How did you get started in model building?

[slusher]

Seeing all my big brothers models and seeing him build got me started when I was 7 years old. My Mother bought my first kit and i have been building all but 6 years since i started.

[landman]

My uncle bought me 4 or 5 WWII fighters around 1956 or so. I remember a Spitfire, Messerrshmitt, Zero, Mustang. Then I built the 39/40 Ford and painted it red with black fenders to match another uncle's car which was a '48 Chevy.

[Foxer]

I got a kit for Xmas when I was 8 that had three ships in it and my Dad built the freighter as I did the tugboat. It was his first build too and I remember how well his painting looked. I was hooked and went through many ships, planes and armor, but those multi-piece car body kits I didn't want to try, even though cars were my big love.  When AMT came out with one-piece body kits I was hooked ... hardly anything else since then!

[carman1]

Watching my father build those old Hubley metal Model As got me started,  the first plastic kit I remember was the Monogram 1941 Lincoln,   the one that was black on the box,  remember that like it was yesterday

[gtx6970]

Ive always been something of a gear head car guy. As early as i can remember to about age 8 or 9 maybe (would be about 1968 or so)

One day while walking around  in Sids Elsmere Drugs in Elsmere Ky . I had allowance money burning a hole in my pocket..... i spotted a model kit . I bought it,,,,, and have been hooked ever since. 

Sadly i dont remember the kit...but i think it was a plane kit. Once i started building cars...its pretty much the only thing I've built since

[Ramfins59]

I started back around 1958 or '59 when I was 11 or 12 and lived in the Bronx, NY.  A guy who lived in our apartment bldg. had a customized '58 Impala that he parked at the curb in front of the house almost every day.  The car was black, had a tube grille, 4 bar spinner hubcaps, was nosed & decked, full length lake pipes and cruiser skirts, a full width continental kit and six '59 Caddy bullet taillights.  It had dummy spotlights, twin mirrors and twin swept back antenna's.  I drooled over that car every time I saw it and when I found the AMT '58 Impala kit I just had to build it just like that car.  Off I went into this great hobby.  I stopped when I discovered girls and bars and got married, but picked up the hobby again in 1992.  I've since built another, better version of that '58 Impala using the Revell kit a couple of years ago with a lot better skills.

[Daddyfink]

I was about 6 and it must have been around '73 or '74. After my uncle and aunts noticed that I was always looking at my uncle's car mags and messing with his models, they bought me a Revell Snap Together Volkswagen Bug and I was hooked. 

I must have built and torn down that kit a million times! Sadly, one day it came up missing, and after days of looking, I found it in a large potted plant. My aunt had found it after the family German Sheppard had chewed it up and she threw it into the plants to hide it from me. Yup, I was pretty bummed, but, more kits came later! 

[espo]

Being somewhat older than most there was only planes and boats and the medium was wood. I always was fascinated by the automobile , 1:1 scale. When I was about 7 or 8 they began to offer a kit that resembled a Ford roadster. Just an oblong block of wood with two thin pieces of Balsa wood to glue to the sides and then sand to blend into the body. A couple of sticks for axles and four tires with nails in them to attach to the axles. The first model in plastic that I can remember was a then new '53 or '54 Ford. Not even as nice as the later dealer promos. Things go better fast after that with Revell and SMP and AMT bringing better detailed kits every year in coupes and convertibles. I was in high school when AMT brought the '32 Ford three window and roadster to market. Then their '40 Ford coupe and then the '39/'40 sedan. This was also at a time that young ladies seemed more interesting than models and of course real cars, jobs to pay for all this and such. After having two sons, one of which builds models when last checked, and many years of work and now retired. Now I'm that "Troll" in the basement building models  when not working in the yard or running errands. With the models of today I'm having the time of my life with so many choices it is now hard to  figure out what to build next.   

[Chuckyg1]

I was 8 or 9, this was in the mid '60's. My dad was big into wooden ship models. I remember watching him soaking wood to shape in to hull pieces. God was that a lot of work. I guess I showed enough interest that he came home one day with an AMT kit & three bottles of paint. I (we) had so much fun building that kit. It looked like BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH, but I was so proud of what I did. I got another one for Christmas that year & I was hooked for life. I Don't remember the kit, but I'll never forget the time we spent building it.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[racer1949]

Started with model airplanes sometime in the '50's. Also did some ships, the Santa Maria, Wisconsin and the like. Was walking past a hobby shop at the age of 10 and saw some constructed model cars on the window sill. Thought they were the greatest things I ever saw. My next trip I brought the $1.39 and bought an AMT kit. Did not even know what it was. Turned out to be a '59 Mercury convertible. Still have it although It is now decently rebuilt. Been hooked ever since.

[426-Hemi]

Modeling (or building) however you wanna look at it, I been doing it most of my life, from about age 5 to date, some 33 years later, I've gone from Model cars, & trucks to trains and spent a good part of 20 years building trains (in HO scale), then recent times 2013, my Dad got me a 1/4th scale model of a 426 "Street" Hemi from Hawk Models, and I then turned back to the old days of my childhood building car models, now about 50 models "in" to the return! and boy, what I have missed in the times I was building trains!

Years ago, before I got into the HO scale trains I musta had 500 or more model car kits. That was ALL and any of them, today however, I've limited myself to "Mopar Only" as I have a massive collecting gene from both Mom & Dad, and my Wife knew of this with the trains so.............  I picked the car type, I know and love.... Altho it does "stray" once in awhile as far as the love goes, as my family had once in a VERY blue moon other-than a Mopar, and a few very close family friends I had to make an exception for.....

[Petetrucker07]

I was about 4 when I watched my dad build me the Mack firetruck snapkit. I was amazed that the pile of parts turned into a firetruck. Then I think I was around 8 when I built my first kit myself. It was an AMT 67 Camaro. I painted it dark blue, no decals, I didn't know how to do them. I think I learned how to do decals around 12 or so. I took a break for about 10 years, then picked it up again about 3 years ago.

[Tom Geiger]

I believe I was programed for cars at birth.  My relatives say that from the time I could sit upright I was mesmerized by cars. As a small tyke I had Matchbox cars.  A store we went to had the Matchbox display carousel on the camera counter. My father was a photography buff so we always visited that counter.  And if I was good I walked away with a shiny new car in my little fist. The first time I saw model cars, I was five or six.  We went to visit relatives and my father's youngest cousins were in their teens.  They took me up to their "big boy room" that they shared. There was a shelf up high on the wall near the ceiling all the way around the room that held model cars, sideways end to end, as if they were driving around the room.  I was absolutely in love!  To add to the excitement they gave me a model car to take home.  I don't remember what it was or what happened to it, just that this was a life changing moment!

My father was in the US Army so that was when we were sent out of the country.  There was no model stimuli in 1966 Izmir, Turkey. In fact there was nothing at all to buy.  We were lucky to get new toys that my grandparents mailed to us.  This was the time period where I learned to take very good care of my things, because there was no replacing them!  In 1968 we returned to the US for a year when my father got a one year assignment to Korea.  We lived in the same city as my grandparents and my grandfather took me under his wing. Every Friday after work he'd stop by our place and take me home.  We'd have dinner (my Grandmother was a big fish stick fan!) and watch the Friday evening TV line up in COLOR!  On Saturday morning I'd wake up early to watch cartoons in color too.  Around 11am, we'd take a walk to the Two Guys Department Store.  Each week he'd allow me to spend $2.  Some weeks I got two Hot Wheel cars and other weeks I'd get a new model car kit!  These weekly jaunts sealed the deal with me and model cars!   I had written a long story about these trips. Another memorable event for that year was when my father came home for Easter.  We went to Radio City Music Hall for the Easter show, and it included the movie "The Love Bug".  I was very pleased to see a car movie, and my father bought me the model kit too!

Then in 1969 my father returned from Korea and we relocated to Germany.  We lived on a US Army post and we could walk to town.  Germany was much more like the US than Turkey, there were stores and such on par with the US.  We even had a Woolworths in town.  And there was a hobby shop!  The downside was that the US car kits available there were sparse and very expensive. Back when kits were $2 in the US, our equivalent in Germany was $10.  So those purchases were few! I remember buying the AMT '53 Ford pickup to duplicate an article from Model Car Science.  I also bought a Revell VW Beetle and a Porsche 911 at those prices!   That began my association with AutoWorld.  I would order my US kits from there, and buy Humbrel paints at the local hobby shop.

We moved back to the US for good in 1972, and my first trip was to the Two Guys store.  I was amazed at the selection of kits and dug in.  I built through my teens until I got my drivers license and got into 1:1 cars and girls.  I had saved my box of kits so I gave modeling an attempt again in my 20s, but I quickly gave up.   Then  28 years ago I found Scale Auto Enthusiast Magazine in a bookstore.  I wasn't aware that there was a magazine or that the adult hobby existed. I was immediately hooked and have built ever since!

That's my story!

[Jantrix]

Dad is a car guy and built models as a kid in the 50's. He still had a few and I was always interested in them. I grew up a Hot Wheels kid so at about age 10 dad bought me a slew of flea market kits and some glue and set me to work. It was a great way to get through Long Island winters when there's not much to do. I kept it up during my teens but by the time I was 18 or 19 I was starting to wonder if I should give up the kid stuff because I didn't know anyone who still built. Luckily, during a visit to a hobby shop I voiced my concerns to the proprietor, and he handed me a copy of SAE and opened my eyes to what modeling is about as an adult. 

[CometMan]

Dad was a model builder and car restorer (him and I both still restore cars), grandma was very crafty. Built my first kit when I was about 5 (around '73), have been building on-and-off depending on life situations since.

[PARTSMARTY]

Easy answer-I started building at about 5 or 6-55 years ago and have never stopped. Total car freak-been in the auto parts business for 43 years.My passion is greater now than ever-have never once built anything other than cars and motorcycles. When I retire in a few years that will be my full time job-models several hours a day-simple.-LOL!!!

[Rob Hall]

My older brother got me into it in the late 70s...he was living in our basement after college (he's 21 years older than I am) and had his 60s AMT annuals on a shelf...I liked them, he and my mother got me some Lindberg and Revell 1/32nd scale snap kits, then I got some glue kits for my birthday and Christmas in 1978 (Revell 56 Chevy and several AMT Countdown Series kits) ..I was hooked.  When my brother moved out in 1979, he gave me all his '60s annuals (about 2 dozen kits).... which got me hooked on old kits.

I had been a bit of a car nut from early childhood, though, with Matchbox, Corgi, Tomica, Hot Wheels etc diecast and a variety of interesting 1:1 cars in my family (my folks were Ford/Mercury/Lincoln people w/ Continentals, Mustangs, Cougars and Thunderbirds around, and my older brother had a steady stream of '60s-70s muscle cars..

Edited September 16, 2016 by Rob Hall

[10thumbs]

My older brother built navy ships, and sailing vessels.  I don't remember my first car I built, but I do remember the AMT Double Dragster kit when it came out, I built the Fiat.  I bought that kit from my own money that I'd earned!  2 bucks!

The 1st good model was a 40 Ford, probably AMT.  Dark blue paint that was brushed, it was a very good paint job.  I remember too, adding springs from a ball point pen to let the rear axle bob a bit. I was hooked by then.  Probably by then it was 1963, 12 years old. 

One model whooped me good, the Revell Orange Crate.  I broke some of the long thin chrome steering parts while trying to remove them from the tree.  i'd still like to do that kit.

[Dennis Lacy]

When I was about 7 years old (would have been in '87) my Dad unboxed, cleaned up and set out on display some model hot rods he had built in the 60's. I thought they were some of the neatest things I had ever seen so one weekend not long after he presented me with an AMT '63 Corvette kit and one of Testors basic "get started" sets of glue, paint and brushes. We did all of the necessary painting on a Saturday and did assembly on Sunday. He did a lot of the work but I definitely helped. From there I was hooked and continued to build model cars through my teens but boxed it all up as I moved on to other things full-time like real cars, beer and females.

All of the sudden when I was 27 (would have been '07) I woke up one morning and had this burning desire to mess with models again. Got on-line and discovered the magazines had forums and was blown away by not only what people were doing but by how incredibly accessible the internet has made modeling. No more waiting 2 months for a magazine to arrive, now I could interact directly with the builders of the models I liked. From there I went on a kit buying spree, re accumulating every old hot rod kit I had known and loved. By early '08 the pile was about 60 kits thick so I decided it was time to have at it. 

It's funny, too, because my Dad is directly responsible for my interest in the hobby but he thinks it's silly and a waste of time (and money) that I started back in as an adult. He implies that building model cars is a kid thing. Ironically, when I expressed a short revival of interest in N-scale model railroading about two years back (and got my childhood 3x5 layout out and working again) he thought that was just great. That revival was short lived after I became aware of how stupid expensive model railroading has become!

[MrObsessive]

I got my first kits for gifts on Christmas of '68, but I remember being VERY disappointed when I opened up the box, there was all these pieces and it didn't look all nice and pretty like on the box! It reminded me of a puzzle, and as a kid I HATED PUZZLES! I went to play with my half dozen Hot Wheels and set instead which were new that year. IIRC, the kits were a  '68 Chevelle, and a '40 Ford. I don't know if that Chevelle was an annual or what, I do remember that it had pretty neat box art.

Fast forward to 1978, and I'm a senior in high school working at a McDonald's. For weeks I could never get a Saturday off, and even my Dad complained that someone was getting Saturdays off, why wasn't I? Well that following weekend I DID finally get a Saturday off, and wouldn't you know it? It rains.

So, I decided to get in the car, and head to our local mall. I happened to notice a hobby shop that I hadn't been in before, so I step in, and the place was loaded with wall-to-wall models! I was for whatever reason fascinated, and I ended up buying Monogram's (new in '77) '57 Corvette kit and a tube of glue. I literally put it all together that afternoon and evening and it was a  MESS!

Glue spots everywhere, no paint whatsoever, but I was hooked and went back later to get another--------a Cobra kit I believe.

I've been building steadily since then, but wouldn't get into superdetailing until the early '90's. The rest as they say is history!

[Xingu]

I started with model aircraft around 1973 or so. As I got older my interest shifted to model cars. The father of one of the families in our neighbor hood worked at a store (can't remember which one) and he brought kits home by the case and sold them to me for $5 each. This was when kits were in the $8-10 range. Just now thinking about it, I may have been purchasing stolen merchandise. I took 30 years off and just recently started back into the hobby.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I was a machine-head almost right out of the egg. My parents used to joke that my first word was Ford, and that's probably not far from the truth. I was fascinated by trains early on too, and had Lionel stuff, but even as a little kid discrepancies in scale bothered me...though I didn't know what it was called, I just knew some toy things were the wrong relative sizes.

My father built static and flying model airplanes and kites, and as soon as I was old enough to spill paint all over his workbench and lose his tools, I started "helping" him. He probably gave me my own first model so I'd leave him alone. My early glooey fingerprinted gap-paneled messes were mostly planes and ships, but I got the old Revell '57 Ford wagon kit (which I ruined beyond belief and probably painted 5 times trying to make it "better") and was headed for car models mostly from then on, though I did get into HO and scratch-building structures, scenery and hand-laid track pretty seriously for several years.

I think I built my last hobby model for a long long time when I was 17 or 18...an altered-wheelbase '55 Nomad straight-axle match-racer painted fluorescent orange with a light silver flake, a flip nose and a 409.

[Harry P.]

I had an interest in cars from very early on. Whenever my parents and I would go somewhere, I constantly asked my dad "what kind of car is that?" He had no particular interest in cars, but he had to learn how to ID cars on the road because of my constant questioning.

Then one Christmas I got a large scale battery powered hot rod made by Marx. It was probably around 1/8 scale. I remember "detailing" it by painting the interior, wiring the engine, etc... even though it wasn't a kit, but came completely assembled. Working on that Marx toy got me wanting to build a model, so the next Christmas I got the (then new) Monogram 1/8 scale Jaguar XKE kit. When I opened that box I was in heaven, even though I had never built a model kit before. My dad and I worked on that kit for several days... well, mostly my dad did the building and I watched. He didn't use any paint, just glued the kit together straight as it came out of the box. That Jaguar was my prize possession, and I started buying model kits with my allowance money. 

I was always more interested in the building part, not necessarily the subject matter... so I built a little of everything... cars, trucks, ships, planes, tanks, the Visible Man, the Visible Frog, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc. As I grew into my teenage years my model building interests became more and more focused on cars... specifically drag cars, funny cars, rails, hot rods, etc.

Then I took the obligatory "girls, dating, marriage" break from the hobby for many years; returned to building in my 30s, and am still at it. I still build mostly cars, but still also build a wide variety of subjects.

[Sixties Sam]

I started building model cars when I was 9 yrs. old in 1958 when AMT came out with their customizing kits, and I remember having a few model planes before that. I got hooked on the car models and built about 250 of them through my teen and college years. Got married and got into R/C planes in 1971, and gave away most of the model cars to a nephew and some local kids. I didn't build a model car for over 30 years after that. Then in 2003, I picked up a Revell 32 Ford three-window coupe model on a whim and built it. I discovered how much better the new kits were, and began building again. I'm still at it at 67 years old!

Sam

[DrKerry]

When I was around 6 my friend was into them and got me interested. Mostly snaps at the time of course, but later in years getting into glues and seeing what my Dad built cemented me into the hobby even more!!!!!! I have a few of my Dad's cars that he built back then!!!!