My very first model builded...

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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Hi all… I just wanted to start some kind of nostalgic thread, so let’s sit back and let’s forget for a while all technical data like Sakae 12 engine used by A6M2’s, what kind of ordinance could load the LeO 451, or the flawless Fw190 Eduard kit.

Do you guys remember your very first kit builded?

Mine was a Lodela’s 1/72 Hs123, I remember my dad bought it to me when I was like 6, the instructive, which I remember it very well, just said in a very simple way after assamble, paint it green, dark green and blue underside. So after glued all the pieces with UHU glue… and finish with my hadns full of it… hehe… I picked up some paints my dad had in the garage and with a old brush I pretended to paint my little plane… after finish it and leaving a lot of fingerprints on it a was so happy with it… that much that I put away some picture of me and my brother my dad had in his desk and put my airplane there, since then it started my favorite hobby, when I was like 10 I had like 24 more airplanes which all of them were shot down by my younger brother and 2 cousins… I called them “the flack boys”.

Of all my early planes only survived one… my very first and dusty Hs123, that I still have it in my desk office to remember no to use UHU glue again… hehe… kidding… I have it to remind me the simple way I used to be happy, no researching, no resin parts, no PE detail sets… But the more I grew up I need it finish them more detailed and realistic… can’t help it. :stuck_out_tongue:

I leave the hobby for some time and returned building more “seriously”, or at least I try, just some years ago. I’ve learning a lot thanks to advices from guys like all you (which I thank you all) and researching a lot.

Perhaps for some of you this would be a nonsense thread and perhaps kind a conry one… but just wanted to remember how simple was when we used to build when some of us started when were kids.

Here’s my hangar, that I get it not long ago, where now my planes are stored and also to protect them from any other future flack boys.

Just a end line I know Im new at this forum and I talk to much… :stuck_out_tongue: however I wanted to thanks to the forum and all you to keep alive this hobby and why not… also part of the history.

Cheers.

Alfredo.

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Okay…Alfredo…!!!

Sorry I’m too old to remember my first kit…it was most likely an automobile. I wrecked many of those as a youngster.

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ALfredo,

Cool thread! The very first model I built all by myself was the Monogram 1/72 P-51B Mustang. I remember having two glass bottles of Testors paint (a khaki-like green and brown) that I used to smear paint all over the plane like camoflage. I also remember the canopy having so much glue on it that it looked like I dipped it in the glue. Unfortunately, the model didn’t survive but the little pilot with his brown helmet did. I still have him, along with a replacement 1/72 Monogram P-51B that I intend to build someday for nostalgia and put the original pilot in the cockpit.

Man, thanks for helping bring back those memories. [^]

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I remember my first kit well… 1978, Monogram’s 1/72 scale F8F Bearcat, built with my Dad a Saturday afternoon at the Kitchen Table. I believe he still has it displayed in his collection.

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Answering this is going to show my age. My first model kit was a wooden Piper Cub. I don’t remember for certain but I think it was a Strombeck kit. It’s packed away somewhere in my storage area. I’m really not sure my I kept it. After that I built the P-61 and B-29 wooden kits. I built many others before moving onto plastic kits. All were purchased from a local five and dime store which I eventually went to work for during my high school years.

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I would love to find a kit of the first bird I built. I remember it really well. It was Monograms P-80 Shooting Star. I think I was ten. It was great! Every time I think of it I smile! Whenever I see one on ebay I try to get it but I always get outbid. The classics are rare and expensive! The next 2 were the F-86 Sabre and the Mig-15! Great memories!!

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My first one was a Monogram P-40 in 1/72, but my dad did almost all the work. the first one I built on my own was a Revell or Monogram 1/72 F-4J in Black Aces colors…I was stunned at how cool-looking that plane was.

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My first was a 1/72 Matchbox Lancaster, followed by a 1/72 MPC Ju 87 Stuka, and then a 1/48 Monogram Mosquito. Great kits, unfortunately none have survived…

Frank, that is such a cool idea, I’d love to see pictures of that someday. [:)]

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Frank… man! I also have a couple of pilots that I rescued from the wrecks that my bro and cousins left from my 1/72 airplanes togheter with some wheels and propellers I have in a small box where I store them for years!, and like you I had the same idea, I want to use the pilots to put them in some airplanes I want to build, since I started building 1/48 now I don’t feel confortable building 1/72, however Im planning get a couple of 1/72 birds like the ones I had, to put in there just for nostalgia.

Scorpr, I know what you mean the, kits I want for the pilots I rescued, I want for them the same kits where they came from, I remember one of them it came from a Lodela’s 1/72 T-28 which still I don’t even find it at ebay! :frowning: the another one… don’t recall very well but Im pretty sure it came from a Airfix Fiat G50 the ones that came not in a box but in a plastic bag with a cardboard in one extreme of the plastic bag sealing it and the picture of the model on it, fortunally for me… a friend gave it to me that kit 2 years ago (don’t know where the heck he got it), but I had a ton of flashbacks when I get it.

As the saying goes… one picture worth a 1000 words… here’s the kit:

Cdclukey, I know… the same for me when I finished my Hs123! Cardshark… wow! you had a big airplane compared to rest of us… I remember when I was a kid I wanted a Fw200 but it was quite expensive, since I saw the picture of the condor in the box It came one of my favorites I found it a beautiful airplane… now that Im older I got my Trumpeter’s 1/48 Condor, well it is not the same when I was a kid but everytime I see that Condor it reminds me when I was kid, despite I never builded.

Gordon, don’t remember seen those wooden planes but my dad used to tell me he builded a couple of them… mmmm… I think it would be interesting to build some.

Matt and namrednef and all you guy…thanks a LOT for sharing your modeling memories and Im glad not to be the only nostalgic here… haha

Cheers!!!

Alfredo.

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Great thread, Alfredo. My 1st model, circa 1978 ish, if i remember correctly. Was an FW-190 in 1/72. Im pretty sure it was an airfix kit. All light blue styrene. My brains going this week (Very Ill) but i think i finished it. It gave me the incentive to save my pocket money though, for more kits. Well done airfix. You have a lot to be proud of.

…Guy

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I firmly believe that modeling is 50% nostalgia…be it for youthful pursuits or for the love of something most of us have never experienced.

…and loving to build things[;)]

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cardshark- Thanks my friend! It’s going to be difficult to do actually, overcoming a sense of perfection and intentionally doing a poor job to reflect my first one! [tup]

V A- great idea! I really wish I had the box of old models that got thrown away many, many years ago. Not just for nostalgia, but also as a source of spare parts! [swg]

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10th birthday, Steilacoom, Washington, 1976. PanAm Beoing 747. Had a cake shaped like a killer whale (cartoon style, of course). I think my dad did most of the building on that one. Got a polaroid somewhere holding the plane.

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Man I love that cabinet. Treasure!!

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Great thread! My first kit was a WWI biplane, i don’t remember the make or model, or the manufactuer. I never did finish that kit (i was only about 5 maybe?) The first kit i ever finished however was an M60A1, when i was about 11. It was one of those Chinese made, motorized kits, of course the motor blew out the first time i used it. I still have the kit, it got busted up in a move at some point, but all the parts are there and i plan to rebuild it some day. Heres a picture of the instruction manual from it, the kit is currently packed up for another move.

Something I do have almost intact is one of my dads first models, which is really cool to have since he got me into the hobby, it appears to be a 1/144 scale Mig 21? Its got hand painted camo, and it looks pretty good, though the canopy is missing as well as a few other parts…

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The earliest kit I remember (and fondly) was the 1:35 Piper Tri-Pacer (it was a new kit in 1957), complete with hunters and vanquished lion! I also remember what pride I felt as I showed it to everyone who stood still long enough! I’m sure that it looked terrible, but not to my eyes! I modeled steadily for another 5-6 years then stopped until I retired in 2004. I’m trying to recreate my stash from childhood now, and actually having fair success, but it sure is haed on the billfold!

Brian [C):-)]

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For the life of me I can not remember my first plastic model. I can remember the first model I built was a Estes Red Max Flying rocket kit, and I have been building ever since… I saw a reissue on that kit [xx(] Plastic Nose cone, peel and stick decals…no thanks on that one

Brian I recall that kit with the dispatched lion, fact I seen an add or article on it not long ago. Somewhere in my stash I’ve got about several dozen of those old Bagged Airfix and Matchbox kits. I should dig them out and post a pic for old time sake…

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first with my dad - testors 1/72 SR71
first solo - 1/32 Revel Foxbat

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Sean,

Actually, that is kind a of a cool idea for a new thread!

I have re-acquired a great many of the kits I had, including the old 1:8 Lindberg SC-100/200 show cars, the Visible P-51 (original issue and many others. I just might do that one day soon - what a nostalgia trip!

Brian [C):-)]

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Good idea for a post Von Alf. Mine had to have been late 50’s early 60’s and it was an airliner but I don’t remember just what airliner. I did almost all the early monogram kits back then. They had the working features of one kind or another. Brings back some memories. Oh wow, I’ve been building models now for nearly 50 years. Yikes time flys, some of my early builds took some short flights too.