What got you started?

I now mostly build Armor, but it was Gundam Wing that got me modeling.  My first kit was Wing Zero.  I twisted the pieces off the sprues, and then snapped 'em together.  I built kits for two years, then ran out of steam, and money.  About four years ago, while vacationing in San Fransisco, I picked up a Tallgeese II kit.  That was poorly assembled, then painted with sharpies.  A year later i started building models again, tanks now. 

I'm rebuilding that tallgeese now, reapainting it, and removing all the sprue bits.

Hey Sumpter, small world.  I'm in Hoffman Estates.

SG, just curious, what hobby shop do you use? Last I knew there weren't any closer than Elgin, Des Plaines, Wheeling, or Mundelein.

The thing that got me started was the kid next door. He was 3 or 4 years older than I was and he built models. Somehow we were friends with his family and he got me started. He also gave me my first baseball glove which I still have laying around here somewhere!

 It was the late 60's and we had no Computers, Internet, Ipod's, X-Box, Playstation etc. So what was a young boy to do with himself other than play baseball, kick the can, bike ride and build models. My first model was Aurora's Draculas Dragster. I remember being so proud of it and I took it to school and show and tell. I also remember I broke the Blood goblet in his hand just before I was to talk about him. I was excited as all get out when Polar Lights repopped him and I have several in the stash and I really need to build him again for fun!

What got me interested in Sci-Fi was very simple. Star Wars!  No wait it was Space 1999 as I got my Eagle when the show was being aired. Then along came Star Wars followed quickly by Battlestar Galactica, Black Hole and Star Trek the Motion Picture.  I was hooked. Somewhere during this time I picked up Kalmbach's original Spaceships of Fact and Fiction book. I never knew a 2001 Orion was kitted and that Eldorado was just plain coolness! Never had an Orion until Airfix repopped theirs in the late 90's. I still have unbuilt kits I bought in the late 70's. All the SW kits including the illuminated Falcon. Also the STTMP Smoothy Enterprise, Vulcan Shuttle and Klingon Battlecruiser. Also somewhere in the bowels of my collection are unbuilt Black Hole kits.  I always consider myself first and foremost an aircraft modeler but I have most all the Sci-Fi kits ever made in styrene and all the Polar Lights kits! I never got my hands on a Moonbus though :-(. 

You know come to think of it it was Lost in Space that sparked my love for Sci-Fi. I just never knew about model kits until that kid next door ignited the passion! 

Cheers,

Max Bryant

I've been a big Star Trek fan since I was a lil' guy.  My dad built an 18" TOS Enterprise kit for me when I was like 7 or 8, then a Klingon Battlecruiser.  Both got a LOT of play time and, sadly, were pretty much demolished.

  When I was about 10, I saved up and purchased an 18" Enterprise kit and built it all by myself, as well as decaled it.  I didn't have much of anything in the way of skills - and still am no where near as good as a lot of the folks here - but had a lot of fun w/the build and managed to keep the model intact for quite a few years.  In fact, I still have it, tho had to replace a few parts on it.  I later purchased a few WWII kits, Battlestar Galactica (TOS) and the Star Wars kits when they all became available.  I've taken a breaks from building over the years, but have always returned to building models because the SciFi kits really engage my imagination, as well as offer me a venue for relaxing from the everyday worries of life.

And no, I do not zoom my starfighters or starships around the room. 

This is really cool hearing about all these experiences.  Y'know, now that I think about it I remember building some models as a child too(not that I'm that far removed from that stage in life).  I built a couple of cars and maybe an airplane.  I remember building a Lambourghini Countach (spelling?) with my cousin Matthew who had really severe CP, so the only way he got to do things was by watching me.  Matthew had a sick sense of humor though, cause I sliced my thumb open really good with my Xacto and that was pretty much the highlight of his day.  I also built a bunch of those plastic dino skeletons.  I forget where they came from but they were kind of popular and I remember they were white plastic that glowed in the dark.  My biggest thing was always lego kits though.  I had tons.  But I guess thats a form of a model.  I hope I can remember all this stuff 30 years from now when my kids ask me what got me started.  Thanks for all the responses so far, and lets hear some more. 

Thanks CJ.  I have trouble fitting in on forums.  Like I found the Gundam Seed forum and they have a modeling section, but it seems most of them aren't as serious as you guys are and I needed a place where I could learn.  I guess I got lucky I stumbled on this site cause I found a good place with good people. 

Hey Sumpter, small world.  I'm in Hoffman Estates. 

I started model building at the age where I finally grasped the concept that "hobby knives" were sharp and could easily cause bleeding. Initially, it was small inexpensive plastic kits, that were "stocking stuffers" at Christmas......it kept my brother and I busy, so our parents could sleep in a bit longer before the "Christmas present attack" started. Plastic sailing ship kits mostly, and aircraft.

I got into model railroading, because of the wide variety of models I could build, and combine in a "common display". My first inspiration for Sci-Fi, was the TV show Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. My first "serious" model was inspired by Battlestar Galactica. It is a 49" long variant of a Battlestar, built from various kits/parts/plastic "things", and "spare Parts".  I still do sailing ships, plastic and wood, and I still kitbash "spacecraft", as well as '60s-'70s USN ships, and railroad stuff.

/forums/893940/ShowPost.aspx   shows two of my SciFi kitbashes. I'm working paint, on my Revell, F-101 VooDoo "rebuild", and there is an NCC-1702 (Farragut), and an NCC-8600 (Firestone) that I don't have pictures of....yet. 

As a teenager I dabbled in scale models, 3 autos and 2 gundams, but then it kind of fell to the wayside as college started.  Fast forward through a couple years of school and chronic illness and few years ago my wife got me a kit and an airbrush for christmas and encouraged me to get back into the hobby.  I did, both feet in.  I've taken over the basement though I don't think she minds ^_^.  I've always liked to design and build things and ever since I was little I loved science and figuring out "how things worked".  I would take apart things just to put them back together.  Modeling just seems like a natural fit for me; it lets me create something out of a pile of parts.  That's why I'm not so big on trying to model things exactly as they are in real life.  I want to take the kit and make it my own.

I've been building models longer than I can actually remember. When I was real little, we were very poor. My parents couldn't afford toys, so I used to have to make my own, out of cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes and construction paper. Lots of construction paper.

When I was in the third grade, I found an old book in the school library from WWII. It was about how to make wooden airplane models. These were used to help train novice pilots distinguish between enemy planes and friendly ones. After that, no piece of scrap wood was safe around our house.

Then when Star Wars came out, I really liked the spaceships, but the Kenner toys were far too expensive. The MPC models however, were reasonably priced and more accurate. I built them to play w/ them. This led to model airplanes and tanks.

As a teenager, I got into figure painting because I was into D@D, which improved my figure painting skills a lot.

Years later, I got into the Ma.K.s because features of them are similar to armor, figures and aircraft all in one sci-fi kit. (I don't play w/ them though.    )

That's pretty much where I'm at. I'm not sure where I'm going...

Hey SG, thank you for this thread. I just want to say I think you are a real credit to this forum. I'm very glad that you are a regular contributor here.

    Well I first started when gundam wing was on cartoon network.  I went to toys r us, they didnt have the action figures there, the only place that did was Kb and they were like 12$ each, this is when action figures were 5$.  They had the wing model kits though.  so I started buying them and snapping them, and well... using them like toys.

    When Ms Gundam went onto cartoon network toys r us had a few of the new ones, Im not sure what kits, they were HGUC I got a Dom and Gouf (really bad tooling compared to the new ones...), mainly because it was buy 2 get one of the MSIA figure figures free (I got Gherin Zabi, like an idiot I opened it, I now have, in packages, hammon, sayla, delaz, garma, and matilda aian, as well as the G-wing hero pack with the pilots and zechs).  After that I got a kit or two from this (now I realise) over priced hobby store.  from there I got... a GM sniper (yes, THAT gm sniper) a korean bandai re-release of a vintage Bawoo kit (such a bad kit... especially as a snapper, it didnt snap) and the hguc Hyaku shiki.  I never painted any of those kits though.

    I lost interest after those kits.  Maybe... a year ago, or so, I was looking up stuff online, and for some ungoddly reason I looked up gundam, found gundamstoreandmore.com and started lookin at the selection, I couldnt believe the kinds of kits that were out.  I got myself alot... atleast for one purchase for me at the time, hguc palace athene, gaza c, qubeley mk II limited edition (like an idiot I freaking built it... I have the qubeley 1 and 2(red) ltd editions now, unopened.) wing gundam ver ka MG, hguc Hazel Custom, and the GP02.

    After snapping them I saw gundam markers for sale, I got one pack, then a second, I have all of them now, even the real touch ones that are suposto simulate washes.  After a while I decided that my old paint (for painting army men) would work nice (testors paint) and I tried painting my Gm sniper (also used some non testors stuff, studio gough... it made a mess.)  It turned out ok (I eventuially destroyed it)  and I painted a normal GM{G} cannon (crappy mod) red and black, which is on my Bakuc.  The paint job was actuially not to bad, not bad at all, if only the mod didnt look crappy, and I didnt use stickers, as well as decals on the kit.