What Did Everyone First Build.?

i still have that sub after more than 20yrs

smokinguns3 wrote:

If i can remember right you old age setting in (At 35 next month ouch) I think it was the old revell cuttaway sub if iam right.

iirc that was the USS Andrew Jackson & I had one of them myself

I remember waking up my father on a Saturday morning being 6-8 years old so my brother and I could get help to assemble 2 airplane kits he purchased for usthe day before. My Monogram model fit so bad I didn't try another kit of theirs for 10 years. But the first sailing ship was Captain Hooks pirate ship from Peter Pan that Revell made. I graduated to the 1/96 Cutty Sark at 12 and spent a year building it. Haven't done any building for many (20) years but have about four unfinished and 4 in the box kits to complete. Supposedly I'll have some time when I retire at the end of this month!

elderjack wrote:

I watched my older brother build a Strombecker "Buckley" complete with powdered glue and sandpaper.

Strombecker ! Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long while! I did the trains, and their B-29. I'd watch Victory at Sea, and then go out and fly the '29 on bomb runs in the back yard.

The Revell Charles W Morgan. I was 11 years old and my mom helped me build it. I remember painting and assembling some parts, but she did a large part of the   rigging because I guess an 11 year old's patience just wasn't up to the task. From what I remember it looked great when we finished, but then again didn't everything look good to us back then ? What I remember most is the great time we had building it. The time we had building that ship made so much of an impression on me, some 38 years later I picked up the same kit on eBay to build again some day.

Ted

Well, I'll let the pic tell it all. This is my first ever ship, and I still have it on my shelf!



I built this back when I was seven. It is the old Monogram 1/600 scale kit of the 1950's era USS Forrestal. 'Nuff said.

My 1st ship was a Monogram Balsa LST followed by a Carrier- Shangri La.  Of course my 1st plastic kit was the Revell Missouri. I watched my older brother build a Strombecker "Buckley" complete with powdered glue and sandpaper.  Those were the days when the house would smell like Testors "dope" and Testors tube glue.  Our modeling knives were Gillette or Gem single edged razor blades or in an emergency a double edged blade with Johnson & Johnson adhesive tape on one edge. 50+ years later I am working on my YMW "Witchita" with all the latest tools, paint, PE and countless references.  But sometimes I miss the smell of "dope"

 

Ron

Port of Puyallup WA 

As far as I can remember it was in 1968 or 69 and it was the Graf Spee. Maybe an Aurora kit. At the young age of 8 or 9 it gave me one of my first modeling lessons. Don't use Elmers white glue if you plan on sailing it in the pond! She fell apart but I got her mostly put back together. What a mess!

If i can remember right you old age setting in (At 35 next month ouch) I think it was the old revell cuttaway sub if iam right.

bablenw wrote:

My first was a dehavelin comet airliner. Not sure of the scale, very small. I was so proud of it I ran into the living room to show my over glued, full of strings, melted plastic parts and  drooping wings masterpiece to my parent.  I've been hooked ever since. Neil

I'm sure many of us can relate to this I know I certainly can

My first was a dehavelin comet airliner. Not sure of the scale, very small. I was so proud of it I ran into the living room to show my over glued, full of strings, melted plastic parts and  drooping wings masterpiece to my parent.  I've been hooked ever since.

Neil

My first ship in the 50's was Revell's USS Arizona.And when I got back into modeling in the late 1980's was 1/96 USS Constitution by Revell.

Rod

i think my first ship model was pt-109 sometime in 1975 or 76 when i was 5 yrs old and my stepdad got me started building.  31 years later after going through tanks palnes and a few corvetts and a few years of breaks.   I have stickpiled about 18 1/350 scale ships tha twill probably keep me busy well into my 40's

this is so old, maybe I am wrong, but my first ship model was Heller Cadet, "l'Occident" ; I built it while one of my cousins was building "l'Orgueilleuse", a Heller Cadet model too.

Michel

 

The Aifix 1/600 HMS Victorious at the age of 7. It turned out as an unbelievable mess of glue but that one model had me hooked for life.

Julian

In 1992, Revell's 1:720 USS New Jersey (circa 1990).

Sadly, my first [wet] ship model has yet to be built [otherwise, USS Enterprise from Star Trek TOS]. I plan to start building Tamiya's 700-scale USS Hornet. When I'm done [along with Yamato] I expect my shipbuilding to really flow.

My first ship, which I built in fourth grade was Revell's USS Pennsylvania. My Dad got it for me as a surprise gift out of the blue. He was born in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania near the Piaseki helicopter factory.

My first ship model was the Revell Savannah. My second, a few weeks later was the Heller "Le Sphinx", which was when the ship bug really bit. It was really the Harriet Lane, same molds as the Pyro version. I have done this kit 6 times in the last 40 years. On the to do list: Glencoe Corsair, Revell Kearsarge, Zvezda Sirius, and Pyro Roger B Taney.  

It was a Hospital Ship by I believe Revell. when I was about 9 years old. I think their has been a reissue of it in a Classic kit or History Makers type of reissue.

My first ship was the Revell NS Savannah- I really wondered why I had to glue the top on and seal up all those reactor details.  The kit made for a lot of bathtime fun!
Andrew

My first kit was a small USS Arizona.  I believe it was probably some box scale, but I can't remember.  Such things were beyond my 7 year old brain.

 

My second was Revell's UDT Boat with (oversized) Frogmen.  I'm still trying to get my hands on that one again.

My very first of any sort was a Revell DC-7, which my mother bought me in the summer of 1956, a few months before my sixth birthday.  I hate to think what a mess I must have made of it; I do remember that the beautiful American Airlines decals were completely beyond my capacity.

First ship model was the Revell hospital ship Haven.  Dr. Graham's book says it was originally released in 1956; I imagine I got mine either that year or the following year.  First sailing ship was the Revell Santa Maria, which dates from 1957; I think my parents bought it for me in either that year or '58.

Wow, what a trip down memory lane...my Dad and uncle would take me to Quonset point for Navy Day and I loved crawling around the ships and aircraft that were at the base for the day. The carrier based at Quonset I believe was the USS BENNINGTON, mid 1950's. So my dad took me to a local hobby shop to purchase a carrier to build for my birthday. Well, they were fresh out of  Revell  carriers but the shop did have a Revell MISSOURI, so that model came home with us. But since I was 6 years young, my old man didn't trust me with a tube of glue. So I had to wait(seemed like forever) until my Dad could sit down at the kitchen table and "help" me put it together....until that evolution took place I would dry build the model every chance I got. No wonder half the quad forty's were missing...and one of the catapults..what a great model to start with...been building every since.( hey my second model was the Lindberg "Moon Rocket", sent away for that model, used half a tube of glue on it!)

Mike M.

My very first ship model was an Aurora "Doctor Dolittle Good Ship Flounder". I saved up my allowence for weeks and purcharsed it at the local 5&10 store.

As I recall, I was around 7-8 years old and it went pretty well until I got to the sails which required multi-colored stiping painted on. I did my best, but the stripes sure didn't look like the photo of the completed model on the instruction sheet.

I sure wish I still had that model, would love to give it the "whole treatment". It was a pretty little schooner. Hmmm, maybe I can still find one out there somewhere...

  Memory of the first model I ever built has fallen out of time, into darkness......There was a series of books, for young readers, that featured a schooner, named "Windrider". Using a small block of wood, some toothpicks, and some thread, I built that schooner, a two master, as I "saw" it when reading the story. The first plastic model I remember, vaguely, was a full rigged ship. It was about 5" overall.. The oldest model I still have, is the Ideal, Revenue Cutter "Alexander Hamilton", though, it has been "rebuilt" several times, and no longer resembles the original kit.

My first ship model (no idea when I built it, but probably the late 1980s) was the Airfix 1/600 Scharnhorst/Gneisenau. I still have some AA guns and other bits from this model in my spares box! I also built the Frog/Novo Shell Welder tanker, and a modern US carrier of some kind which may have been the Airfix 1/600 Forrestal. 1/72 aircraft were my main interest back then however.
I also remember being given the Airfix 1/170 HMS Victory as a Christmas present, which seemed a mind-bogglingly complex and difficult kit to me at the time - I never built it and I think the kit was later sold at a car boot sale.

When I got back into modelling about 5 years ago, my first ship model was, of all things, the Airfix 1/600 4-stack destroyer HMS Campbeltown, which I built in 2001. (The kit was given to me by a neighbour who'd had it in his attic for years). Until about a year and a half ago, ship modelling didn't really interest me much, mainly because I had a (false) perception of ship models as being small + limited in detail - until I built the Revell 1/72 Vosper MTB kit, which made me an instant convert to 1/72 ship/boat models. (This kit is fairly crude + inaccurate, but nevertheless it was what got me interested in this scale).
I stuck to 1/72 scale for a while but after building a couple of kits in the 1/150-1/250 range (Revell USS Defiance and Buckley) found that these scales also offered plenty of detailing opportunities.
Whilst I still prefer building models in 1/250 or larger, I now also build 1/350, 1/400 and 1/600 ships, the latter scale mainly because it's the only way (other than scratchbuilding) to build a representative collection of WW2 Royal Navy ships!

Threads like this are always fun to read, it's interesting to see what kits everyone started with! I'd imagine the Revell 1/535 Missouri must be the most common "first ship kit" in the US, not sure what it is here in the UK, maybe the Airfix 1/600 Belfast or Bismarck. (Despite being one of the worst representations of its subject, the Airfix Bismarck is probably also the best selling, the same is probably also true of the Revell Missouri...)

First ever model was a Revell 1/72 FW190. Remember getting more glue where I shouldn't than where I should have.

First ship was a Revell Trawler that an Aunt got me for Christmas. Might have been a Russian Spy Trawler, but over 30 or so years, memory fades.

I'm quite sure my first ship was a monogram Iowa class.

I remember the 1/96 Cutty Sark myself. I was 11 when it was goven to me & it had no instructions in the box. I too had no clue as to what I was doing & I found every book there was on her & pics so i could do it up right.