What got you interested in modelling?

I got started with a love of history, given to me by my grandfathers and my dad. Hearing the stories of all my ancestors, all of which served our country back to the Revolutionary war. One of my grandfather's was a tail-gunner on B-24's and the other was a navigator on B-29's. The first kits I ever did was to try and recreate both their planes. Was a daunting task for an 8 yr old. I had em both done inside a week. Gaps, seems, glue everywhere, you name it! But both men acted as if I had done the greatest modeling job ever. Sure miss those guys. Anyway, that's how I got started.

History. I was born at Selfridge Field, Mi. The second oldest AF installation and fourth oldest military installation in the country. I grew up as a military brat, went to work for the government , and then entered the military for a career. When I was young I grew up around aircraft. When not roaming the country(Uncle Sam)I was with my uncles out at Detroit city airport. I learned to fly at Marine City airport in an Aeronca Champ. Everyone should fly a taildragger at least once in their life. Iworked in motion picture operations and was on the "ground floor" when the BX/PX system took it over. In the military I spent my time around F-15s, RC/KC-135s, B-52s, A/OA-37s and A-10s. At Bitburg I saw the first F-15s assigned to USAF Europe and watched our last F-4 leave the base. It was not planned this way,but the property i bought while in the AF is exactly 7 miles south of our local airport/Air Guard/AF Res training site.

For me, modeling was just the next logical step up the ladder. By about one year of age I was playing with Duplo (large lego) and by about 3 years old, had graduated to Lego. Since Lego was limiting in both color and shape, I started building models for a "more accurate" finish (The USS Arizona with a sky blue deck comes to mind) and has evolved into my passion for armor.
PS: On the topic of Lego, in a couple of weeks I'll be posting pictures of some Lego WW2 models I made while bored one day. The inspiration came from this site: http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Yoyo/1699/hob.html I'm sure that Shermanfreak will like the motorized Sherman.

A couple of my dad's old friends were modelers who helped me get into building when I was 7 or 8. They gave me a few of their old completed models for which they no longer had storage space; a 1/72 B-52, a snowspeeder, and a tank (not sure which one). They also gave me my first basic airbrush and my first kit to build on my very own! They were great guys who inspired a life-long passion for models.

I got started during Kindergarten years or possibly before. It started with the dinosaur kits (was into dinosaurs at the time), and then the Godzilla and King Kong kits. I was inspired by the creature feature movies they played on the weekends. In 1st grade Star Trek was my thing and I built most of the AMT kits.
My parents bought me a lot of kits and I was hooked. In later years I became obsessed with aviation and soon my ceiling was supporting a big, swirling dogfight. I built a multitude of kits, but didn't get good at it until I found a hobby shop that carried instructional books and mags.

DJ

Well there was a great hobby shop a block from my Grandparents house(Rider's Hobbies) that I wandered into one day at the ripe old age of seven. The huge display cases full of models got me interested. I build planes, but it was a group of scratchbuilt WWI armour in that case that won me over to our wonderful hobby!

I used to build models as a kid, although they were hot rods, but last December I was Diagnosed with Parkinsons, and I started to go crazy sitting around watching TV, So....... I decided to give 1/35 armor a try. Its definetly a task to paint but I think they come out pretty good, My supllier has offered to display my latest one when I finish it, when I figure out how to put my pics in my posts I'll show off my works in progress. It takes about a month & a half to complete one, but I get there :)
Antagonist

Got started with Airfix figures and it grew and grew and grew for nearly 40 years. Now it just the relaxing part, i listen to my CD's while building.

Hi everyone.

My dad got me interested when I was a little boy with gifts of 1/72 spitfires and phantoms by the time I got to my late teens my interests turned to fast cars and girls (what pleasent memories!)

What inspired me to come back to the the hobby in my mid-twenties was going to an airshow with a friend of mine who at the time was an avid model builder. After a full day of mavelling at the warbirds and jets screaming above me, I got to see his model collection and that was it. I've been hooked(some say obsessed) ever since!

Being handed an Airfix 1:600 scale HMS Daring when i was 8.That was 34 years ago and i'm still at it.I'm presently trying to get my 10 yr old nephew interested in the hobby.
Happy modelling
Pete

When I was twelve I had to spend two weeks in the childrens hospital. I was away from home for the first time, my dad came to visit after a couple of days there he brought a snap-tite spitfire model with him. We sat they and started to build the plane together. It made the stay a little easier, when I was done at the hospital my dad came and picked me up and the first thing we did was go to a hobby shop and buy a kit and the rest is history.

For me it was when the Challenger blew up and my parents bought me a space shuttle kit. From there it was planes and cars. After a long break , got back into it and thanks to this forum now have found the enjoyment of armor.

I'm not surprised by the many respondants who said their father was a major influence. I wish I could say the same about mine, but I can't. He never bought me one or helped to build one. Just slept all night. Even though my kids don't share my passion for modeling, I at least stirred some interest and shared some quality time with them.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."-R.E.Lee

I started building them as a kid because the toys that were available then were so lame. I think my first one was a Devastator. I played with them until there was nothing left to break off of them and then I'd go out in the yard and set them on fire and pretended that they had just crashed.

Now I just put them on a shelf.

Not as dramatic.

But they don't stink as bad.

-the fish

In the late 50's and early 60's I was lucky enough to be raised around several "gearhead" relatives and their friends. This is when I would model my dream car or try to model a friend or realative's "real " hotrod. Modeling then was a cheap way to try out your ideas in plastic before making the expensive move on your real ride.I still do an occaisional car kit but I really don't want to "T" off any car modelers but I enjoy the challenge of aircraft modelling much more. The historical part of modeling is much more of a challenge to me. But I do still enjoy the occaisional " artistic freedom" offered by car modelling.

My father was the one who got me started. He had fun building them when he was a kid.( except after building he would go and shoot them with a BB gun; destroy them and then rebuild them.) But he thought that I would have fun with them and he was right.

My father was in the U.S. Navy during World War II. As a kid, I spent a lot of time building Monogram's 1/48 scale Navy kits -- the ones with the "operating features," like folding wings and retracting landing gear. I'd build them, and Dad would tell me stories about working on them, or what they were like to fly in.

Dad was never that into plastic models, but he was always happy to stop at the hobby shop on the way home from Cub Scouts, etc. He builds plank-on-frame wooden ship models now.

My older brother Mark is a longtime modeler, too. In fact, it was Mark who showed me the first copy of FSM when it came out. Before FSM, we used to buy copies of Model Railroader, because it was the only place to find articles on airbrushing and weathering.

Kind of a family effort, I guess.

Matt Usher
Senior Editor, FSM

When I was about 4, I was trying on my dads' shoes and came across the box for his Monogram B-25 Mitchell. I came racing out of the room wearing these huge shoes and carrying the model box in front of me.

From there, it's history.

I think I totally brought it on myself. I remember going to the local drug store where they had a small collection of toys and various other things. They always had several kits on the shelves and there were some pretty cool cars on the tops of those boxes!! I'm sure I convinced my Mom to buy one for me, and I seem to remember Dad helping me out. Don't really remember which was the 'first' kit, but I did have quite a few that tended to go together quite quickly (is a couple of hours quick?? I remember trying to glue the engines into the chassis before the chassis pieces or engine pieces had set... what a frustrating mess...)

Dad says he still has lots of them in 'storage' somewhere but he can't seem to find them... Talk about getting your hopes up!!

Murray

model glue!!!!!!!!!!! just kidden for me its rc airpllanes are to expensive

At 7 years old a family freind gave me a P-61 blackwidow kit, a tube of glue and not enough time for it to set, it flew into "battle" I have been hooked by the plastic jones ever since. also it is the only way I will ever "own" my own Nascar team, a used car lot, a gas station or any super car my warped mind has ever wanted. the best part is now sharing this hobby with my wife who builds when she gets a bug to,and my 10 year old daughter who has cleared out any and all snap kits she has found on the shelfs in our hobby room. I also feel that unlike our playstation generation models make your imagination work to get what you want , not just turn on the tube and let your brain melt from there. and yes we do have a PS2 , but I'd rather spend the time glueing and painting my newest project.
oh yeah, this is for greggers who was asked if he troweled on his finnish, that person is usualy the one who shows up, knows all, yet never has any models of his own to show, because his projects are on such a huge scale that us mear mortals could never comprehend it. yeah right. A lot of people have left clubs and have never entered contests because of these idiots and thier mouths. ok I'm done on my soap box.

I got started in the late 80's and joined a club in Dallas called the MCMA. I did nothing but cars and got bored. After 6 years stopped, got married and then divorced. Well friday I had spinal surgery and can't do anything but sit at home in a neck brace for 4 to 6 weeks and so I bought armor models, cleaned out the airbrush and bought some fresh paint and here I go again but only armor. Not hot rods.

My father... the only good thing he ever did for me.

I hope he dies soon.

jridge.. 1:1 scale girls? Heh.. One of my ex´s has ended up at least 2:1..

I am not bitter..

when i was about 4 or 5 i used to holiday in sydney(australia)and my mums best friend took me the city to visit ahobby shop called hobbyco.it contained everything a young boy could ever hope for.it had two levels and downstairs contained some of the best dioramas a little fella could ever feast his eyes on.to me it was another world.the shop still exsists and the next time i am in sydney i will make a pilgrimage there.

My uncle bought me my first model when I was about 10 yrs old. A 1964 Chevy Impala. I remember it was molded in white plastic, and that's just how it went together. No paint, but plenty of glue smudges from my fingers all over it. That was it, I was hooked. After that, my interest went heavily towards WW II ships and aircraft. 36 years later, I now airbrush my models and try and keep the glue smudges to a minimum. :-)

Three uncles got me interested in WWII and flying - one was a bommbadier on a B-24, one was a B-17 instructor, one was a chief aircraft mechanic on the Enterprize. My 1st model was an F-80 Shooting Star. I was probably 6 or 7? It was wood except for the cockpit, eight pieces total, if I remember correctly. I logged a 1,000 hours flying that thing around the house. I built airplanes, ships and cars until I was about 12. Then girls and cars (1:1 scale) became the priority.

I got interested in modeling again after almost 50 years when I decided to do some research on my uncle's B-24 - after 9-11. His plane crashed on 09-11-44. Then I started thinking about recreating it. I built a 1/48 B-25J and a 1/48 B-24D over the winter to see if I still had the skills. Boy, has the hobby changed since the days of glue em, decal em. play with em.... So's my eye sight! But, I'm going to give my uncle's B-24 a shot.

Jim

PS: I forgot about the glue smudges, frosted canopies, glue on my blue jeans........ Thankfully, superglue had not been invented yet!

It was learn to walk, talk, glue aeroplanes together.. For as long as I can remember, which (not counting saturday night, which was a blur) is at least 22 years ago. I'm 25 now...

MY DAD..when i was seven years old my cad came home from duty.[RAF.] with a kit of the QE2...by airfix...i was a kind of child prodigy...[too clever for own good].
and he thought he would see how i got on with it.... i had it finished and painted in a week.....and i used none of the tools we get today...just a toothpick and a tube of poly cement.....[SNIFFLE] those were the days....i think that my next kit he bought for me was the airfix..Scharnhorst.......i been hooked ever since