When did you start Modeling?

My first model was an aircraft carrier. I was so proud of myself, it only took me two hours to complete it. All the planes were painted silver. I was about 14 years old, and my Nana bought it for me to keep me quiet and out of trouble for a couple of hours. Nana passed on in 1996. My Nana left me that paint stained table that I made that kit on

First plastic model for me was an Aurora Me-109. This was back in early 50's. The local five and ten cent store had a small hobby dept. , and my buddies and I bought and built every plastic airplane kit they kept in stock.

My first a/c was a 1/32 P-51B by Revell I think. I painted it in aSEA scheme w/ teeth. I still have it. Man that goes back now 18yrs or so.
How time flys when your having fun...!!!! Flaps up,Mike

I guess it's never to late to start. I'm 53 and started last year with a balsa model and now have moved on to plastic. I've done a P51, a Catalina PBY and I'm working on F-15E now. Still lots to learn but it's been a lot of fun and very relaxing.

m y very first model that i was to young for was a like1/8 scale street rod,by Aurora that everything worked on and it had wiring and all kinds of stuff,but I destroyed it before compleation.Then I moved on to bird models . I was able to finish a perfect robin redbrest.I don't remember who manufactured them,does anyone out there remember the bird models?
Davey5

Ah memories! The year was 1975 and the kit was an Aurora PBY Catalina. To day I build 1/72 fighters, but love to collect old flying boat kits and other old A/C kits. I had the PBY for 20 years and used it to test my airbrush. I'm so ashamed, but I did love that plane. Best regards Woody

Back in the 80's, exactly in 1982

21 years on this BUSSINES!!

...and it was the Blue Devil Fletcher Class Destroyer 1/25 HUGE!!!!!!!

Haha! My first one was an unpainted ARII(Otaki) Spitfire in the 1/48 scale in the year 1997. Though I still struggle with putty and sanding I can safely say I have come a long way from my first two kits(the spitfire and the Bf109E) and only my love for airplanes and the joy of putting aircraft together keeps me going.

Cheers,
Nandakumar

I built a 1/72 scale Focke Wulf 189 from FROG back in 1973, and boy was it a beaut! It didn't take long to build and paint and it showed. The canopy was clouded due to excess amounts of glue as well as sink marks on the fuselage where too much glue had dripped downwards from the canopy... Oh, and the glue fingerprints...the wings looked like a police report.

I started "modeling" when I was about 9 or 10. My first actual model was some time earlier (a Monogram 1955 (?) Chevy), but I really started out in the hobby at the time when my Dad got back into it.

He had built mostly cars up until the late 70's or early 80's. He got back into it after a short hiatus when he started working on some kits of airplanes & spacecraft for which the company he worked for made components. One of the first of these that I recall being completed was the Revell 1/72 Space Shuttle. Another was a Monogram 1/48 F-4J.

My first "serious" model as a kid was a 1/72 P-51B. Some others were: Revell 1/32 F4F, Monogram 1/48 P-40's (MANY of them! After all, I'm Mr.P-40! ) and too many others to mention. I kinda miss those days of simple model building, without worrying too much about accuracy and such.

So, I guess I've been building for right around 20 years. Seriously for only slightly less. As a Junior member of our club, I grasped the concept of "serious" model building when I was about 11 or 12. From that time until now, I have never built a model without some sort of research to go along with it. I dunno if that's a good or a bad thing!

Fade to Black...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . .

I must have been around 10 or 11, and I think my first kit was the old Aurora Seaview, which I DO remember cost 69 cents.
I remember being upset because I couldn't afford the Flying Sub, which was a dollar! (Allowance only went so far!)

I built my first kit when my Cub Scout pack went to the post hobby shop at Ft. Buckner, Okinawa, for a meeting. I got an Aurora SNJ trainer. It was the most amazing thing this then-6-year-old had ever seen. Build the Revell F-11 Tiger next. That was in 1959. I built my first serious a/c a few years later: Revell's Memphis Belle kit. I have one of each stashed away for rainy days when I just want to daydream awhile .......................:) -Ed

My first kit/s...well I did built these Japanese kits packed with a chewing gum. That when I was 9 or 10 years old (1982 or 83). Since all the writings were in Japanese, I couldn't figure out who made it and what scale. The plastic quality was different from today. Possibly it was intended as an expendable snap-tie kit. It was quite detailed but didn't paint. The subject I cannot remember exactly but I possibly built 2 USS New Jersey or Iowa, 1 UH-60? and Dassault Super Etendard. The scale could be 1/72 for the aircraft and 1/700 for the ships, I guess. Well the kits were history. Now I'am almost 30 years old. As long as I can remember the models were virtually destroyed by my younger brother when I was away furthering my study at university. The only remnant of it was part of the wing of Super Etendard. The reasons of building the kits...you can eat while assembling. Maybe someone from Japan can enlight me on this.

I was about five years old, so that would put it around 1959. There was the usual late teenage years hiatus. I picked it up again when I was about 22. haven't looked back...

BACK IN 68 WITH AN MPC MONKEE MOBILE, I WAS 8 YRS OLD THEN.
BUILT THE CAR 1ST FORGOT TO PUT THE ENGINE IN IT. REVELL, 57 CHEVY NOMAD, REMEMBER THOSE?, OPENING DOORS, INDIVIDUAL BODY SIDE MOULDINGS ETC, HAD THE WHOLE SERIESOF THOSE FIFTY CHEVY'S. NOW THOSE CAR KITS ARE IN THE CLOSET BUT MY PREFERENCE NOW IS NAVAL AVIATION WWII TO PRESENT...SO LONG AGO.

Ahhh, memories...

I recall my first being a Matchbox 1/72 Saab Viggen, around the mid 70s. Reading through the string above brought back memories of the disasters on this one. They seemed OK at the time. Boybuddho's mention of fingerprints... oh yes!! I know that too well. The Viggen was covered in them. Decals. Didn't think they would stick too well on their own after soaking in water, so intelligent me applied some additional 'glue' for insurance. Only it was plastic cement. What a mess. And the canopy was all fogged up. Canopies on all the others since the Viggen fogged up too. Remember thinking that those manufacturers must be real dumb a**es for making stuff that fog up so easily. Then I read 'Hints & Tips for Plastic Modelling' in 1980 (anyone remember that book with the orange colored cover?). Found out about using white glue. Boy, guess it was me who was the dumb a** after all.

Reading all your posts really brought a big grin. The early days sure were fun...didn't bother too much about getting everything right, and what was important was getting that model ready to zoom all round the house!

My first was the U.S.S Enterprise from Stat Trek back in 1968. Went from there to airplanes, helicopters,cars, ships. Pretty much left the hobby in early hood, except for a occasional car. Got back into the hobby in the summer of 1992 after seeing the June issue of Scale Auto Enthusiast with a yellow 66 Ford Fairlane on the cover. The rest is history. Noe I build mostly cars, and helicopters with a occasional W.W.II fighter thrown in.
Lee

I can't remember that far back, but I do recall taking a small F-102 model to show and tell in Kindergarten. That would be 1962, and I can't imaging what make the kit was. Aurora? Revell? It was pretty small, even to a 5-year-old me, so I'm guessing 1/144 scale or thereabouts. I also remember coming home from Two Guys with a Revell X-15 model the same time we got our first color TV.

Keyworth, You wouldn't be a Kubasaki alumni would you? Ate many a bowl of
rice and gravy at the Ft Buckner PX. I lived on the rock from 50-52 at Kadena
and 61-64 at Naha.
My first models were the old Comet balsa and tissue kits bought in the PX for
10 cents.----Ambroid cement

I started around the age of 8 with a snap together corvette.

This will be telling about myself but my first rememberances are the war years(WW2)and I built solid balsa models of the P-51,P-47,B-25,etc,etc. I remember a balsa Stuka that i built and converted it to my personal, general aviation airplane that my imagination flew around Galion,Oh with me making engine noises with my mouth.I painted it all black. As i got older i graduated to flying models(gas engines) free flight & control line. I had an Ohlsson 23, a McCoy 29 Redhead(actually still have them). Owned a Dennymite for a while but traded it for a Red Ryder BB gun.Too bad. I've been told Dennymites are worth something these days. in the mid 1950's started building Aurora plastic WW1 models and have been at it off and on since then.I'm 'on' now and my preference is 1/48 WW2 aircraft.Just finished the Hasegawa P-38. Just as an added note, my engines had a sparkplug,coil & condenser. The "glowplug"was just coming in when i quit building that type model.
Teise

My first modeling happened in 1956 when my mom bought me a wood airplane kit. My step dad and I spent many hours working on it - me doing the work and dad showing me how. That kit was a Monogram B-17 with plastic parts. And I have never really stopped modeling since then. There have been a few pauses - like Viet Nam (I did start a Revell F4 while in Da Nang and finished a Huey shortly after).

My first model was a joint venture with my father. looking at the latest Tamiya catalogue it looks like a 1/20 Honda F1. In the late 60's i think. Great memories.

Andy

Hm, my first model, I just turned 6, was a wooden Bf-109 my mothers uncle gave me as a gift. He flew this bird in WWII in Jagdgeschwader 52. Tried to paint it red with lipstick... My first real, selfmade one was a Revell Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker in 1:72 when I was 10 (this model was precoloured red, so I didn´t had to paint it!)
As the result didn´t meet my expectations, it ended up in the garden, blown appart by a switzer cracker... ups...

Heh, this has rather special meaning for me as it was kind of a prophecy you might say. My first one was a Revell model of the USS Alabama. My dad got it for me when I was 10 years old, because I just had my appendectomy, and it was summertime, and I was restless, not being able to go out and play for awhile.

The model of couse did not last too long at that age as it was also a toy (!), but the interesting part is that I was born in Greece and when I graduated from High School I came to the United States to go to college, and ended up in Birmingham, Alabama, where I have been since then.

Mine was a 1/72 Spitfire of forgotten manufacture. I was about 5 or 6 and it crashed on it's maden flight, thanks to my younger sister. I've been on about a 20+ year hiatus but now that I have a 6 year old son, I'm starting over with him. Back in high school, I had a summer school class where we built and flew balsa planes. Those were my first of those. I just bought a balsa TBF Avenger yesterday to introduce my son to those too.

Wow...this makes me the REAL senior citizen of this forum. I can remember building several Ryan STs out of solid balsa, and also some wood and paper kits. I have to admit this goes back to the late 30s and very early 40s. After about a 50 year hiatus, i got back into again...with much more patience and loving care. I have enjoyed all of your remembrances of your first models.

I started out with a couple snap-tites - a Star Wars X Wing fighter and a USS Constellation aircraft carrier. Put the decals on the bare plastic (hey, it said molded in color, why paint it, I thought!) and when they started to peel off, put 'em back in place with scotch tape! I wound up treating them like toys more than anything else. That was probably close to 20 years ago.

My first "serious" one, with glue and paint and all, was a Testor's F-104 that my dad helped me with (just last week we perused a couple dedicated hobby shops with WALLS of kits and he finally realized just what sort of monster he had created). Come to think of it, that would be a nice one to restore for nostalgia sake....