Was thinking of my Dad earlier today and remembering the first kit I ever built. A 1/72 Airfix Messerschmitt Bf-109G. I’m talking 1975-ish here! I can still see its blister packaging and the light blue plastic… All the flash. The ill-fitting bits. Thought of the (short) time and (large amount of) glue I took to build it and the praises I got from my Dad (who was a modeller too).
Thought it would be cool to hunt down that kit again and build it again, with the advantadge of the skills and experience I’ve acquired since. Would anyone else care to share a trip down Memory Lane with me?
I will join you, I have Tamiya’s old 1/35 Schwimmwagen that I built at the age of nine. I just got the kit off ebay last month and it would be fun to build it again and do it right.
I’d be in for this. I just started working on a reissue of the ancient 00 scale Airfix M4 Sherman. They now try to market it as 1/72 scale, but most braille scalers know it to be 1/76. I have plenty of other pre-1975 kits in the stash.
No, but it was one of the first Airfix armor kits I ever built. That first Sherman came in a diorama set with vacuformed base, some vinyl GIs and Germans and a Tiger I. It was boxed by MPC and called “Normandy Attack”.
I was sent a sample of the reissue Airfix LCM 3 with M4 Sherman Mk 1 to review a few weeks ago. I built the LCM 3 a couple of years ago (won several awards) but tossed the included M4 several years ago. I committed myself to actually build the M4 for the review. So far I’ve used a lot of putty and sanded a lot of parts. It will be built totally out of box and fairly reviewed. The detail is very soft, but the kit is fairly accurate in shape and dimensions.
Group build: Everyone builds a similar subject at the same time.
I actually still have my first mustang it is in my spare parts box… Ill have to post a pic of it with the new build when I am done. It is now about 3/4 complete, in a Blue Angel paint scheme with a XB-35 counter rotating prop on the front, lol.
I find the toughest part of a group build is getting around to photographing my “in progress” kit. Sometimes I just keep pecking away at it until it is finished (or at the 95%) mark. Only then do I remember to show in progress pictures to prove I built it during the group build and didn’t just grab something off the shelf to gain credit for.
Do we get to build it with rubber cement, scotch tape, and color it with crayons?
I actually did this with an old Auroa USS Enterprise and it held together, at least until I put it in the bathtub.
I also remember the 1/48 Monogram F4F Wildcat I put together with Ambriod tube glue. It had a really cool fingerprint camo pattern when done.
Or the MPC 1/72 Avenger I painted with latex house paint.
And the Revell Datsun 240Z I painted with my mothers fingernail polish.
My model workshop as a kid was a storage room off our carport. I needed some tan paint, and spilled my bottle all over the floor. Being about 13 at the time, and having no patience, I found a can of latex paint and slabbed it all over a poor Spitfire Mk. V so it would be in “desert” camo. Looked like a truck bed liner on it. Took forever to dry. Got rid of the panel lines though.
glad to see you both joining in. Just to confirm, this group build isn’t about building the same kit. Find, if possible, the first kit you ever built (or close), and build it again. It can be out of the box (or blister!), or as complicated as you want it to be. Correct the kit, add details, change the colour scheme if need be. This is all about sharing again our first scale modelling experience. I think it could be fun.
As a start date, I’d suggest the 15th of April. My wife was just admitted to the hospital for a stroke so I might not be able to be here as much as ‘norml’ for a few days. Could someone officialise the GB with a specific thresd and maybe a badge???
Take care. Happy modelling. Need to get that Airfix 109, now…
And to make the group build interesting, you must all use tube glue and hand paint your kits with those little white plastic handled Testors paint brushes…
If we had to do that I was going to drop out of the build[;)] I only used white handled Testors brushes once then I brought my own set of good ones. Used tube glue a little longer, had a fear of getting glue in my eye from the brush for a long time.
