Please tell us about your first armor model....

It's always fun hearing about other folk's first efforts!
Great stories, all.

But some "first builds" I'm seeing here are better than my latest builds!! (Blackwolf!!!)

Here's a pic of the earliest armor kit I can remember building. There was a gray line of transition when I took over building from my father, but as I recall this was the first one I did all by myself.

Here it is:



It's Bandai's little 1/48 Tiger II, painted German Gray (hey, I liked gray! And I loved Battle of the Bulge!), and haphazardly weathered and "battle damaged." I also attached all the inner raod wheels on the right side, and all the outer road wheels on the left side, in addition to installing the tow cables on upside down and applying an incongruous collection of decals, now extremely yellowed. What did I know? I built it around 1972, when I was nine years old. I took this pic about two years ago when I returned to the States to visit the folks, and took a trip down memory lane by unpacking a bunch of my oooooold builds (I've still got tons of my ancient builds. The ones that escaped the wrath of the M-80s!).

Anyhoo, there's my first!
Then it was on to the Monogram 1/32 armor series...got pix of them, too!

my first kit was revells good 'ole USS Arizona when I was ten. at first it was ships, along with the occassional cheap little play seen. then aircraft (P-40's RULE!!) and then about two or so years ago, I got an MI Abrams with mine plow from my uncle for christmas.

its tamiya's kit. built it up nice, broke the stowage bin on back and fixed it, scratchuilt some stoage for it. hand-painted the cammander figure, completely over did the weathering, and added afv indy links. actually the links cam eout all right. put it ona base with sand for desert storm, wire atennas, and made a couple of old academy aircraft wheels into mines. (my dad loves improvising, even if there's a better solution hehe!) NE way, it actually won a couple golds at local competitions like Buffcon. had fun NE way.

When I started modeling, like many, I started with aircraft models. I did that for a few years, and then I stopped for about two years. When I went back into it, again, I went back to what I knew. I wanted to create a dio, and I found a 1/48 scale Merkava that I built. For years I had wanted to do armor, as the store display models were very fascinating. After the 1/48 expenditure, I purchased a 1/35 M60 Patton from Academy. I remember constructing the undercarriage, and it was the most fun I had had building a model ever. It was painted with a rattle can, and washed with a VERY overdone black wash. Didn't turn out so nice, but I still had a blast building it, and I've been hooked ever since.

My first kits were cars and airplanes. To tell the truth, I have no idea what my first armour kit was. I know it was not the 1/16 Tiger that I posted the pictures of. I have a vague recollection of a Sherman with the rocket launcher. Was that the Calliope? Other than that, I don't have the foggiest.

My first completed armor kit (I'm not counting the Revell Sherman that I built when I was about 8) is a Hasagwa 1/72 M-3 Grant. I actually slapped it together as a diversion while working on a Tamiya 1/35 Early (technically Mid) Production Sherman. The accuracy of the kit is really bad, so other than drilling out the gun barrels, I built it straight out of the box. Aside from the hour spent rescuing the main gun from inside the hull after the pivot pin broke, it was actually kind of fun to build.

My first real project is the aforementioned Sherman. I had never really built armor before, doing more ships and airplanes. But between some of the interesting armor articles in FSM, a neglected Sherman kit sitting a shelf in my local supermarket for months, and my needing to develop some more effective photo-etch skills for 1/700 ships, I deceided to take a whack at armor.

Originally the idea was to slap the thing together out of the box, aside from the photo-etch. But then as I really started getting into it, between the research, scratch building details, etc. I have actually become quite fascinated by it. I'm about 80 percent done with it, just needing to do the tracks, markings, tools and stowage, and a few detail items and a bit of final weathering. Unfortunately, my life has been rather hectic of late, so I've been finding it difficult to find the time to get it finished.

In the meantime, I've now got a couple more tanks queued up.

Wow! This thread has sure ballooned fast!

Let's see. It was so long ago---really!

The first models I vagely remember doing by myself (my Mother was quite good, quite an artist and lots of patience!) were some of the old AMT, hold the body on the chasis with two screws, car and truck kits. After that I did a lot, in fact almost all, of the old Weird-Oh's models. My favorite was Freddy Flameout. I was 11 or 12 and glued cotton to the "cloud" base. I don't know what happened to all those guys. They were in a box in my Mother's basement the last I knew, but she must have gotten tired of them because after she died, they weren't there anymore.

The first armor kit I ever bought was the old Tamiya King Tiger. I even remember where I bought it (that store hasn't been there for at least 25 or 30 years!). I was with a friend and remember telling him that the King was the best tank of World War II! Disgusting part is that I still have that kit and it's still not put together! I used the turret to practice Zimmerit on. It has the motorization stuff with it and it's all still there, I believe. Recently, I bought one of the Royal PE kits for it, so who knows, I might actually put it together someday!!

I have two first armor models - M1A1 and M4A3. I just bought them at the Squadron open house. I guess the two stones I've left unturned in modeling are sci-fi and armor. Sci-fi doesn't interest me that much, but I'm not sure why armor has eluded me. I guess when I started going to club meetings and contests it seemed like the aircraft guys I met were concerned with each bulge on the prototype, but the armor guys were into every lump on every bump on every bulge. I like to build accurately, but I didn't want to get a PhD in tankology.

Anyway, I saw these kits (both Tamiya), and a resin conversion, and the M4 Walkaround, so I thought why not take the plunge? The other day I ordered enough paint to do the Abrams and I have enough already to do the Sherman. I admit they intrigue me, and I have taken them down two or three times and looked them over. I'll let you all know how they come out.

My first model was the old monogram tiger tank (/?) the one with the armor that was attached by little tabs of plastic. I painted it mustard yellow. I had a 1/32 corsair and a 1/32 Stuka that were used to produce the coolest battles this side of the real thing. That was back in 1977. Ive kinda been watching E bay to see if I could find the old series, just for the memories. I already have the halftrack and the jeep.

I've got the Pz IV with the additional pieces of shurzen that have shell damage holes in them and a "booklet" by Shep Paine telling how to do a diorama. It's 1/32. I haven't even started building it yet. One of these days. Way down the list!!

Wow! Such great stories! I couldn't help it but to think why many of us started with aircraft models and diverted to armor and finally stuck with armor.

My first armour kit.......my memory ain't that good Dwight but.....

My first kit ever was an Airfix Wellington Bomber I got at christmas, when I was about 8 yrs old -35 yrs ago. My Dad never lets me forget the mess I made of it...and the fact that he wanted to help me build it.

The first armour kit I can remember would have to be Airfix's 1/76th scale Churchill or their AEC Matador and 5.5 inch gun -maybe when I was 10 or 11.

My first 1/35th scale vehicle was Tamiya's Tiger 1 in Wittman's SS livery, even though they didn't mention such things back in the early/mid 70's.

I used to love Monogram hotrod kits and had a few of those in my early teens. Ah, the Beer wagon, Lil' Coffin, Paddy wagon, Horn toad



..... and I'm not from a hotrod fanatical country! Funny how your tastes change with age.....

my first armor kit was monogram's m3 grant , way back in the early 70's. it was sitting on the shelf in the toy dept. at grand central (later bought out by fred meyer) but it wasn't just the kit, it was the full color "tips for building dioramas" that they included in the box. i have never lost that certain feeling that i got one i saw that first kit and i certainly hope i never do. i'm going to need that passion now because i just acquired dml's leopold kit and i'm going to need one bleeping huge space to put it .

my first armor was hasegawa's 1/72 m3 Lee. it now resides in the spares box (in pieces) because of its many faults of the builder back then.........

My first Armour kit was a 1/72 Tiger I by Airfix. The tracks were so stiff that the tank sat slightly off the ground...hmmm not exactly realistic. I think i was 8 or 9. I Really only got serious about modelling this year mostly 1/35 Armour and figures. Before that it was planes 1/72 and 1/48. I remember getting a 1/48 scale C130 Hercules for xmas, man what a waste! that kit was awsome and i just wasnt up to the challenge then( or now to be honest). Makes me laugh! my poor parents, that model must have cost nearly a hundred bucks.

My first armor model was one of those old Tank Hunter series
(Monogram, I think). I had to have been 12. There were two kits- one was a P-47 and a Tiger I (I think) and the other was a Fw190 (again, I think) and a Sherman. They were kind of cheesy- the tank sat on a plastic base and the plane was stuck on the end of a plastic stick. I just remember a lot of hand painting over a lot of finger prints of glue.

Well, my first model like many of you was an aircraft! it was a balsa wood P-40. lots of glue and tissue as I remember that was around 1958. My first armor kit came about , after I had become a tank commander on M-48 tanks in the Marine Corps reserve back in 1973. Just happened to still have it! there were no m-48's on the market back then so I built an M-60 from tamiya. Here's a family photo of the beat up old girl. She's been through the mill but, I still have her. enjoy. semper fi, mike

Why haven't I noticed this thread yet?

My first ever tank model was a 1/48th scale Aurora JS-III. Man did I love that little baby. I didn't paint it. It was already geen, so why bother. That must have been in 1973 or so. Then I built the Panther, and graduated up to the Monogram Brumbar. Oooh aaaah. Didn't paint any of them.

Right now they are all at the bottom of the Fresh Kills landfill, degrading in that very slow way that plastic does, probably smashed flat by all the weight of the trash, and, odd though it is to think, tey are probably rather close to my wife's shoes that she lost in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

MIne was the Matchbox Sherman tank (or what was supposed to be a Sherman, I think). It was a snap together kit I built on my grandmother's dining room table. After that I got into ships and planes for awhile, but I do remember building the US Army Halftrack with quad-50's in the back (can't remember who made it). Man didn't I butcher that thing. That was back in the days when I did not realize it was important to READ the instructions. I figured I could just match the shape of the actual piece to the shape in the illustrations and I would be good to go. Didn't I have a lot to learn...

I grabbed up a 1/35 Monogram (?) Snap together Panther when I was 6 or 7. I had one hell of a time "simulating" rounds impacting it knocking off each piece at a time. It was great. Come to think of it I might just have to get another to save for my son. Thanks for bringing back memeories.
Ryan

Mine was the Aurora 1:48 Panther, probably about 1957? I remember it
well because my grandfather had recently given me a talk about German
armed forces...They were NOT "Dirty Nazis" like my comics &T.V.portrayed
them, but soldiers like our own,& pretty cool, like Rommel,the Red Baron
etc..Guess what Granddad started!!! 47 yrs later& I'm still building Plastic
Panzers& collecting books on the Wehrmacht.....

Mike, she still looks good after all these years.

Well here is my first armor model and dio. I did this around 1983ish. I read Shep Paine's "How to Build Dioramas" and decieded to try it out. I used Tamiya's 1/35 Panther, Jeep and German gun crew. I used Celluclay for the base with real dirt, not painted and HO scale trees and grass. I weathered the Panther with pastels and dirt. I also glued dirt to the road wheels and tracks. Every thing was painted with a brush, couldn't afford an airbrush. The jeep is alot more beat up than what it was. I tried to put bullet holes in the windshield.....tried.

It was the most fun I had. Now it seems I can't finish one. When I do it will be the first one since this one.

The last picture shows some of the other stuff i've done before this dio. I started with a/c (the invisable man is an odd one). I wish I would of taken better care of it. Not that it was any good but it's neat to look at it after all these years

My first AFV was the Matchbox 1/72 Jagdpanther. I bought it in mid-2001, when I had just started plastic
modelling, at a car boot sale for £1. Tanks and military vehicles weren't really my area of interest then,
but I thought it would make a change from planes! I assembled it reasonably well (it's not really the most
complex of AFVs in shape, and Matchbox kits are usually straightforward and fit well) but painted it in a rather
inaccurate dark green colour.
A year later I developed an interest in tanks as well as aircraft, partly as a result of buying a "job lot" of
assorted partly-finished and unbuilt 1/72 military vehicle kits very cheaply at my local IPMS meeting. My painting
and weathering skills increased considerably since then and I took the old Jagdpanther off the shelf and added a
new paint job, with plenty of weathering!
Around the same time a neighbour gave me an old Tamiya 1/35 M3 Stuart which their son had built years ago. I dusted it
off, repaired some of the damage and missing details, and repainted it as a British vehicle in the North African campaign,
with the distinctive grey/sand splinter camo and red/white stripes. Though it was my first "big" tank, I still think this
is one of the best-looking models in my collection, partly because I just like the colour scheme! This was the model that
made me realise that 1/35 was the way to go for AFV modelling (though I still build small-scale tanks!)
The same neighbour also gave me an old Aurora 1/48 Churchill and IS-III which I also rebuilt and repainted.

Since then I have started to concentrate more on 1/35 and scratchbuilt/converted large-scale models. Partly because
I have built most of the commonly-available Airfix and Matchbox small-scale AFVs, and (in the UK at least) the newer
small-scale kits by Dragon, Mirage, Revell etc. aren't that much cheaper than 1/35 kits. (Between £5 and £8, compared
to between £8 and £15 for 1/35). Also as I mainly buy kits second-hand, the newer 1/72 kits rarely turn up at sales.

Always cool to hear how people got started in this arena. Keep the stories coming!

Well my first armour kit was also my FIRST model kit. It was a 1/48 AMX-13 from a Japanese brand called Crown. Yes, it did exist. I built it 30 years ago. I know! I know! 1/48 armour kit is already rare, having an AMX-13 kit is even rarer, having a 1/48 AMX-13 from Crown(a company almost unheard of) is really rarest. And then, well, that started my model hobbly for life.

First let me say that i am an acft builder at heart. But, my first armor was tamyia's T-62. I got excitted about the kit when i found a resin upgrade set on the half priced table at the LHS. The great part was i , did some scratch building (used resin parts as templets), and i was impressed with how quickly it came together. Now i build armor to keep from gettin gburned out on the 1/48 acft. Thanks for letting my tell my story.

jkeller : That's very good for a first try in armor.

Guys: Thanks for the wonderful stories.

I built my first kit in 1954 (might have been 1953) a Revell USS Missouri and I was 9 or 10. I still remember my first armor kit - It was July of 1956 and we were on vacation in California. Revell had just released its 1/40 scale M4 Sherman and I spotted it in the window of a hobby shop in LA. Mom wouldn't let me buy it because I was limited to buying one model on the trip and had already bought a Strombecker Sea Dart. Anyway, got back home to Kansas about 1 in the afternoon the following weekend, temp about 105 and I insisted in riding my bike 3 miles to the hardware store that served as the LHS in those days. Got the model and loved it. Built a lot of the Revell 1/40 scale after that. Oh BTW, does this date me???

My very first armor model was an M-43 walker Bulldog. About the only thing I painted on it was the 50 cal, the tries and the figures face. I only build the thing four years ago. My First armor model that I really tried on was a Tamiya, same brand as the first, Panther A. That one o found a picture in a book and loosley based it off of a Panther of Grossdutchland. After that, for the next two years I striclty built WWII aircraft (aside from the sub that was a birthday present) I recently got back into modeling armor with a M-3 Half track i finished last thanksgiving, a partualy finished Wirbelwind, and am curently working on a tamiya Jagedpanter. So i guess i still count as an armored newbe!

I've only been into modeling for about 7 months and have only finished 3 models 2 messershmitt 109's and a Panzer2.
i built the Tamiya panzer2 OOB and airbrushed it desert sand with green spots i'ts not that great compared to the AFV's iv'e seen on this site but i'm happy with it considering it was my first......
Currently i'm building a Panzer4 and i'm hopeing it will be much better.....
J.S......