What was your very first model?

I can't remember...

Since this thread was started before I became a member here, why not?  I actually scored another copy of my very first kit, some 32 years later, on Ebay... We (Mom, me, & Sis) were spending a few weeks at my aunt & uncle's house back in 1967, while we got ready to move into base housing at Eglin AFB during Dad's 1st deployment to Vietnam.  He was flying F-100s back then, but I was more into the toy WW2 stuff and "grenn army men", and didn't know a Super Sabre from a MiG or a  "BUFF" from a "SLUF"...

My cousin Mark, who was a few years older than me, like 3 or so, was a model builder, mostly cars, but airplanes too, and one afternoon while Mom & Aunt Donna were in town, Donna bought Mark a model, and she thought that it'd be somethin' I might like to try as well, since I was already a FAN (Frikkin' Airplane Nut), so she grabbed a couple 1/72 HAWK kits (.39 cents a copy back then), an F4U-1D Corsair and a Mk 22 Spitfire... Since I was "company" I got to choose which kit to build, and took the Spitfire... Been going ever since...

Here's the same Spit I found on Ebay, 32 years later...   99% complete with (yellowed) decals, but all there except the stand.  It just popped up in one of my email searches (the one I have with the price range .49 to 4.99, LOL) and I just HAD to buy it...

Here's the Corsair kit (obviously a later release than 1965), but close enough to the one Mark built. Only the box changed.  Heh.. I remember it well, why I chose the Spitfire... The Corsair "looked wierd" because I'd never seen inverted gull-wings before and though that the wings had melted or something along those lines...

 Anyway, that Spit's the 1st one, and I reckon I'll come full-circle with it, when I finally have to give up the hobby due to eyesight or some other  "Auld Phart's Disease"...

Who says you can't "time-travel", eh?

 

My very first model was an Eagle from Space:1999 that my dad and I built together when I was about 6.  He wasn't into it as a hobby and just thought of it as a fun father/son project, so it turned out as well as can be expected for only cemented together and having decals put on.  Years later I got a spare of the Eagles that were reissued in the '90s in case I had a son someday so that we could do the same ( but maybe a little better given my experience in the hobby ).

About a year later, he bought a small, probably just "box-scale" kit of the Yamato for me at the pharmacy while picking up a prescription for my younger brother's croup.  That one, and the little 2-for-$1 kits in bags of a Spitfire and Me-109, didn't turn out so well because he thought Elmer's would work instead of the cement ( as I said, he wasn't into the hobby, so he didn't realize the difference until a friend of his explained it ).

The first one I tried solo, with the proper "glue", was an F9F Panther that was given to me for my 9th birthday.  While it was unpainted and had obvious seam lines, I think I did pretty well given I got the decals on OK and even managed to get the landing gear and extended grilles ( airbrakes?  it was 30 years ago ) on without mauling the parts or having things completely out of alignment.

Well, here's my bandage to this zombie:  my first kit was a Campbells wood model of a grain elevator for my HO train layout when I was about 8 (1968).  Then proceeded to build several Athearn and Roundhouse pieces of rolling stock.  My first aircraft model was the Monogram 1/48 B-29 when I was 9 with a home made Fatman nuke hanging out of the bomb bay.  My Dad was a pretty good sign man and he custom lettered Bock's Car on the nose plus the nose art.  I made the bomb from a ping pong ball and added the nose and fins from styrene.

                                                                                        Pat.

I guess that this is probably the oldest active thread in the forum. 2002!  More like a zombie though; being brought back from the dead! Mine was either a B-62 (SM-2) Snark or a B-47. It was in 1958 and my old man was in SAC. He coerced me into helping him into building them so he could have them at work. I was four and a half. I can barely remember it. After that, we built a TBF Avenger together. No paint at all on any of them, just decals. My first solo was an Aurora B-25 with the raised decal locators. Really ugly!  

So, what dead thread should we bring back to life next?

Heh, way to chime in there with a timely answer, Harshman!

My first ever kit?

A Tamiya 1/700 IJN Fubiki destroyer. At that time was very affordable and suit a kid like me with limited budget. It kick start my hobby journey.

My first was an "Aurora" F9? panther navy jet fighter. It was 1959, 2nd grade and was laughed at for brush painting my model . All the others thought the "stickers" were enough to make the model look good. Little did I know how deep it could get.

It was a model T. All I remember is that it was green and that my grandfather helped me put it together. I was so thrilled to do it together, and I was so proud of how it came out. My grandparents did not leave near us, and I rarely saw them. But I cared a great deal about them, and they cared about me. One summer I went and stayed with them for a couple of weeks at a house somewhere on the ocean front in New Jersey. What a summer. That is when the Model T was built. Building that model together is one of the few memories I have of my grandfather, and so it remains special in my mind even to this day.

Let's see... that was probably 1969 or so? Oops - I guess I just dated myself!

Paul

My first model was, I belive, a Aruora P-51 Mustang. I bought it from funds I made on my paper rote, time frame 1951. It was made up of nine pcs, no landing gear or cockpit, pilot upper half moulded into both sides and raised national insigna. This was a good thing as the decals came off in a short time and i hand painted the insigna in the raised area. Have been modeling ever sense. Have belonged to OHMS for almost forty years.

My very first plastic model was an Aurora Me-109 that was molded in metalic red plastic. I was six or seven years old, so it would have been in 1953 or 1954. I built all of the Aurora kits, most of the Lindberg kits, and a few Revell, Hawk and Comet kits for good measure. I remember that when Aurora released it's P-51H with RETRACTABLE LANDING GEAR, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread ! And then came Monogram with their Avenger and Dauntless with all the working goodies !

Well, here I am almost 50 years later still doing 1/48th scale WW2 airplanes !

Metalic red Me-109, black Fw-190, yellow Zero, metalic blue Spitfire ! WHEW ! Aurora sure new how to attact us six and seven year olds ! And wasn't the Dr1 Triplane totally cool in metalic red ?

Jim

Back about 1965, I finished a 1/25 scale '55 CHEVY my older brother let me have. I was 10 years old. The first one I did from start to finish was a REVELL 1/72 scale Albatros D.III in 1967.

Wow I am impressed that you guys actually remember your first model. I can't recall my first but I still have a 1/24th Airfix Spitfire that I put together as a 12 year old - not my first model but its like that old teddy bear that sits in the corner with one ear missing and no eyes - you just can't throw it out.

The Spitty use to hang fom my bedroom ceiling that was covered in a blue and red "tie-dyed" sheet - that was 32 years ago - it no longer has any decals but the prop still spins on the little electric motor inside the replica merlin - now where did I put that plane - think i'll go dust it off again

Well mine was the Airfix 1/72 A-1 Skyraider. Built it almost 28 years ago. It was crude by today standard, but it was fun. In fact, it took three people to build it. One of my buddies built the wings, I built the fuselage and the other buddy glued the ordnance. Why? Because at that time none of us could afford it along, so we used our lunch money together and shared the fun.

p-61 blackwidow, i was 7 years old and that poor old plane flew many "misssions" around the house and back yard before falling prey to AA fire(also known as a fire cracker, or 2 or 4). but was great fun and it's what got me hooked those many years ago.

Oh, MAN! The square bottles of Pactra paint - in the long box with the clear front window! I'm having flashbacks now. God knows how many boxes of that stuff I bought. It seemed like after model I needed more paint!

It was a car. I forget exactly what kind it was, but I do remember where I built it--on a family vacation to the mountains above San Bernardino, California. My brother helped me choose it, and we got a starter set of Pactra paint (remember those little square bottles of Pactra from all those years ago?) and a tube of glue and I basically slapped it together. Of course, it was a typical "first-model-built-by-a-ten-year-old" effort: glue marks, fingerprints, a sloppy paint job and gloss black tires! The year was 1972; even now whenever I hear songs like "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," "Brandy," or "Rock n' Roll Part 2" (to you younger modelers, that's the "HEEYYY!" song you hear at football or basketball games today), I remember those great times!

My earliest memory was of the 1/72 Airfix Westland Whirlwind (Helicopter), which my father made for me whilst we were on holiday in a chalet at Leysdown in about 1968-9. There was no TV in the chalet, so he needed something to do in the evening.
The first one I ever built was the Airfix 1/600 HMS Hotspur in the early 1970's

That was some 47 years ago. I remember it being a Revell kit of a U. S. Navy fighter, possibly a Panther. I remember the box showed this jet racing over the waves. My dad helped and over the years his construction skills have improved much better than mine. Later, I built the Revell U.S.S. Olympia on my own and Monogram's F4 Wildcat. i did not know those were windows in the lower fuselage. I would find that out building a Hellcat. i have thoroughly enjoyed the hobby these many years.
ALL THE WAY!!!

I don't remember THE first one, but among the earliest:
AMT's starship Enterprise (with lights!)
Aurora's Seaview (I remember it cost 69 cents!)
Revell 1/72 B-25B
Monogram 1/48 SBD Dauntless

Of course we're going back about 33 years here. . .

The first kit i built was in 1972 an Airfix Kit of the flying pencil Dornier Do- 17 scale 1:72, and i was a great joy ( cause my Dad ) helped me - so it will be a good memory to my dad, who died 15 yrs ago.

mine was the monogram 1/72 RF 4. i got my mom to build it and we forgot to get some glue so we used hot glue and melted it :( she tossed it afterwards

My first..... oh, model kit - ok. My first model kit was the old Monogram wood and plastic B-17. My first all plactic kit was, I think, the Neiport 17.

Back in the early 60's, Dad bought me my first model. Gee Bee racer. He helped me of course but I can still remember the finger prints on the wings from all that glue on my fingers. I got better with age and with the help from the older kid next door. He was into military aircraft bigtime. I've been building models on and off now for almost 40 years. Starting all over again now that my boys are big enuff NOT to break what I make....LOL. Working on all types of models now but WWII aircraft is my favorite.

My first model? Well, it was a ferrari. However, I took an 8 year hiatus, and didn't get back in business until 2 years ago. When I restarted, my first model was a Revell-AG 1/48 scale Northrop-Grumman F-8 Crusader. I painted her in a camo scheme of green, OD Green, and Tan. The green was gloss, the OD Green had fingerprints all over, and the tan paint turned out looking like salmon-pink!! I'm stripping the paint, however, and repainting it!

It was British WWI bi-plane. I can not remember the type or manufacturer, I do remember that it came in a plastic bag. My Dad bought it for me one Sunday morning after church. It was white plastic (didn't have any paints) I also remember zooming it around the house. Thanks for the memories

Can't exactly remember which one I built myself. But I always remember dad really keen on the older airliners, such as DC-6, DC-3, C-45 and others. I think my first one was probably the Academy 1-72 scale F-51D Mustang. Didn't paint it, just put teh decals on, and did the tyres and props in black ,with it's yellow spinner, looking back....lol!!

As best I can remember, the first kit I built myself was a Grumman S2F Tracker made by Aurora..Those old Aurora kits didn't have any particular scale, just whatever would fit in the box!
I can remember painting it in the Navy paint scheme of the 60s...Gull gray over white...And I slapped that paint on liberally with a broad brush!...Man was I proud of it..........until I stuck a firecracker in the rear of one of it's engine nacelles and catapulted it out of my 2nd floor bedroom window..
I see that very kit showing up on ebay from time to time...It usually fetches a pretty good price(much more than the 88 cents I paid for it, and how I remember that I have no idea) and am often tempted to bid on it and build it the very same way I did way back then, using half a tube of glue and giving it a paint job that looks like some drunken sailors applied it with a mop......but this time I'll skip the pyrotechnics!
Oh, and one more thing I remember about those Aurora gems,,,there was never any question as to where to place the decals...they had raised lines on the plastic right where they were supposed to go!
Yes, they sure don't make em they way they used to...................(thank God)

The first model I did myself was the 1/48 scale T-33 by Hawk. I did it while on Christmas break in 1962. Turned out lousey, but what did I care then? LOL I had a chance to build that kit again a copule years ago and it turned out much better than the first one. And it was painted whereas the first one wasn't. the only thing I did to it was box in the wheel wells. Ahhhh the memories.

I think it was about 1958 or 1959 it was a Revell B-47 of unknown scale, probably around 1/144th scale. The body and wings were solid plastic and the canopy a solid piece of clear plastic. There may have been a total of 8 to 12 parts. It didn't stay in one piece long, someone sat on it. The one after that was Monogram's P-40 in about 1/72 scale and then Revell's B-25B. I built numerous ones of each in the early 60's. Simple days of tree climbing, bike riding, and hide and go seek!