Reliving your modeling youth

[ratdoggy]

I am back into the modeling thing on and off for the last couple of years. I imagine there are lot's on here like myself in their 50's and playing with little plastic cars

I seem to be buying the same kits that I did when I was 12 only now I can do them better..Or is it my eyesight makes it seem that way? 

I'll get a Tijuana Taxi or a Beer Wagon or a '58 Impala and try to build them the way I had in my youth .Same colors etc...Am I the only one that does this? 

[Snake45]

7 minutes ago, ratdoggy said:

Am I the only one that does this? 

Yup. I'm sure it's only you.

[SfanGoch]

Reliving my modeling youth would require me getting cherry bombs and M80s to load into my completed projects.

[Tom Geiger]

Ha!  All common experiences as we get older!  

Here's an article I wrote back in the last century:
http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/0076.php

[Jantrix]

Nah. I'd venture to say most of us do it. Some of the older stuff is a little pricey now though. I only just recently got my hands on the Johan 60 Desoto which was a favorite when I was a boy. I build them similarly but not necessarily the same.

[ratdoggy]

3 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

Reliving my modeling youth would require me getting cherry bombs and M80s to load into my completed projects.

Never did that but lit some on fire and sent them off a cliff

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

I've been reliving my "pre-youth".

I've been thoroughly enjoying collecting as many of the old annual kits that I can that I missed out on as a kid.

I've found it exceedingly rewarding to take these old kits that I used to view as "substandard" in the detailing department & try to build them as I used to think was not possible.

 

 

Steve

[SfanGoch]

16 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

Ha!  All common experiences as we get older!  

Here's an article I wrote back in the last century:
http://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/articles/0076.php

Absolutely brilliant, Tom! You were on target with everything in that article. You perfectly captured the essence of being a kid back then. Ah, the memories.......

[SfanGoch]

34 minutes ago, ratdoggy said:

Never did that but lit some on fire and sent them off a cliff

 

No cliffs around here. People get supremely pissed off getting pelted with stuff chucked off an apartment building roof. We did experiment in rocketry, though. We would "appropriate" acetylene tanks, drag them down to the lumberyard which was on the East River shore in our nabe and made a  V-shaped launch rail out of two 3x12 planks elevated on some more lumber. Then, we set the tank onto the launch rail, shut-off valve at the rear, and proceeded to smack the valve with a sledgehammer. The dammed tank would take off and land a couple hundred feet into the river. In retrospect, it was stupid and dangerous. That said, It was still a lot of fun.  

[Junkman]

My youth happened to be in the dark ages of the plastic kit history, so I have intentions to relive it.

[Anglia105E]

Your excellent article rings true Tom, even here in England. Not only plastic kit built model cars, but also diecast model cars too. My cousin and I used to hold races in both our back gardens when we were not quite into teens, and these races were very serious affairs. The Corgi and Dinky diecast cars were of course reduced from shiny painted new models to badly scratched cars with windows missing and wheels coming off sometimes. These days, it is not unusual to see such model cars being sold at auction for huge prices, especially when they have the original box and are in original condition. They are in this ' as new ' condition because they have never been out of the box, or played with by young boys organising model motor racing.

David

[highway]

39 minutes ago, Junkman said:

My youth happened to be in the dark ages of the plastic kit history, so I have intentions to relive it.

Oh, that must be when these were first issued!

[Can-Con]

Yup, been there, done that,, got the model. 

AMT Cobra built in 2011. Same kit in the same colous as the one I built back in '74. 

Probably to a bit higher level than when I was 9 though. 

[gtx6970]

2 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Yup. I'm sure it's only you.

Insert a wee bit of sarcasm there.

 

But to the op,. Yep,,,,,, I would dare say 75% of the members here are 'reliving ' there youth

[Ramfins59]

8 minutes ago, gtx6970 said:

Insert a wee bit of sarcasm there.

 

But to the op,. Yep,,,,,, I would dare say 75% of the members here are 'reliving ' there youth

Absolutely...  I did the M80, firecracker and lighter fluid games too, but mostly with my Military models (Tanks, Halftracks, Jeeps, Deuce and a halfs).  I never blew up or burned my cars but I did often strip some older built ones to reuse parts on other cars.  Brush painting thick coats of enamel colors, getting that awful, stringy tube glue in places where it shouldn't have been...  When I couldn't afford to go buy a new model I'd scrounge through my big box of leftover parts to cobble together something.  Yeah, great memories.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Pffff, I don't know what you guys are talking about,  I never grew up! LOL

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

Insert a wee bit of sarcasm there.

 

But to the op,. Yep,,,,,, I would dare say 75% of the members here are 'reliving ' there youth

I figger most of us here speak fluent sarcasm. At least everyone worth knowing does. 

[Snake45]

5 hours ago, ratdoggy said:

 

I seem to be buying the same kits that I did when I was 12 only now I can do them better..Or is it my eyesight makes it seem that way? 

 

I built one of these '69 Chevelles in 1969, and cleaned it up and restored it (though didn't repaint or rebuild it) a few years ago. 

The other one I started in the early '90s, and finally finished it up about the same time I restored the first one, a couple years back. 

I call this a "then and now" build set. 

[Tom Geiger]

Oh since we're talking fire....   when we were maybe 12 years old my buddy Henry got a Cox airplane as a present.  We took it up to the field to fly, and Henry crashed it soon thereafter.   And that left us with a full can of Cox airplane fuel.   So Henry decided to fill up the fuselage and light it.  I stood at  safe distance (note that I was always the instigator but never dumb enough to try stupid things) and Henry lit the match and dropped it into the airplane.  Nothing happened.   So he lit a second match and dropped it into the airplane.  Puzzled, he crouched down  to peer inside the plane...   and BOOM! The thing ignited with a bang and flew into the air!  Henry did a somersault backwards in the air, then ran all the way back to his house screaming at the top of his lungs.  The good part was that he didn't really get hurt, just stunned and scared.  Oh, and he had no eyebrows.   We called him Peter Rabbit until they grew back. 

[Khils]

6 hours ago, ratdoggy said:

I am back into the modeling thing on and off for the last couple of years. I imagine there are lot's on here like myself in their 50's and playing with little plastic cars

I seem to be buying the same kits that I did when I was 12 only now I can do them better..Or is it my eyesight makes it seem that way? 

I'll get a Tijuana Taxi or a Beer Wagon or a '58 Impala and try to build them the way I had in my youth .Same colors etc...Am I the only one that does this? 

That's WHY!  Ebay is as successful as they are.........US!  Boomers wanting their stuff back!   Guilty as charged.

[Khils]

Example #1

[Snake45]

12 minutes ago, Khils said:

Example #1

I never had a Sting Ray as a kid. So I bought a vintage original one at a yard sale in the late '80s. It's now worth about 10 times what I paid for it. 

[Tom Geiger]

I lived in Europe so I got the Euro equivalent, the Raleigh Chopper.  I've been looking for another one for a while but everyone wants a grand!

Yes, this photo was taken in Germany and yes that's a Pontiac in the background

[Scott Colmer]

Most of the money on spent on kits as adult was replacing what I had when I was a kid. 

 

[angelo7]

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Edited January 15, 2018 by angelo7