My very First model was...

sounded like fun

Sounds like a great memory.

I was about 5 and I lived in West Africa, my Dad was in the Peace Corps, and mine was a Comet airliner. It was all gluey with strings of too much glue coming out of the seams but I was so proud of that kit. BTW I STILL love to build airliners today. I remember running into show my parents, tripping over toys. They definitely approved. My mom said " I would eventually out grow them" HA, ha ! some 30 years later.....well the rest is history.!!

My first one was Klingon Bird of Prey. It was silver with the panels painted all different colors.

Great story bablenw! hehe

i did a couple wooden toy things, along with a snap'em together model. the first one I did that required glue and paint was revell's good'ole USS Arizona. that was a fun build. it seemed to me back then that it was the most proliferent model anywhere. every museum and model store I went to had boxes of them.

My first buld was a snap'em together Hummer. I used cement as a seam filler (just to make sure the parts would'nt fall off) and put the stickers on. My first painted model was the USS Enterprise (spaceship, not carrier) which I painted with dollar store paints. I still have 'em, too.

I wish I had a "now and then" photograph. It would be an interesting walk down memory lane. Anyone remember the Revell Model Masters CLub?

Neil

my first model was a monogram f-117 stealth hi-tech kit that i got for my birthday and the kit had photo etched parts in it so i build like most people would build their 1st model with lots and lots of tube glue!!! i tried to get the photo etched parts off and gave up on that after about half an hour struggling with it and basically chucked those and didnt even paint it. And now it sits on my bookshelf reminding me of much simpler days.

very first model at age 8 was a 1/72 matchbox lancaster. very first model to be finished all by myself was a 1/72 matchbox dolphine helicopter. very first 1/76 armor was a matchbox firefly. very first 1/48 armor was a Bandai T34/76 (explains why i have an attachment to the T34s). very first 1/35 armor was a Tamiya JGSDF Type 74 (not the winterized one). etc. etc. I hardly ever have snap together kits, 'cept for my whole big 40 car collection of the Tamiya Mini Racing car series that runs in tracks after being built and had a crap load of hop-up parts.

Mine was a F16 - painted a myriad of colours. Lots of yellow and green and silver. It was a bit sticky mess.

When I was 7 I got my first model, Monogram's Snap-Tite 1/72 F-4 Phantom. Wish I still had her.

A 2nd Gen TransAm snaptite model. My parents were seperated at the time and my dad brought it over to build with me when he was visiting. I still remember putting on the decals, but not too much else. It was a good time, and I was very proud of it.

Happy end: my parents are still happily married and I still model....

Mine was a Snap Tite Tiger I... no glue, no paint.. decals were really just vynil stickers...

the first REAL model I built was I believe a Revell F-4... the canopy was snow white with glue and fingerprints... horrible ridges where I painted the paint on by hand (SEA scheme) and glopped it on because it wasn't covering with one swipe...

Mine was an academy 1/48 mig-21 mf. Lots of glue, little paint, left off pieces when they were too hard...

Long time ago but I do remember building USS Helena, USS Bainbridge and the fleet oiler from Revell. Just not sure if there was any before those but I do remember them.

When Revell reissued the fleet oiler, I bought one!

1977 or 78 it was an airfix(I think) HMS ark royal (dad served on her) we spent the weekend putting it together (the flash lines gave more glueing area )
The idea was that we painted it the following weekend what dad was not working, but impatiance got the better of me, so it left dry dock with a very heavily applied magnolia emulsion coating
I can see the look on dads face to this day, it was not so much that ark royal was now magnolia, it was more the fact that so was the sideboard/carpet/and son!

I think mine was a Matchbox Spitfire in 1/72, the ones that came in two colors of plastic so no painting was necessary (sigh). I think the entire kit took about 45mins to build including the decals.

A Fujimi Dauntless in 1/48. It cost me a fortune in those days and I glued the landing gear in and the prop etc. What a mess. I didn't paint it either.

I love this Thread! It brings back such memories.

My first models were a 1/48th scale F-80 shooting Star for aircraft that my mother helped me build when I was six. My first Armor was a 1/325th scale Pz 38t tank. Both of these were destroyed by my six-year-old enthusiasm in playtime.

Now, my first models that I KEPT and still have are as follows:

My first propeller driven plane (built 35 years ago):



My first Bomber (built 35 years ago):



My first Jet (built 35 years ago):



My first painted jet (built 34 years ago):



My first Ship (built 35 years ago):



My first Armor (built 34 years ago):



Mind you, that little self-propelled gun is only about an inch and a half long! That was a fun build too that went together like a dream as I recall.

I hope you enjoy looking at my first efforts!

My first model was a Revell C-4 Corvette. Good times

Wow Duke, great pictures! reminds us all of those Good ol' days!

I think i was about 7ish and it was a 1:72 spitfire and i used a LOT of glue ( so thats what happened to my brain!!!)

QUOTE: Originally posted by luis_420925 Wow Duke, great pictures! reminds us all of those Good ol' days!

Thanks Luis! Yeah, I love trottong those old pics out now and then so people can see how far I've come. And yeah, it does bring back good memories!

My first model was a brontosaurus (now apatasaurus)-painted it silver with a pink underbelly -yuck! Can't remember the manufacturer-but it was in the early 60's.

Hmmm.. it was a good 14 years ago. I was 7. It was the monogram snaptite of the F/A18 Hornet in the blue and white prototype scheme from the old Kmart (even the new one is gone now). I had to beg Mom for it. I'm the baby, it took one crying fit in clothing and a little conjoling from my Granny (youngest grandkid too). I think Mom let me have it so I wouldn't want more since it was too hard. I build the thing at night in theback seat of the car while Mom was getting gas. I didn't listen to the don't open it till we get home or you'll lose pieces speech. Mom helped snap in a few stubborn pieces there on the concrete pump guard. Next week we got a paint set and a Black bird. Last week I got the Star Trek Nemesis Scorpian, the revell Hawkeye(1/144), and the Academy 1/144 phantom F and f16 at Hobby Lobby with 4 jars of MM. Not a lot is changed. The old Hornet is on my desk seeking repairs and the b26 is behind that.

Well back in the last century! It was either an Airfix vintage car or a balsa wood motor boat. None of which have stood the test of time. The longest surviving model is the Airfix 1/12th Bentley built around 1972

When I was about 6 I helped my brother build figure models of the Wolfman, Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. We shared a room and that night, I realized that the models glowed in the dark. They scared me so much that I slept with covers over my head until the glow in the dark faded away. I wish we still had those.

A disaster:

I think it was an Aurora thing, perhaps the Nieuport 11 I tried at about age 7.

1. I had not used styrene plastic cement before, so it had runs and permanantly etched fingerprints all over it, as well as melting the strut-mounted ballon-busting rocket extensions, causing them to droop.

2. The decals were interesting, I think they stayed on until they dried, then fell off right away (I probably wore out the glue on them between over-soaking and rubbing them all over the airplane's surface). I think I also discovered trying to glue them on after they dried was not a good idea either, as they look kind of funny after that.

3. If the undercarriage and the wings were straight I would not know how I managed it. I probably put it on an slanted surface to make it not so obvious.

Later on when I re-did this kit (they were only 70 cents back then) I noticed that in fact Aurora's rendition had the upper wing mounted Lewis machine gun actually firing into the top of the propeller arc instead of clearing it.

I also learned not to put three coats of Aurora's chrome yellow paint on the upper wing before the first one dried on a Martin B-1 I later built. I think it took about a month to finally dry.

This gave the term film-dry a new meaning to me.

This is why I usually encourage newbies to learn on the least expensive kit they can get their hands on, as usually the first one is pretty bad.

Nowadays I would recommend any Revell kit for beginners since they are simpler and cheaper then Tamiya's for learning on.

Hey SWFong-I had a "Creepy Crawlers" casting toy when I was 7-probably one of the most dangerous toys ever-I burnt myself many times. But my parents bought me an extra mould for skeletons with some glow in the dark plastic filler. After casting them and seeing them glow in the dark-I too slept under the covers!