What got you started?

My appologies men! All corrected, and if i missed anyone please let me know, it has been a very long time in my posting in the scifi section. The last time i posted on FSM was in the armor section and i posted a few pics of my build ups and got dissed, because they werent period correct or the figures werent in the correct position, screw them! I`ll stick to sci fi.

thunderbearr wrote:

stipp wrote: My dad got me started with the forgotten prisoner of castle mare, and then it was StarTrek. Hey mech woody Griff You fergot me. :P

 

A wise Greek philosopher once said,"I am, therefore I build."

 

Uh, you 'fergot' me too!  You're dithpicable! (Darth)

I see you fixed it.  

 

:D

 

stipp wrote:

My dad got me started with the forgotten prisoner of castle mare, and then it was StarTrek. Hey mech woody Griff

You fergot me.

:P

My dad got me started with the forgotten prisoner of castle mare, and then it was StarTrek.

Hey mech

woody

Griff

Thunderbear

DarthDuck

 

 

Great topic!

I got started years ago and like a great many, fell away from modeling. 
I returned to the hobby about 2 years ago.  I started small, just wanting to  brush up on my techniques.  Rusty isn't even close to describing my performance.

I'd never build a resin kit, not it's pretty much the bulk of what I build.

Trek is the focus of my subject builds at this point with a smattering of BSG.  After this short burst of kit building and bashing I plan to start my first scratch builds in the next few weeks.  I have high hopes that I've learned enough to not embarress myself, but we shall see.

I've recently taken up Moderating at some of the boards I frequent and the things that I've seen change over just the last year or so?  Seems the bulk of the problems I see stem from a small group of (one or two) posters that just can't help themselves.  Realistically though, those few have been banned from almost every single board on the net and resort to sock puppets. 

They are irrelivent now, so I'll move on....

 

My biggest reason for modeling?  Like someone mentioned earlier, I can't not build, kitbash or otherwise express myself.  I not only get the satisfaction of creating something physical to work with, I also get the relaxation, the peace and quiet of my space.  That's as good a reason as any!

 

Rob Gronovius wrote:

The first model I remember building as a child was the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Saber-toothed Tiger. I built many of those kits with the interlocking display bases.

 

Glad to find someone else Aurora infected with the modeling bug. I had most of the Prehistoric Scenes and being a dinosaur nut, these kits were the "bee's knees".

I can't specifically recall what my very first model was, but I'm willing to bet it was something from Aurora.

I got started waaaaaay back in the 60's with the AMT Enterprise.  I built it, but couldn't figure out why it didn't look like the box.

After all, I'd used plenty of paint and glue.  More is better, right?

Then, it was the K7 since it was from Star Trek, and the Leif Erickson, 'cause it looked cool.

The Enterprise was the subject of a low budget 8mm movie involving burying my hand in loose dirt, setting the saucer on the dirt, dousing it with lighter fluid and setting it on fire.

ON TOP OF MY HAND.  (kids, go figure)

Anyway, I built cars, boats, and other stuff.  Had all the Aurora monster scenes (my fave was the Pit and the Pendulum...never could get it to work).

Flash forward to 1981, and I'd been out of high school since 78.

I started working at a hobby shop and have pretty much stuck with it.

I met Jon Warneke, a fellow modeler, and we hit it off pretty cool.  Several years (and two hobby shops later), Jon walks in with a scratchbuilt ship he'd done (I hadn't seen him in years) and we discussed scratchbuilding.

He said it was 'easy' but I had to learn.  So, together we scratched a 1/400 scale Space Cruiser Yamato, which won an 'Honorable Mention' at a local show (the judges didn't know what they were looking at, but since it was scratchbuilt, they gave it an HM).

Two shows later, it got a Second and finally a First.  At a toy show in Knoxville, I had the ship on display and a very rabid fan offered me 500 bucks on the spot.  Man, I miss that model.

Armed with the knowledge I'd learned, Jon then had me scratchbuild my first pattern for a company he'd joined (Commanders Models).

The 1/350 HMS Hood.  I gave it a shot and honed my skills (and made a little dough in the process).

In 2002, I was in an auto accident and suffered a nervous breakdown, and had to take a 3+month leave.

As therapy, Jon helped get me some ship patterns for (then) turn of the century pre-war ships and I built the USS Monterey (a monitor), USS Chicago, USS Illinois (WIP) and USS Texas (WIP).

About that time I discovered there were online forums (non rec.models.scale) and decided to try my hand at building a blockade runner for the AMT Star Destroyer.  It looked good and folks all wanted one.  Realizing the hangar was too shallow, I did some research and made a better hangar.  Again, everyone wanted one.

A guy in Germany (Marco) sent me some images of the correct angle for the bridge and spine for the Star Destroyer and I built those, too.  Again, everyone seemed to want one.  

I spoke with Jon and he took the pieces, cast them up and packaged them for me and let me use his table at the 2005 IPMS Nats in Atlanta.

The stuff was well-received and that's when I got into this hot and heavy.

I built some RTF ships for the Monogram Galactica and things took off from there.

I've met lots of great folks on these forums and they've been an invaluable asset to honing my skills even further.

Okay, enuf about me.

Next?

Rob

Beowolf, you pose some interesting questions there, Questions that I don't have clear answers for.

there seems to be a lot more internet bullies nowadays. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

  Current socioeconomic problems are creating an increasingly ugly mood in this land. We can't lash out against our government,(to our satisfaction) so we take out "the mood" where we can. The internet (and forums like these) are basicly places where we can remain annonymous. We can lash out "safely".

Funny thing is that when you meet these people at Conventions, or Modeling Shows, they are usually quite reserved as opposed to how they trash others online.

They realize that, face to face, if they were to trash someone, they might end up needing facial reconstruction, after having their faces "reconstructed". They can't hide at conventions, like they can here.

How can you be a moderator of a forum if you have no personal bonefides? That's probaly what disturbs me the most. "How can you be a Moderator of a forum, dedicated to modeling, if you cannot model...?"

A moderator should be someone who can provide the benefit of experience in, and knowledge of, the subject. Someone who can help guide newcomers around some of the "pitfalls", and most importantly, be able to effectively quiet the occasional outbursts. That last bit, is probably the most important skill. One can have superb modeling skills, but have absolutely no people skills......not very effective where bullying is happening. Then again, superb modeling skills sometimes come attached to very large egoes, and the "you didn't do it right (where right means "my way" )syndrom"! Moderating is not as easy as it seems, and usually, in forums like these, is non-rewarding, and, the right to free speech, doesn't include, but implies, a degree of personal responsibility. Something that seems to be ever more lacking in our society. Tact, and diplomacy, were never one of my "greater assets", and I have had to grow in these areas. I know, I moderate six forums on another board.

I forgot to answer part of the question.......

 

How do "I" think it has changed...? HMMNNN???

I really hate to say this, but there seems to be a lot more internet bullies nowadays. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. You have people that for the most part, have no talent,or aren't particularly capable, that seem to beat down anyone with real talent, or if they don't like them. This doesn't happen all of the time, but you do see instances where guys come out and start showing their work and they are beaten into the ground. I don't understand that. I don't understand how someone else making a ship, or doing a model could possibly effect a person to where they might go on a personal vendetta against that person, in order to cause them damage....?!?!? It just makes no sense, especially in these days when you have States and Countrys clamping down on that kind of thing and impossing severe penalties.None of this stuff seems to be based on any kind of fact, it's just these simple, stupid, lil rivalries that spoil the fun for everyone and turn people off. 

As Cosmicj has noted, this years WF was very different from last years. I can't help but think that some of it was due to the way some within the modeling community have acted over the last year, or so. I've seen some truely extrordinary work done and then seem those people talked about all over the net. I for one would like to see things calm down. There should be some kind of standard. If you can't model as well as the person you're attacking, you should not have the right to comment. At the very least, you should have the common sense to be able to back up your comments with your OWN work, not your associations with others, or what you've heard, or what you think you know.

I'm thinking it's a put up, or shut up kind of thing. If your work is limited, you shouldn't have the right to comment on anothers work, unless you are just commenting to make yourself feel better.

Yeah, that's what has changed.... The whole bullying thing, that and the fact that most of the bullies have no talent, they just have an over-inflated idea of who they are in the world, or worse than that, they have no real life and the only thing they have to look forward to is tearing down someone else. Yeah, that's what has changed. I remember when the net was fun and you didn't have all of these senseless haters, that have no real talent of their own.

That's what I think has changed. Funny thing is that when you meet these people at Conventions, or Modeling Shows, they are usually quite reserved as opposed to how they trash others online.

Yep, that's what has changed over the years, the inclusion of people with no real talent that somehow become "Respected Members of the Modeling Community!" I have to wonder how that happens? How does someone become a respected member of the modeling community, when they cnnot even finish a model, nor have ever won a contest. How does that happen.

I guess another thing that bothers me is that some of these people actually become moderators. How can you be a moderator of a forum if you have no personal bonefides?

That's probaly what disturbs me the most. "How can you be a Moderator of a forum, dedicated to modeling, if you cannot model...?" 

   

   

 

What got me into it?

I was sick one day, when I was about 11 and my mother brought home a model and some glue. I had a terrible case of the flu and layed there and very patiently worked out how to build the thing. There were directions yes, but I wanted to do more. I probably did more thought work and planning than anything else, then I started on it. After that, I was hooked. I won several model awards when I was just a young lad and even won an award in the Navy, against someone who did it for a living. "Toy Doctors" I think we called them, their designation was TD. I'm not really sure what it meant.

Anyway, I've been modeling for years and have been making models for shows and entering contests and even doing work for Hobby Shops for some time. Nowadays though, I don't have much time for anything, because I actually got work for a studio. It's not as much fun when it's a job. Now when I come home I have nothing to do to relax, other than snuggle up with the lil woman. LOL :) 

Nice!  I like your Quantum Phoenix.  Excellent kitbash!  Reminds me more of "Silent Running" than BSG, tho. 

 Regardless, I like it a lot!  Thanks for sharing.

 

This, from 25 years ago.

I finally decided to make space for this model to be photographed. The "Quantum Phoenix" is a 1:608 scale vessel inspired by Battlestar Galactica (original). The model is 49" long (approx. 2500 feet). I used all kinds of kits, parts, tictac boxes, L'eggs eggs, plastic wall tiles, parts of an old Estes launch pad, chart tape dispensers, etc.etc.etc.. It was about five months of evenings to build and paint. The pics, are a port side shot, a shot with the TOS Enterprise NCC1701, and a shot with a coffee mug and a $20.00 bill for size comparison. The TOS Enterprise is an AMT/Ertl kit, detailed from pictures in "Famous Spaceships of Fact and Fiction". Oh, and the two auxiliary reactors at the Phoenix's bow?..... pingpong balls!

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.

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.

 

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.

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. 

And I bet kids weren't buying them just to get high.  Well, up to a certain decade maybe...  Now you'd have 10 year olds flying high, tagging their elementary schools and supergluing cats to walls.  I almost wish I had grown up in a time when people my age or younger could be trusted without a bunch of bad kids bringing down everyones reputation.  Then I see my computer, Ipod, Cell phone, Laptop, and XBOX 360 and I think its an ok trade for having adults dislike me. Although I was never such a bad kid.  (Adults? I'm 22.  I guess I just cant think of myself as a grown up yet)

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.

 

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

Thats a cool lookin kit Sumpter.  What's it from?

I just wana Thank skull for starting this thread, Its nice to see other people's roots

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

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

 

 

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.

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.

So I wasn't alive in 1974 but I've had the impression that 25$ would be alot more than it is today.  How good were you at mowing lawns?  That's not a bad weekend right there. 

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."

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...

 

 

 

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

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.