandparents. They lived two blocks from Rider's Hobby Shop in Flint, Mi and I found the store one day. Looking in the window I couldn't help myself and I was drawn into the store. What seven year old boy wouldn't be? lol
The store staff was friendly and the thing that sticks in my mind to this day was the scratchbuild WW I tanks. The next day I drug my Gramps and his wallet back up there and bought an exacto knife set, glue, paint, and a couple A/C kits. I started with the Aurora PBY and then a Spitfire. I built about four models in quick succession. It was the diversion I need at that confusing and overwhelming time in my life.

for me it was when my dad took me to my first airshow. they did a pearl harbor reinactment a few days later he got me a zero kit. still have it to this day.

One of my older brothers built a few models, so I sort of made a '49 Ford sedan. You know thopse old kits, the ones where the body sides were separate?!
Not a whole lot of interest until my brother and father took me to the National Championship Air Races at Reno in 1970, just before my twelfth birthday. Seeing Darryl Greenameyer whiz past in his Bearcat at barely 80 feet above the ground thrilled the beejeepers out of me!
My father is an artist and encouraged my interest in building models, but seeing those air racers really got me going. Been building and going to the races ever since!

Allright, glad to see someone else mention Top Gun.
I saw that movie when I was a little kid, and it's what got me into aircraft. Also, my family on my mother's side has been actively involved in the military for a long time. When I was a child, my grandfather took me to various army bases, and I saw a plethora of things I thought were very cool. Obviously, I still think so to this day. When I finally figured out that there were such things as models, I was hooked.

My dad,he came home after work in hand and wanted to teach me something.I had telent to do this also with oil painting to,so he combined the to for me.Well for the rest is history now,Thanks Dad.Digger
P.s. I just wish he was around to see some of my new works.

i guess i was just a typical boy. i've loved war movies ever since i can remember. my mom would take my brother and i shopping at the mall, which had a small hobby shop in it. she'd give us $20 a piece to spend as we liked. my brother would head for the arcade and i'd make a bee line to the hobby shop!! they always had built up kits in there and i would just gawk for hours at how the builder did this and that to add realism to the model!! i finally talked my mom into letting me purchase one and the glue, and ofcourse we ended up spilling this and that just as my mom suspected!! she ended my fledgling modelling career about 2 weeks later when i spilt a whole bottle of liquid glue on her brand new coffee table!! i had a piece of news paper as a drop cloth and it welded the print on the paper to the coffee table and totaled the lacquer finish within seconds!!LOL. that didn't keep me from returning and gawking at the models on display though. oneday, i asked the hobby shop attendant how the builder got those feathered edges on the camo job. he told me that he did it with an airbrush! he showed me the airbrush and i just fell in love with it. well, it took me about 4 good Christmas's before Santa Claus got the balls to bring me one!! then, i started up my airbrushing with a brand spanking new paashe VL. i sprayed everything i could get my hands on for the next 6 months including one model......an F-5 tiger with a camo scheme. i remember being pround of those feathered edges and smooth finish..........then...........tradgity struck again!!! i spilled a whole bottle of blue Createx fabric paint on moms brand new carpet that just got installed in our brand new home!!! she banished me to the garage which was just too dark, hot, and cold according to the seasons!! then, i turned 16 and got my license and wine, women, and song took me on a long journey until i was 26 and finally got married to my lovely wife. modelling and airbrushing always remained a hidden passion in the back of my mind all those years and finally, i moved to a place where i could do this hobby and nobody could say anything about it cause I WAS PAYING THE BILLS NOW!!!!!! and, just as i laid hands on an airbrush after all those long years, all that joy that i experieced as a teenager resurfaced and i fell right back in love with this hobby. airbrushing is my favorite part of this hobby, right along with visiting this forum and sharing my modelling experiences with my fellow modellers!!

For me, it was TV. "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "Lost in Space", and "Star Trek."
I just had to have kits of those cool vehicles.
Paul

Pure and simple, it was Godzilla. What other movies have armor, aircraft, ships, space ships, AND giant monsters?
I was hooked from before I can even remember.

QUOTE: Originally posted by woodbeck3 I still love building my own "toys".

Hehehe... There was a time during an IPMS meeting that a friend of mine got a hold of a Macross Valkyrie and started making sound effects! I couldn't believe it... a grown man going "Eeeeeerrrrmm! Tat-tat-tat-tat Fwooooosh!" LOL!! I guess we're all still kids at heart!

For me it's the Battle of Britain. After seeing the movie I went directly to Goodwill ( it's the only one I know at that time selling models) and was looking for a Spitfire. Not finding any, I settled for the Airfix 1/72 Bristol Beaufighter TFX and have not stopped buying since.

My dad was into models. He built a crib mobile for me out of 1/72 scale WWII airplanes. He painted them all different bright colors. My mom still has it packed away to this day. So the joke around my house is that I came by my love of modeling honestly! I have been building stuff with my dad ever since I can remember. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of dad taking me to Tiny's hobby shop. It's funny now that I think about it, I've been at it for this long you would think that I would be a hell of a lot better at building than I am! LOL

I got my first kit on Christmas when I was 8 years old. I don't really remember what it was. I built a few cars and pickups until one Saturday morning when I was 10 years old.
This elderly gentleman told his 2 grandsons that they could each invite 1 friend to go for an all day excursion in his Piper Comanche. Now, I wouldn't even climb a ladder back then so my Mother figured I'd say no. When she asked me, they couldn't get to the curb in front of our house quick enough to pick me up.
As we flew around that day, all over the Central Valley of California this gentleman, Oliver Mefford was his name, told stories of his days as a pilot instructor at Rankin Field just East of Tulare, where I was born, during World War II.
Flying around that day and listening to his stories did it. I've been a "winged thingy" and "rotorhead" fan ever since. That's when I got a little more serious about modeling.

Randie

I always loved dinosaurs. Santa brought me a kit of a Brontosaurus skeleton for my 6th christmas and me and mom and dad sat at the kitchen table that day and built it. That was the day that the bait was taken, hook was set and I was on the line.

I dont remember other then it was a jet. I wanted it because it looked cooler then my other toy planes but my dad said I had to put it togther. I thought that was awesome, build my own toy I was all for it so the love affair has been ever since. I still love building my own "toys".

-Jeff

I really can't remember what my first kit was or why I built it. I probably would have been 11 or 12 years old at the time and don't recall a lot of details from that early in my life. It probably would have been something simple though, like the box art looked cool.

Enjoy your modeling...

would you believe that i had no inspiration other than my uncle was going to buy it. sounds strange especially for what i am now but it is true.

joe

Ironically it was the movie Tora Tora Tora and all those BB's. However, after I jumped into the library at my elem. school and checked out numerous books, I settled on Fujimi's Dauntless in 1/48. I just thought it was a cool plane and perhaps the boxart swayed me in. Needless to say it was an aweful build. Would love to see a pic of it if anyone has it. Probably OOP.