My dad bought me my first kits. The first one, if I remember right, was a B-25. Might have been a Doolittle raider kit. This was in the 1950s. Another kit he bought me was a Boeing 707 kit. The model had a button on the top that when pushed, the landing gear extended.
Hi,
I can’t really remeber my first model kit, but there was a chain of 5 & Dime stores when I was growing up called “Motts” and they stocked some old car models, so it may have been one of them. I don’t recall the manufacturer (it may have been AMT or Lindberg, or someone else) but I seem to recall the cars didn’t usually come with chrome parts, the plastic sometimes seemed kind of grainy, and the tires were typically hard plastic (like the rest of the kit, instead of rubber, and came in two pieces that you had to glue together.
Most of the subjects were fairly old (even in the 1970s) and the two that I specifically recall having built were a 1936? ish convertible of sime sort and, I think, a 1940 Ford sedan. [:)]
Pat
That was originally an Aurora prehistoric scenes kit acquired by Monogram when Aurora went under. It was eventually reissued by Revell when they merged and I think under license by Atlantis most recently.
I built cropdusters out of tinkertoys first, then I graduated to stick and tissue which never flew except in my hand as I ran around the yard. This was my first plastic model, in 1955. I still remember being sad because I cracked the plastic frame that fit over the canopy. I have a replacement kit in this photo, and I built another more recently, pictured below. This time the canopy frame survived.
Sounds like a fun GB.
Mine was the Cessna Skymaster from Hawk I think at age 5. I put so much testers tube glue on the wings that they melted.
The only model I rememer as a young kid around 10 yrs old my parents bought me a visible v-8 engine model kit you put togther and it had a little electric motor where the starter would be you could see the piston and valves working my dad help me put it togeher other than that all I remember is my parents bought me a erector set for chirstmas one year and my dad and i mostly dad built a ferris wheel that actually worked with electric motor.
Tinker Toys.
Is that a Constellation?
It was, the My First Time GB back in 2013. Can’t recall who ran it now.
1/72 Monogram Snap Together P-40 when I was 5. My dad took me fishing and I got bored pretty quickly. He must have expected it, because he pulled it for me to work on.
That big old MPC General Lee. I had to look up the scale (1/16). I must have been 8 years old. Good times!
I built this kit ( my first “glue together” kit ) Way back in 1971 - 72.
I made a horrible mess of it. Just recently got the kit again… This time will be much better !
Before this kit I made a few Snap - together kit’s … I seem to recall building the Tiajuana Taxi around the same time, but back then the glue fume’s were more “toxic” so I may be remembering that all wrong.
A Spitfire. I can’t remember the company, scale or mark number (I, V, IX, XIV, etc) but it was 1969 and dad bought it for me after he took me to see Battle of Britain at the movie theater.
Must have been TWA, from all the red sticks I used.
Remember it like yesterday. Dad helped. Was 6 or 7 when we built the MPC Pacer Wagon. No paint in the interior or engine. Body was brushed silver
Mine was the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Allosuarus when I was 5 or 6. Then came the Tar pit, Sabertooth Tiger and Neanderthal man. back then, I didn’t paint the models, just assembled them to play with them. But, I do remember painting the tar gloss black in the tra pit.
My first kit was the old Aurora Boeing 737. My Dad worked at Boeing at the time and I remember putting it together and putting on the decals. Notice I didn’t mention paint. I had the toxic Testors tube glue but no paints. Aurora Monster models, Revell space models, Monogram tank models, all built without paint. Still had fun. Lost them all when we moved back to Ohio from Seattle. I think my Mom “forgot” to pack them. I had already given away all Matchbox cars.
My first was the 1/72 Monogram F-105. Assembled it with the old Sniffproof glue and brush painted it Testors silver.
My first plastic kits were from a Revell “Gift Pack” that included an F-89, a F-94, and An F9F8 Cougar. The pack also had glue and bottles of paint. The decal placement spots were etched in the plastic. The gift was from my uncle who was on leave. He was in the USAF and had just returned from over seas and was transitioning from the F-86 to the “NEW” F-100. I put the wings of the Cougar on backwards, that is I swept them forward. DUH!!
Given the rapid development of aircraft in the 50s 60s and even into the 70s my uncle flew several aircraft in his 35 year career, but his favorite jet was the F-86. He said that was a fighter pilots airplane. The only time after doing those first models that I did not do much modeling was during my three year all expense paid vaction with my Uncle SAM. When I stop modeling it’s time to shovel dirt over me!!!
Don’t remember the specific kit but I can be confident it’s fate was either melted with an accelerant, thrown off the second story with explosives or wound up on the wrong end of my BB gun. Yeah, not much going on in my hometown.