Where did you start building model car kits?

[Roadrunner]

I like the way you think, Harry. This is (unfortunately) the most progress I've made so far on my 4-8-8-4 Big Boy locomotive and tender.

[misterNNL]

I personally have always loved all things in miniature.Being born during World War two there were no model car kits that I get saw anywhere that I haunted like dime stores but there were older kids in my neighborhood the built rubber band powered propeller driven balsa wood airplanes like Piper Cubs.At about 50 cents each they were double my weekly allowance but I enjoyed watching them build them.To my horror they spent all time and money buying and building them and then would wind them up,attach a litl fire cracker to them and launch them to seemingly enjoy the obvious explosive result.I found one of those old balsa wood kits last year at a garage sale and added it to my stash of unbuilt kits just for the nostalgia of it.

My first model car kit was a Lindbergh kit # 609:29 1/32 scale Jaguar 120 roadster that my mom bought for me.I remember promptly customizing it by adding dual front fender mounted spare tires,brush painting it yellow with red flames.How do remember the exact kit you may be asking yourself?(probably not),I found an inbuilt kit a long time ago and picked it up my stash.No it was no longer 29 cents.

My first 1/25 scale model was the multipiece Revell '57 Cadillac coupe.I really thought I was pulling out all the stops when I customized this one.I somehow forced the upper body panels down over the lower ones(notice I didn't say it looked nice)to make it look sectioned.Next came vertical grille bars from an old pocket comb, and lakes pipes made fro drinking straws.Man I just knew I was stylin with this custom Caddy.

The rest as we say is history.

Edited October 1, 2015 by misterNNL

[dartman]

I started with cars and planes and military did nothing for me.Every monday night our church had what they called craft club.

you could build model cars,paint,electronics(think crystal radio and electric motors you would build),knitting and others.My 

friend always gravitated to the models.I think they were 1/43,glue bombed,all brush painted so they looked pretty bad but

we had fun and the hook was set,We were I think 8 or 9 years old.I been doing ever since and love it.I got reconnected

with my friend and he has started building again.

Edited October 3, 2015 by dartman
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[Harry P.]

Every monday night our church had what they called craft club. you could build model cars,paint,electronics(think crystal radio and electric motors you would build),knitting and others.

Thar's pretty cool. A great memory, no doubt.

[Tom Geiger]

When I was in 8th grade we had one period a week called "Clubs". Of course I joined the model building club. Being at a school for military dependants on a US Army post in Germany this was interesting since kits were hard to come by, especially American kits.  We'd keep our models in our lockers and work on them that hour each week.   Mine was the Airfix  1913 Dennis Firetruck.  That's such a complex kit that I didn't make much progress. I'd brush paint a few parts... out of time! And I'd put the still damp parts away. And I knew I lost parts when the box got jostled in my locker.  Never did finish that one!   As an adult, I've bought the old Airfix kits for another try someday.

[dartman]

Thar's pretty cool. A great memory, no doubt.

It is a great memory Harry,especially getting in touch with a guy who was about my best friend in that

period of my life.We now talk about the kits we did as growing kids into adult hood(becoming a adult

was the stupidest thing I ever did lol).

[Travis T]

My first one was the MPC General Lee, built sans any paint on the floor of the living room with dad's help!

[geemoney]

1970

buffalo NY

AMT opel GT

no paint

built it while my dad schooled me!

I will never forget it!

[Zarana-X]

On the kitchen floor. I remember spilling blue paint on the floor. That's about it.

The earliest model I remember the details about was a Revell snap together Toyota 4x4.

I was about 7 or so, and had a tooth pulled from the dentist. I remember picking it out at the grocery store. My dad painted the wheels and other small details, and I put it together. 

 

[Tom Geiger]

On the kitchen floor. I remember spilling blue paint on the floor. That's about it.

 

About 15 years ago I cleared out my grandparents house to sell it.  Upon cleaning out their basement and sweeping the floor I came across the spot where I used to spray paint models when I was about 10.  There was the evidence!  The blue ghost outline of where a model body sat when I sprayed it back around 1970.

[426-Hemi]

I started out a little Train guy way back when I was 2, NOT building, "PLAYING" as I got older got into the trains, I wound up getting a new store in town, a Hobby Shop....... I was sort of into Baseball cards then too, and talked to the owner if he was gonna have any Card related items in the shop, nahhh..... WELL soon as I seen what this store had to offer as a kid, I pretty much lost interest in the cards, in my home town the card collecting days were limited as it was fading away, slowly, and the new hobby shop opens and it all hit the fan!

I wound up selling MOST if not all my Baseball cards to a local guy and took the $$$$$$ and off to the hobby shop I went! The first model kit I EVER bought was a 1978 Dodge Lil Red Express truck, followed by a USA-1 Monster truck....... The rest? IS HISTORY!

This model? Sadly went up in smoke about 6 years ago. BUT one pic does in fact remain..... I combined both trucks, frame and body of one, with the suspension of the other, used glue bomb rims and tires on it too (wasn't fond of the USA-1 tires and rims)...... Came out something like this:

Lower (bottom) shelf, in about the middle its orange and black......

I was so into the trains then it wasn't till about a year before the shop closed for business that I really got into models, BUT by that time, ALL the local stores were trying to compete with the sales this single one shop was getting, EVEN the gas stations local to me had model car kits for sale, some new, (mostly) the 3 drug stores had a whole shelf full, but these little side shops and gas stations even had "glue bombs" for sale!!!!!

I can not tell you just how much or how many times I had to choose between model trains, and model cars/trucks at that point..... At one time, I had about as many trains as I did model cars & trucks. NOW however the trains did in fact take over. I got WAY more trains then model cars, as I just recently (within the last year and a half, got back into model cars) My wife....... She never knew this side existed, it was so buried..... Now, shes wonderin, which keeps her on her toes LOL

 

The fun never ends........

 

Edited October 29, 2015 by 426-Hemi
I really CAN'T type!

[ZTony8]

I started building cars and have only ever built one ship and one airplane(confession-I have the reissued AMT 2in1 boat and a Hemi Hydro in my stash.)I'm a car nut,not a plane,ship,figure,or tank nut.

[unclescott58]

Built my first model cars with the help of my mother on the kitchen table back in 1964 or '65. First built Aurora's Frankenstein's Fliver and Dracula's Dragster, plus a small model of a Me-262. In retrospect I'm a little surprised by the Me-262. My mother grew up in Nazi occupied Norway, and for obvious reasons didn't like anything dealing with Germany's war history. And yet we built an Me-262 as my first airplane model?

By the way, I basically filled up one of the Me-262 engines with glue. I was 6 or 7 at the time. That engine got soft and mushy. And stayed that way for a long time from what I remember. From playing with and handling the model, that engine ended up looking like it had severe battle damage. And I learned right away not to use too much model glue.

Edited October 31, 2015 by unclescott58

[webestang]

I kinda started with my HO train set and building the depot, water tower  and such, but it was cars I started with when I got into kits.

[Jantrix]

My dad was a car guy and grew up building model cars in the 50's. Starting about age 10 he started me on them as something to do during the Long Island winters. All year he'd buy up kits and gluebombs at the flea markets and yard sales and when the first snows started to fall he'd drop a big box of stuff on the craft bench in the basement. At first I sort of thought everything had to be put together just like the instructions said. Like a puzzle. Once he described kitbashing to me, I was off and running. I had a hard time thinking of them as static displays back then and played with them until they fell apart and then I'd rebuild them all over again.

I don't think my dad ever dreamed it would become a lifelong obsession though. Part of every visit is him checking out my recent work.