My very First model was...

A 80's buick tank. Completed and painted in one day. At 8 years old!

Hey Bruce, that's a heckuva first build. A-10s are complex in any scale. Good luck with that one, and welcome to the forum!!

The first one I remember building was Aurora's Seaview, from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

(And yes, I have a stack of the Polar Lights reissues!)

Matt Usher @ FineScale

My first model is a Revell 1/32 A-10. Just started on it the other day, but have just fiddled with it so far, not a serious start. And I'm 33. That took a while.

I'm pretty sure my dad helped me build a 1/72 Spitfire (I recall I thought it was a "Submarine" Spitfire...hey I was only 5!). I remember most of the planes I built had the location of the decals molded into the plastic. After that, I built all sorts of things-planes, cars, ships, armor. I remember building a Ford Tri-motor and painted it silver. I wasn't happy with the paint job, so I tried to get the paint off...with paint thinner(!!) I didn't realize it would melt all the plastic too. Oh well. One of my favorite builds towards the end of phase one of my model building career was a 1/32 Japanese "Tony." I can't remember who made the kit (that rarely ever was a concern back then) but it had a detailed engine with removable access panels so you could see it. I painted the plane silver with lots of green camo splotches on it. Very pretty.

my first model was the old p-80 shooting star. i think i was 10-12 and it got me hooked. still wish i had her. and can't find another one like her to build. i thought she was the greatest when i finished, with all of the removable parts and everything.

The summer of 1954 - the kit was a Revell "box scale" USS Missouri - Dad bought the kit, a tube of glue, a bottle of red paint and some paint brushes - I was just turning 10 at the end of that summer.
I actually had the assembled kit for three or four years until it was sunk in "Plastic Bottomed Bay" (aka Rock Creek) while attempting to perform a shore bombardment - it's demise brought about by several hits from a "shore battery" firing .177 projos (read at least two BB guns - don't actually remember how many for that particular "action") - as you can tell, there was several ship models sunk in that particular stretch of creek - sometimes as many as 6 at a time. What the heck, a buck and a quarter would get you a new one at Brown's Hardware.

I distinctly remember my Dad building a Revell box-scale KC-135 back when he was flying Huns at Myrtle Beach. He built several others for me (it was for me, wasn't it?) including a B-58 that actually dropped the pod if you pressed the button. My first solo project was the old Hawk T-6 Texan. I recall adding some "underwing stores" that may have resembled toothpicks in order to get that aggressive look. Those were the days...most of my modeling projects only took a couple of hours, tops (and it showed). Now I know better and take months- which is an improvement, right? Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Great stories guys..isn't it great to walk down memory lane?

Mine was a Revell DC-7, in American Airlines markings, in 1956. (Those spectacular orange and blue decals were beyond the capacity of my five-year-old fingers, but I figured they didn't matter much.) Sheez - that means next year will be my fiftieth anniversary. I feel old....

The very first was in 1964, when I picked up a brand new 1/25 AMT(?) 1963 split-window Corvette at Black's Drug Store. I don't think the kit cost much more than $1, and it took every bit of about an hour to put together. I remember hand-painting it a light blue and putting decals EVERYWHERE, even under the hood!

Gip

Lots of good stories here but I'm with Phil on this one, I don't really remember my first model.

My earliest memory is being 7 or 8 and my Mom taking me to the toy store for my birthday. She gave me $20 to spend on whatever I wanted which bought 3 battleships if I remember correctly ($20 won't even buy one today). Most of my early models fell pray to the Pellet gun or other pyrotechnic devices in later years (remember Sid from Toy Story...). The oldest models in my collection are ones that I built in my late teens and are 20-25 years old, but don't ask me which one is the oldest! (senility... I know!)

My first ever was a snaptite Monogram Dodge Daytona, first glue kit was the Revell Magnum PI Ferrari 308.

My very first model was built back around 1959, it was a biplane which my Mother help me build. All I remember was the plastic was a purpleish color and my Mom had a hard time getting the wing struts glued on. It was probably either a Revell or an Aurora model with a lot of struts. Might have been a Jenny or a British plane.

T.Young

My first kit was built in the early 70s and was probably a dinosaur.

Dave

Ok, First model I built was a .... no, don't tell me, I know this...
Hmmpf, I don't know this.
It was a 72nd scale plane, probably a fighter by Revell. Remember several of those 3 pack kits. And I was 6 when I did it. Didn't have snap together kits back then so sure I used an abundance of glue and little to no paint.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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!!!)

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

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

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!

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 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.

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!