What got you started?

    Well I first started when gundam wing was on cartoon network.  I went to toys r us, they didnt have the action figures there, the only place that did was Kb and they were like 12$ each, this is when action figures were 5$.  They had the wing model kits though.  so I started buying them and snapping them, and well... using them like toys.

    When Ms Gundam went onto cartoon network toys r us had a few of the new ones, Im not sure what kits, they were HGUC I got a Dom and Gouf (really bad tooling compared to the new ones...), mainly because it was buy 2 get one of the MSIA figure figures free (I got Gherin Zabi, like an idiot I opened it, I now have, in packages, hammon, sayla, delaz, garma, and matilda aian, as well as the G-wing hero pack with the pilots and zechs).  After that I got a kit or two from this (now I realise) over priced hobby store.  from there I got... a GM sniper (yes, THAT gm sniper) a korean bandai re-release of a vintage Bawoo kit (such a bad kit... especially as a snapper, it didnt snap) and the hguc Hyaku shiki.  I never painted any of those kits though.

    I lost interest after those kits.  Maybe... a year ago, or so, I was looking up stuff online, and for some ungoddly reason I looked up gundam, found gundamstoreandmore.com and started lookin at the selection, I couldnt believe the kinds of kits that were out.  I got myself alot... atleast for one purchase for me at the time, hguc palace athene, gaza c, qubeley mk II limited edition (like an idiot I freaking built it... I have the qubeley 1 and 2(red) ltd editions now, unopened.) wing gundam ver ka MG, hguc Hazel Custom, and the GP02.

    After snapping them I saw gundam markers for sale, I got one pack, then a second, I have all of them now, even the real touch ones that are suposto simulate washes.  After a while I decided that my old paint (for painting army men) would work nice (testors paint) and I tried painting my Gm sniper (also used some non testors stuff, studio gough... it made a mess.)  It turned out ok (I eventuially destroyed it)  and I painted a normal GM{G} cannon (crappy mod) red and black, which is on my Bakuc.  The paint job was actuially not to bad, not bad at all, if only the mod didnt look crappy, and I didnt use stickers, as well as decals on the kit.

I've been building models longer than I can actually remember. When I was real little, we were very poor. My parents couldn't afford toys, so I used to have to make my own, out of cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes and construction paper. Lots of construction paper.

When I was in the third grade, I found an old book in the school library from WWII. It was about how to make wooden airplane models. These were used to help train novice pilots distinguish between enemy planes and friendly ones. After that, no piece of scrap wood was safe around our house.

Then when Star Wars came out, I really liked the spaceships, but the Kenner toys were far too expensive. The MPC models however, were reasonably priced and more accurate. I built them to play w/ them. This led to model airplanes and tanks.

As a teenager, I got into figure painting because I was into D@D, which improved my figure painting skills a lot.

Years later, I got into the Ma.K.s because features of them are similar to armor, figures and aircraft all in one sci-fi kit. (I don't play w/ them though.    )

That's pretty much where I'm at. I'm not sure where I'm going...

Hey SG, thank you for this thread. I just want to say I think you are a real credit to this forum. I'm very glad that you are a regular contributor here.

As a teenager I dabbled in scale models, 3 autos and 2 gundams, but then it kind of fell to the wayside as college started.  Fast forward through a couple years of school and chronic illness and few years ago my wife got me a kit and an airbrush for christmas and encouraged me to get back into the hobby.  I did, both feet in.  I've taken over the basement though I don't think she minds ^_^.  I've always liked to design and build things and ever since I was little I loved science and figuring out "how things worked".  I would take apart things just to put them back together.  Modeling just seems like a natural fit for me; it lets me create something out of a pile of parts.  That's why I'm not so big on trying to model things exactly as they are in real life.  I want to take the kit and make it my own.

I started model building at the age where I finally grasped the concept that "hobby knives" were sharp and could easily cause bleeding. Initially, it was small inexpensive plastic kits, that were "stocking stuffers" at Christmas......it kept my brother and I busy, so our parents could sleep in a bit longer before the "Christmas present attack" started. Plastic sailing ship kits mostly, and aircraft.

I got into model railroading, because of the wide variety of models I could build, and combine in a "common display". My first inspiration for Sci-Fi, was the TV show Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. My first "serious" model was inspired by Battlestar Galactica. It is a 49" long variant of a Battlestar, built from various kits/parts/plastic "things", and "spare Parts".  I still do sailing ships, plastic and wood, and I still kitbash "spacecraft", as well as '60s-'70s USN ships, and railroad stuff.

/forums/893940/ShowPost.aspx   shows two of my SciFi kitbashes. I'm working paint, on my Revell, F-101 VooDoo "rebuild", and there is an NCC-1702 (Farragut), and an NCC-8600 (Firestone) that I don't have pictures of....yet. 

This is really cool hearing about all these experiences.  Y'know, now that I think about it I remember building some models as a child too(not that I'm that far removed from that stage in life).  I built a couple of cars and maybe an airplane.  I remember building a Lambourghini Countach (spelling?) with my cousin Matthew who had really severe CP, so the only way he got to do things was by watching me.  Matthew had a sick sense of humor though, cause I sliced my thumb open really good with my Xacto and that was pretty much the highlight of his day.  I also built a bunch of those plastic dino skeletons.  I forget where they came from but they were kind of popular and I remember they were white plastic that glowed in the dark.  My biggest thing was always lego kits though.  I had tons.  But I guess thats a form of a model.  I hope I can remember all this stuff 30 years from now when my kids ask me what got me started.  Thanks for all the responses so far, and lets hear some more. 

Thanks CJ.  I have trouble fitting in on forums.  Like I found the Gundam Seed forum and they have a modeling section, but it seems most of them aren't as serious as you guys are and I needed a place where I could learn.  I guess I got lucky I stumbled on this site cause I found a good place with good people. 

Hey Sumpter, small world.  I'm in Hoffman Estates. 

I've been a big Star Trek fan since I was a lil' guy.  My dad built an 18" TOS Enterprise kit for me when I was like 7 or 8, then a Klingon Battlecruiser.  Both got a LOT of play time and, sadly, were pretty much demolished.

  When I was about 10, I saved up and purchased an 18" Enterprise kit and built it all by myself, as well as decaled it.  I didn't have much of anything in the way of skills - and still am no where near as good as a lot of the folks here - but had a lot of fun w/the build and managed to keep the model intact for quite a few years.  In fact, I still have it, tho had to replace a few parts on it.  I later purchased a few WWII kits, Battlestar Galactica (TOS) and the Star Wars kits when they all became available.  I've taken a breaks from building over the years, but have always returned to building models because the SciFi kits really engage my imagination, as well as offer me a venue for relaxing from the everyday worries of life.

And no, I do not zoom my starfighters or starships around the room. 

The thing that got me started was the kid next door. He was 3 or 4 years older than I was and he built models. Somehow we were friends with his family and he got me started. He also gave me my first baseball glove which I still have laying around here somewhere!

 It was the late 60's and we had no Computers, Internet, Ipod's, X-Box, Playstation etc. So what was a young boy to do with himself other than play baseball, kick the can, bike ride and build models. My first model was Aurora's Draculas Dragster. I remember being so proud of it and I took it to school and show and tell. I also remember I broke the Blood goblet in his hand just before I was to talk about him. I was excited as all get out when Polar Lights repopped him and I have several in the stash and I really need to build him again for fun!

What got me interested in Sci-Fi was very simple. Star Wars!  No wait it was Space 1999 as I got my Eagle when the show was being aired. Then along came Star Wars followed quickly by Battlestar Galactica, Black Hole and Star Trek the Motion Picture.  I was hooked. Somewhere during this time I picked up Kalmbach's original Spaceships of Fact and Fiction book. I never knew a 2001 Orion was kitted and that Eldorado was just plain coolness! Never had an Orion until Airfix repopped theirs in the late 90's. I still have unbuilt kits I bought in the late 70's. All the SW kits including the illuminated Falcon. Also the STTMP Smoothy Enterprise, Vulcan Shuttle and Klingon Battlecruiser. Also somewhere in the bowels of my collection are unbuilt Black Hole kits.  I always consider myself first and foremost an aircraft modeler but I have most all the Sci-Fi kits ever made in styrene and all the Polar Lights kits! I never got my hands on a Moonbus though :-(. 

You know come to think of it it was Lost in Space that sparked my love for Sci-Fi. I just never knew about model kits until that kid next door ignited the passion! 

Cheers,

Max Bryant

Hey Sumpter, small world.  I'm in Hoffman Estates.

SG, just curious, what hobby shop do you use? Last I knew there weren't any closer than Elgin, Des Plaines, Wheeling, or Mundelein.

I now mostly build Armor, but it was Gundam Wing that got me modeling.  My first kit was Wing Zero.  I twisted the pieces off the sprues, and then snapped 'em together.  I built kits for two years, then ran out of steam, and money.  About four years ago, while vacationing in San Fransisco, I picked up a Tallgeese II kit.  That was poorly assembled, then painted with sharpies.  A year later i started building models again, tanks now. 

I'm rebuilding that tallgeese now, reapainting it, and removing all the sprue bits.

What got me started?

 Well....can't remember back that far. Always built models, build them now becasue I can't not build them. 

 Or rather I can't not be creative. Drawing, sculpting, machining, model building. 

I got started building models when I was about 8 or 9. I remember just slapping together the kits at that point. What really got it moving for me was a model of the month club. Each month they would send you a kit like the CD of the month clubs now. You could keep or send back any of the kits. When you signed up for the club they sent you a starter set with glue, paints, hobby knife and a drop cloth. The kits were planes mostly with some cars a ships thrown in for good measure.

Steve

I remember it well...  My cousin, who was a couple years older than me, was building model aircraft and cars and during one summer stay in 1965, my mom and aunt went shopping and brought us both home a kit.  I was "company", so I got to chose which of the kits I wanted.  It was a 1/72 Spitfire.  The other was a Corsair. (Don't remember the manufactuers though) From that point on, I was hooked.  I didn't get to paint any models until I was a bit older though, about 10, and the first two colors I got were Practa 'Namel Gloss Black and Flesh. These were what I used to do a camo-pattern on a 1/48th Monogram Me-109.  All my models met their fates in the typical way, a firecracker...  Back then, 1/72 kits were .39 cents, 1/48th Monogram were .79 to 1.09 at the local 5 and Dime store.  I remember one particular Aurora kit, a Zero, molded in yellow plastic, that I bought four or five times, blowing it up as soon as I finished it.

I went through my "gearhead" phase in my early teens, building all the show cars, Red Baron, Monkeemobile, Munster's, Grandpa' Dragster, Batmobile, Beer Wagon, Paddy Wagon, etc...  Did lots of AMT dragsters as well...  Turned to armor in about '74 with Monogram's M-48 Patton.  That's when I discovered the diorama, from Shepard Paine's work on the Monogram kits.  After joining the Army, I did a lot of armor, especially US modern, since I had all the reference material any modeler could want, the real vehicles and the TMs for them right in front of me.  My first Soviet tank was a Tamiya T-62A, and I had a Syrian (I think) T-62 to use for reference sitting down at our motor park about two blocks away from the barracks.  I spent more than few hours climbing in and out of that Russian junk..

In '77, Star Wars brought me into Sci-Fi in a limited way, with the X-wing and TIE Fighter kits, and the new Enterprise a bit later, followed by Battlestar Galactica's Viper and Raider kits.  Got into model railroading for a few years, but the moves in the Army knda made any real layouts hard to build, although I did do a lot of module-building, since they only were 2' by 4' feet and can be put up and torn down fairly quickly.  Took a break from modeling for about ten years, '96 or so, getting into computer flight sims, until I retired from the Army in '06 and got back into modeling a few months ago.  I was amazed at what was out there after I'd come back (not the least of which was the prices of kits).  I've found that walking out of my LHS means walking out about 100.00 dollars lighter in the wallet every time...  Two kits and couple cans of Model Master spray paint = ducking Household 6 for a couple days until she gets back from HER shopping trip...  Fair's fair, though...  I can't complain if she blows a 150 bucks on a couple pairs of shoes when I bring home a 50 dollar kit and 80 bucks worth of after-market detail sets...

It was the year 1969, and I was in kindergarten in Frankurt, Germany. My dad was a sgt. in the army and he brought home 2 Aurora kits from the base PX, the Sherman and Panther. We moved back to the US and it wasnt until we were restationed in Heilbraun, Germany, in 1972 that I remember my older brother and dad building me a 1/72 scale airforce of planes from all nations. The kits had 4 letters...FROG. Then came the B58 Hustler. That was the first model my brother sprayed from a can...He waxed it with car polish so I could play with it and not rub off all the silver on my hands!

In 1973 we moved to Mannheim , Germany. This is where I built my first kit, a FROG FW189 recon plane. Awful. From there I built a Lindberg B-17, Revell Columbia and Eagle, and a Renwal see through atomic nuclear sub. Still awful. I remember using only Humbrol paints at the time.

In 1974, we moved to Virginia where my dad retired from the Army. Here is where I really got into modelling as a full time extra curricular activity. I made 25 dollars a weekend mowing lawns, and most of that went into my hobby. Pactra paint, Revell, MPC, Jo'han, Airfix, Matchbox, Hasegawa and Esci 1/72 scale armour and aircraft kits were the interests at the time. Also, Shep Paine's dios in Monogram armour kits sparked my interests in modifying kits.

In 1977, we moved to Yorktown VA, and I moved up to 1/35 scale armour. Polly-S paints, Italeri, Tamiya, and Peerless Max were cluttering up my shelf space!

Modelling took a hit when I reached high school and the hormones took over. Years later,  I became an online FSM member and resparked the interest in this hobby. I still have down time every few months or longer, but I always come back "home."

HAHAHAHAHAHA,,,,I guess good enough to mow 3 lawns every weekend! The lawns were close to a 1/2 acre apiece and in my neighborhood, so I worked my keester off on Saturday mornings.

My mother got me started back when I was 5 so I would have something to do that would not include my two brothers who I did not want to be anywhere near.  My first kit was the revell Seamaster.  S.F. kits didn't show up until that simple flying saucer kit arrived followed by Aurora models of Flash Gordon in their figure series.  Then came a series of models for Disney of a spacestation and various spacecraft.  Glencoe released them decades later.  Between these I worked on ships, tanks, cars, but mostly aircraft.  Especially after I saw a flight of fighters flying low level over my house with a KC-97, and watching different military based shows on TV like 12 O'Clock High and Thunderbirds.  Sometimes a short documentary film from the Aif Force would be released just after the stations signed on in the mornings.  If they showed them just before signing off, I didn't get to stay up to see them.  Science Fiction kits started to show up again with models from 2001, Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Fantastic Voyage (cartoon series), Star Trek, Capt. Scarlet, Stingray, and Thunderbirds.  These were followed by many others including Starblazers, Space 1999, Star Wars and so on.

I have been building for over 50 years and have built solid wood kits, aurora's solid wing aircraft, and many others.  Somehow I don't think I'll ever stop.  It's an ongoing artistic process that improves through the years.  One thing that helps is to join a club if there is one in your area.  The help and advice you get from other people will help you improve your skills.  Enter contests when you can.  You may not win, then again you might.  Never know.  If you don't, learn from the experience what to do to improve and try again.  Like I said, it's a learning process.It will come.

 This still needs some paint work but the construction is done:

The F-101 VooDoo "rebuild" , as a two man fighter.

When I was a kid its was just something boys were supposed to do.

Models could be found at department stores, drugstores, super markets, convinence stores, and discount stores. Favorite stores included Woolworth's, TG&Y, Kress, Kersage, and K-mart. No such thing back then as Walmart.

It was a gift a relative that hadn't seen you since you were born would buy for you on your birthday or at Christmas.

I remember in 5th grade art class we were allowed to bring our own hobby craft to work on after we finished our classwork.

Oh, you could also buy model glue and spray paint at any age.

Cosmic J wrote:

I don't think that's a kit SG, but it should be.

Well someone better clarify for me because if thats a scratchbuild my brain is gonna run out my nose.  That thing is gorgeous. 

Well,.... I guess your brain is running out your nose then, cuz that looks SB to me.

as for my start, well it was a F-4 Phantom II, cant remember the  scale but I was 9. I built a couple of car models in Jr. High, but it wasnt till my first job (Toys R Us) that I got back in to model building again. If someone hadnt returned about 20 gundam wing kits from the TRU online store, I wouldnt be where I am today in my obsesion. 1\144 Heavyarms Gundam started me off on the road to owning a crapload of Gunpla.

I got stared back when i was 7? I did a 1934 ford coupe for a art show, and havent built a model since.I didnt have a steady hand for painting at the time.

I just got back into it after googling stuff at work. I found some pics of these beautiful gundam models and said to my self maybe I can do this again, but this time bring my construction knowledge to the table. Hopefully I can get to learn how to use this air brush to not have to think of painting by hand anymore {Quiver} LOL.

Well,.... I guess your brain is running out your nose then, cuz that looks SB to me.

Brain isn't running anywhere.

First, thanks for all the good comments. It is actually a Revell #85 5853, 1/48 scale F-101 Voodoo kit...........my razor saw sort of ran amock, and a lot of "leftover parts" and some scratch built parts, found their way into the mix. I've already responded to what got me started, this is where I've gone since. Tube glue has been left behind in favor of MEK ( used with lots of ventillation ), and spray paints gone in favor of airbrushing. Kit bashing isn't just for "space ships", I've got a 1:700 scale USS Randolph CV-15, from Dragon, that I'm modifying from the kit's "original" to what she looked like in the mid sixties as CVS-15. The ship went through three major modifications ( and lots of minor ones ) in the years between launch, and when I operated with her....I have to do those mod's in 1:700 scale. By the way, truth be known, scratch building is actually easier than kit bashing, but I still look at a kit as "raw material" for something completely different.