My first ship model was Revell’s U.S.S. The Sullivans (the original Fletcher Class destroyer) which I received as a 10th Birthday present. Sullivan is our family name and although we’re not related to the five brothers who went down on U.S.S. Juneau, I knew the story. It was a strange experience building that model; on one hand, it was fun, and on the other hand, it was sad. I can’t explain it any better than that.
As you might expect, I didn’t produce a museum quality model, but it had a place of honor on my desk for years. A while back, I bought a kit of this ship - building it is on my “to do” list.
Wow, talk about bringing a post back from the grave!
Well, since it’s here I may as well join in.
I remember, a long time ago, I built this jet model. I must have been 7 or 8 years old. All I remember was that I didn’t paint it and I took it to show and tell at school. It was a big model, a military jet and had the nosecone like the concorde, that would bend down when the plane was landing. I can’t think of the name of it right now. All I know is that I was proud as can be of that model and it sparked my younger-days career in modelling that lasted until I went to college.
So here I am, over 35 years later, and after a 15 year break, I find myself in love with the hobby again. I’m currently working on Heller’s Soleil Royale, just recently finishing Revell’s 1:96 Cutty Sark (which sits proudly in my boy’s room. I have a Montague Dawson print coming in the mail to go behind it on the wall.) Waiting in the wings are the Heller 1:100 La Reale, two Revell 1:96 Constitutions, and the imposing Heller Victory.
Needless to say, I’ll be kept in sailing ship heaven for years to come…
First ship was the 1/96 Cutty Sark my step sister brought over on new years eve of 1971, i was eleven at the time, and had no clue what i was doing, but got her together with no paint, and very limited rigging, and man was i proud of that ship!.
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.
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…)
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 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…
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!)
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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.
[wow]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.