My mother helped me with my very first kit — and the box art made such an impression on me that after many years I still recall this packaging of the B-29 — but my first solo model was still to come.
We’re producing a new page for FineScale Modeler magazine and calling it “Final Details.” Often, the subject of this page will be your answers to popular questions, such as, “What are your favorite tools?” or “What’s the farthest you’ve ever thrown an airbrush?”
In any event, we are depending on your answers and your views on the great scale modeling issues of the day.
Readers are often surprised at how far in advance we work on an issue. Believe it or not, this “Final Details” page will appear in the October 2014 FSM.
Now for your question: What was the first kit you built on your own? Many of us built our first models with help from an adult — but can you remember the first one you built on your own, unassisted?
You may answer here or respond to me directly by e-mail, but please limit your response to 150 words or less. And please don’t send any pictures or attachments — just your answers. Use the subject line Final Details.
We’ll be taking your answers until June 6, 2014. I look forward to hearing from you!
My first one was a Revell DC-7, in its beautiful original box and American Airlines. I think it was in 1957, when the kit was brand new and I was six years old. My mother paid a dollar for it at the sporting goods store two blocks from our house in Columbus, Ohio.
My first kit was when I was 8, in 1965, it was the Revell 1/72 F4U-1. Unlike some, my first model kit and my first unassisted build were the same model.
I recently bought the same kit in a new Revell of Germany box, to place next to my first model (I still have it),and plan to buy the new tool Revell F4U-1D kit when it gets released.
That will allow me to show the same aircraft type from Revell back then, then the same tooling built from the ground up using “modern methods”, and the newest Revell version, all three together on the same shelf.
I do not recall what was my first un assisted kit- Most likely it was one for those little Hawk 1/72 aircraft kits as I remember building many of those. We wouold get them at local store down the street. I very much recall the first kits that I built with dad though…
My first kit was the F-104 Starfighter by Monogram, I was about 10 at the time. I remember picking it out because of the name, I had a huge love of science fiction at the time, and I didn’t realize it was an actual plane. I would build a few more Cold War era jets before I would stop building models. Only to pick it up 30 years later…
My first unassisted kit build was the Revell USS Pittsburgh, using that lemon scented non-toxic tube glue. I brush painted it in chrome silver and flat black, as that was all I had! I was five years old.
My first unassisted kit was also my first. I was at most 6 years old, and I wanted some green army men like I had seen the other neighbourhood kids playing with. Parents took me to the local department store, but all they had were a few Tamiya 1/35 scale figure kits - I choose the British infantry set that came with three soldiers.
They weren’t pretty when assembled (pieces were just twisted off the sprues, no clean up, etc), but back then, I thought they were great. Little did I know what it would snowball into…
My first kits were Strombecker solid wood models of civilian aircraft, back in the early 1950’s, and also plastic Revell “highway pioneers” antique cars. The solid wood models came out rather crude, as I did not have much patience for sanding and shaping, but the plastic cars were pretty good. I remember I
had to use a heated metal tool to melt and seal the axles to hold the wheels on!
I believe it was Monograms “Heavy Chevy” 1970 Chevell. I was probably around 12. I got started after my Dad helped me build a Riviera an have enjoyed it ever since.
My first model was brought to me by my uncle and he also helped me to build it - it was a 1:72 glider - and I can’t recall the name of the machine or the maker of the kit. But then a few months later my mom bought me a 1:72 model of a Polish pre WWII liason aircraft called LWS Czapla by a polish company Plastyk Pruszków. Back in the eighties you had to stand in a loong line to buy something like that. I put it together and it looked terrible, but I’ve been modelling ever since!
Back in the day it would’ve been a Dornier D.O.X. Yes , it was all wood ! Thing is , I got an " A " in shop class with that one ! Darned thing started a snowball effect that continues to this day .My Dad and Uncles NEVER had time to teach me that .
I remember my mother getting me a DC3 in 1965. I was about 10 years old at the time and made a big mess with the glue and clear parts. Pretty certain it was a Monogram kit and remember the decals were bright red so they had to be TWA markings. That was a very long time ago.
I remember after doing my first kit with my dad (Monogram 1/48 AT-6), he took me to the hobby shop and bought me a Monogram 1/48 (I think) Cessna 180! He set me up in my room and he let me at it alone! What a site it was! Hand painted silver paint! Glue everywhere! A horrific decal job. But that was all it took to get the fever and never stop loving it! I still did kits with my dad too…best of times!
I really don’t remember the first one I built without help (some 35+ years ago). My son Ethan just completed his first one unassisted just a month ago (he’s nine years old). It’s a Polar Lights “Stone, Woods and Cook” snaptite drag car.
My first and first unassisted were the same. Forget the actual name, but it was a Chevy Snap-Tite 1/32 van that my First-Grade teacher bought me (I was in a remedial class for troubled kids) in about '72. A bunch of snap-together kits later my parents finally got me a “real” kit - a 1/48 Revell Starfighter and a Monogram 1/32 6x6 Army 21/2 Truck!
First solo kit for me was the (then) Monogram P-61 Black Widow. We had extracurricular courses in middle school, around 1987, and one was model building. Got 45 minutes after school let out to work on the kits in a classroom. I brush painted the interior silver, left the outside bare plastic (black) and masked off the red wing walk lines with scotch tape and brush painted them. I’ve had a thing for the P-61 ever since.
My first finished kit was a balsa stick model, a Guillows Aeronca kit. It was a few years before the plastic kits came out. I built both plastic and flying (balsa) models for several decades, till I got too irritated with weather cancelling out planned flying sessions. Now I build almost exclusively non-flying shelf scale models, only rarely a flying model. My non-flying models are not all plastic, however. I still scratch build (or even one of the rare available kits) a wood “solid model.”
I think it is surprising that I remember that first model so well, since it was almost seventy years ago!
