Early modeling stories

I got seriously building at about 8-9. It was after the movie Tora Tora Tora, that military history took over and got me hook, line and sinker into model building. I started in ships in 1/700 scale and then moved to airplanes. My first effort was a dauntless and I made a mess of it. Did I even read the directions? My friend and I had quite an airfleet of Monogram planes. The coffee-table was our carrier deck. He was the one person whom kept the model fire stoked, for his collection was more eclectic and vast compared to mine. I think he had seemingly every 1/350 Revell ship and we had many mock Pearl Harbor battles. You should have seen some of his early efforts. I have no idea what glue he used on his poor North Carolina!

When I moved up to armor, I built my Monogram Panzer IV in one night. I was that excited. It was a great model. We used to incorporate my friend's HO scale train and make train stations and such and blast the heck out of them. Accuracy was also out, for every Panzer was painted Panzergrey. Then like most everyone in the hobby, it took a back seat to life in mid HS until about 4 years ago. The forum has inspired and grown my stash into a stash. My friend sadly moved some many years ago, so I'm happy to say I have many new modeling friends since I joined the forum to continue and share the  great hobby with.

I never built much as a kid. Here and there. Not any quality by a  long shot. However, I did have a fascination with WWII planes. I used to draw them all the time. About 2 years ago, I was trying to decide on a hobby for myself. Photography interested me but I never pursued it. One day I decided to give modeling a shot. Well, the rest is history (excuse the pun). My first plane was a P-38 and I was addicted from then. Getting back into it and learning all I could, I realized how 'serious' and involved modeling has become in the past 15 years or so. It's almost not for kids anymore. It's evolved into a complex and exciting hobby all over the world. The quality of kits, paint, tools and aftermarket products has brought modeling to a highly skilled level. I don't do much, but what I do, I try to do well. Modeling is a challenge and a test of my abilities and imagination. That's why I enjoy it so much. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring!

Andy

I remember building my first Star Trek kit, the K-7 Space Station as seen in the episode, Trouble With Tribbles. It came with this neat little Enterprise ship. I could never get the kit to look like the photo on the box top.

My dad first introduced me to modeling with a 1/32 scale Aurora hotrod hotdog stand truck called 'The Wurst'. It was molded in red with a white umbrella shade with a pair of hippies in beach attire.

I remember when I was really little watching my Dad with awe as he built all these cool models, Saturn V rocket, X-15, A-6 Intruder, an old Ferrari race car and my favorite, a big 1/32 Scale P-40E in Flying Tiger Markings. 

The first model I ever built all by myself was an old Sikorsky Navy Helicopter, with pontoons and everything!  I think I was in 2nd grade then.  It was awesome because the plastic was already "shiny blue" so I didn't need to paint it.  I know I got glue everywhere on that thing, but man was it fun!   I still have pictures that my parents took of us building them (my younger brother was next to me, building a Huey.. also cool).

Those were the day, no PE, seldom painted but man did we crank out a lot of those old kits that we could pick up on base at Ft. Leavenworth for around 50 cents each.  Good times, good times..... 

Wiccan Warrior wrote:

I was in first grade when my teacher (?) gave me what I think now is a 1/72 Zero kit. I didn't have a clue about glue, paint ect. ( neither did my teacher, I believe!) so I just taped the major pieces together till they were lost. Not too long after that, my parents gave me a 1/32 (?) Snap-Together Chevy Van (anyone remember those?). One of the wheels broke off and I tried to use my Mom's fingernail polish to get the wheel back on!!

Something sorta similar happened to me. In 4th grade the room was divided into tables of about 4-5 students each. During certain times of day, the table that was quiet and the first ready to go to lunch, recess, and leave would get points. At the end of the day, top table would get a treat. We were amost number 1 every day and as a reward at the end of the year, my teacher gave each of us a gift at my table for having the most points. Anyway, my gift was a Monogram 1/48 Zero. Oh how she knew me!

I'd posted this last year in another thread of similar topic:

I'd come home from school- probably 3rd grade, 1975 or so, with straight A's. I was excited, my mom was excited. She called my dad, and he was so proud of me. He said "I'll bring a surprise home for you."

So I rode my bike, round and round, in front of my house, until finally, finally, I saw the big front end of his Lincoln Continental coming down the street.

I raced along side him, pulling into the driveway with him. I jumped off the bike, and he got out of the car. "Where's the surprise?" He looked at me and said "What? What surprise" I hollered "Daaaaaaad!" He smiled, and from behind his back emerged a box with an airplane on it. A P-47B Thunderbolt. Flying through an explosion, riddled with bullet holes. A hero's plane.

I built it that night. The cover made the plane look brown, and so I asked my mom to get me brown paint. She did. Gloss brown. I didn't know better. I loved it.

The pilot's name was Captain Thunderbolt. For years, he provided air supprt to my army of plastic soldiers. He always saved the day, even when things looked bad.

I loved that plane.

I got older, it went into a box, and eventually it got thrown away and I forgot about Captain Thunderbolt and his shiny brown P-47B.

Until today.

Gentleman, say what you will about eBay. But today, as I write this, I sit with an unbuilt, 1/72 Lindberb P-47B Thunderbolt. It's been over 30 years since I held that box, the instructions, wondered at the parts on the sprues.

I've got 2 kids, a wife and a house. I'm 6-3 and 300 lbs. I've been to war and jumped out of airplanes and driven race cars and I think I'm a pretty tough guy.

But I have tears streaming down my face. This little plane reminds me of a time gone by when life was much simpler and worries were few.

I realize how good it has been for me to get back into building models. It's put me in touch with something that I was missing.

And this little Lindberg , with giant rivets and no detail, is now my most cherished kit.  

Bgrigg wrote:

I model to impress the chicks.

You too?  I thought I was the only one.   Gotta beat 'em off with a stick - how about you?

Jon -

Just one question:  Are you going to paint it gloss brown? 

Seriously - if I were you I'd consider doing that, and (depending on how much it cost) get another one to do up right proper.  It would be a toss-up between replacing the Captain Thunderbolt that is gone, to have the tangible reminder of days past...and the thought that it really wasn't the same one.

alumni72 wrote:

Jon - Just one question:  Are you going to paint it gloss brown?  Seriously - if I were you I'd consider doing that, and (depending on how much it cost) get another one to do up right proper.  It would be a toss-up between replacing the Captain Thunderbolt that is gone, to have the tangible reminder of days past...and the thought that it really wasn't the same one.

Believe it or not, after I'd gotten that kit and posted that, I managed to pick up another of those P-47B's (still sealed up) and Rob Gronovius sent me a reproduction of the kit from the 90's. So I built the reproduction, painting it as it was supposed to be. I figured when I was a kid, I did the best I knew with it- so why not now? So I've got it on the shelf, along with the unbuilt vintage kits!

I even found a pic of the REAL Captain Thunderbolt! How cool is that?

My decals were a bit off, and the S/N is wrong, but that's alright. It's fun to have it on the shelf anyway. 

jwb,

My story is remarkably similar to yours. Instead of a Thunderbolt it was the 1928 Gangbusters car.

Here is what it looks like: 

http://cgi.ebay.com/1928-LINCOLN-GANGBUSTERS-TOURING-CAR-1960s-MODEL-KET_W0QQitemZ230109652580QQcategoryZ2585QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Here is someones built model (2nd from the bottom)

 http://www.gregandsons.com/cars_trucks.htm

I too recently acquired my 1928 Gangbusters kit off of Ebay for less than $20 shipped. I'm pretty sure its the exact kit I had from the early 1960's (made by MPC). I remember the box art and it has that "old" cardboard odor. This would make it about a 45 year old kit. However, I'm a builder not a collector.

As a kid I painted the body using Testor's gloss yellow enamel with a paint brush. The plastic itself is black. Needless to say the results were horrible, the yellow just would not cover that black plastic.

I never did finish this kit and have no idea what happened to it. Looking at it now I would say its definitely for the advanced modeler as it has over 200 parts, many of them very small and delicate. The engine alone has about 25 parts and was part chrome and black plastic. The luggage rack was supposed to fold up, the steering wheel was to turn the front wheels, the engine covers are supposed to open and close, and the seats can fold up and down. It has some neat little accessories like a Tommy gun, pistol, shotgun, windshield and radiator with "bullet holes" and, clear plastic "bootleg" bottles that fit inside of a wooden box. (I remember taking the little guns to school and losing them!). The worst part of the kit was the two figures, their faces and hats came out of the mold all disfigured with lots of flash.

When I finish the kit this time around it will go into one of those clear plastic display cases.

I was six and just dying to build a car model. Family friend helped me with most of it. Parents wouldn't allow me to use that nasty bad smelling Testor's tube cement. I had to use Elmer's white glue. No painting allowed either. I did get to put the decals since that only involved water. Got white glue on the dinner table and got fussed at about that. Later on my uncle took pity on me and actually bought me a tube of glue. While Mom wasn't happy about that at all, she was far less happy when Uncle Ed bought me some paint...

Ended up building models for the next nine years. Went to my first model contest which was a disaster. I was a big kid for my age my stuf got bumped into the adult catagories. Raffle tickets were verbotten (forbidden) being that we were good Southern Baptist because raffles were basically gambling. The IPMS club that hosted the show basically won all of the awards. I had little understanding of how the judging worked and no idea about basic construction. To the outsider it looked like home cooking and several club memebers were fairly arrogant about it. My parents who had really went out of their way (140 miles) and spent their weekend to drag me to this "event" didn't develop a very good impresson of IPMS or the plastic model hobby. That ended my adventures in plastic model building, I didn't touch another model for a good eight years. My first IPMS experience left me with absolutely no interest in a hobby I once loved.

Being bored over Christmas break in college got me to dabbling in the hobby again several years later which would later result in a full blown model addiction. In time I became a card carrying IPMS member, learned about basic construction, got serious about contest modeling at IPMS shows, learned to judge, won some raffle prizes, won some trophies and basically went overboard for a rabid fifteen year run with the hobby. Ah, the joy of addiction.

After being away from the hobby for almost three years, I'm building again and I've rejoined IPMS. It's good to be back.

PS - IPMS member that doesn't build planes, it's Armor all the way.

i was 13 and went to kmart with my uncle.  he bought me a tiger I snap together.  i threw the kit together in a very short time and destroyed it in an even shorter time period.  shortly after i got my first glue together.  i still have the body of that car.  i do wish i had the large scale 64 1/2 mustang that was the first one i bought with my money.  i think i could do better than no paint and lots of glue.

joe