Reliving your modeling youth

[#1 model citizen]

I recall demolition derbies on the school playground at recess & lunch. I would use "a little extra" glue to try to outdo the the competition. This work well on 1 particular '61 Chevy, nicely brushed painted a custom mix of a less than pretty blue. I had done well winning several rounds. but it eventually suffered an irrepairable blow to the front fender. It was really only a piece of plastic that had chipped off, but my prized Chevy was now ruined and I retired from the derby, not wanting to suffer such financial loss in the future.

Edited December 23, 2017 by #1 model citizen

[disabled modeler]

I have been trying to relive my modeling youth ever since I became disabled and now have more than enough time to build them even though I really never stopped building.   It would be very nice to find some I once had or could never get as a kid...would be great for the memories...maybe make me feel like I did as a kid for a bit..LOL..  Some..I know Ill never be able to find or afford but one has to try right..???

[Greg Pugh]

Case in point...? Lol

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'm not so much interested in "reliving" my modeling youth as I am in taking up where I left off, but with the benefit of a lifetime's worth of manual skills and knowledge.

Revisiting my youth might be the better word, because I enjoy replacing kits I had as a kid, but I don't ever want to do the kind of horrible work that was my best effort then.

In "my modeling youth" I was a ham-handed hacker, and it wasn't until my teens that my skills even began to approach the level required to achieve my vision.

I guess I was lucky in a way, 'cause even as a little kid, I KNEW my glue-smeared, brush-painted, ill fitting messes were crapp, but try as I might, I just couldn't get my hands to do what was required to do much better.

I remember getting my first can of spray paint, and thinking that would make all the difference. Well, no. At first, it was just a new way to produce a new kind of unsatisfactory result. But I could see the potential in the few decent looking areas on a mostly orange-peeled or runny, solvent-popped spray job, and it didn't take long to get it pretty much down. My models started looking good, and I won a few contests.

I learned to solder and built brass slot-car frames, then started rewinding the motors for more performance. I built a flipper wing on one that was supposed to work like the air-brake on the 300 SLR, but it was so heavy, it tended to make the car fall over. Then I tried what may have been the world's first full monocoque slot-car, fabricated of styrene sheet. It WAS light, and accelerated like a rocket, but it was also fragile, and tended to go straight when the track turned.

By my mid teens though, I was working on and driving real cars, and sometimes they had girls in them. By my late teens, my modeling days were done.

Throughout my career(s), I've drawn on many skills first acquired as a young model builder, and today, approaching retirement, I've come full circle.

Now, my modeling skills are built on real-world knowledge and experience, and with enough effort (when I have the time) I can finally build to the quality I aspired to as a sticky-fingered 8-year old.

 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[Snake45]

  On 12/16/2017 at 3:21 AM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Throughout my career(s), I've drawn on many skills first acquired as a young model builder,

 

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Ain't that the truth! Building models teaches you how to do things, and, even more importantly, how to think a project through, beginning to end, to end up with the result you want to achieve. 

[russosborne]

I am definitely one that is reliving his youth doing this. I am hoping to rediscover the pure joy I used to get in just building a model.

It's one reason you will never see a picture of any of my builds. While I may try to improve things and such, my greatest pleasure is just gluing kits together. Generally when I try to paint or detail things, I end up putting the kit back in the box and move on to another. My happiest builds are the ones that I build with minimal to no paint, and that being engine/drivetrain only. Decals on a bare body. Etc.

I am one who wouldn't mind if all the manufacturers ever did was to re release the stuff from the 60's and early 70's.

Russ

[waynehulsey]

  On 12/16/2017 at 5:05 AM, russosborne said:

 While I may try to improve things and such, my greatest pleasure is just gluing kits together.... My happiest builds are the ones that I build with minimal to no paint, and that being engine/drivetrain only. Decals on a bare body. Etc.

I am one who wouldn't mind if all the manufacturers ever did was to re release the stuff from the 60's and early 70's.

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Sorry, but I just can't understand that. I always try to push and learn something new with each model. May never finish it, but I learned or did something different.

Never could understand that burning, blowing up, crashing, etc... models either. Had to 'explain' that to my younger brother a couple of times at least as far as my stuff was concerned. Guess I never played well with others.

[kitbash1]

  On 12/14/2017 at 11:15 PM, Snake45 said:

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

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I grew up in a military house-hold. We were taught sarcasm as a second language. 

[slusher]

  On 12/14/2017 at 6:48 PM, 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

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Fantastic article Tom!

[disabled modeler]

  On 12/16/2017 at 5:05 AM, russosborne said:

I am definitely one that is reliving his youth doing this. I am hoping to rediscover the pure joy I used to get in just building a model.

It's one reason you will never see a picture of any of my builds. While I may try to improve things and such, my greatest pleasure is just gluing kits together. Generally when I try to paint or detail things, I end up putting the kit back in the box and move on to another. My happiest builds are the ones that I build with minimal to no paint, and that being engine/drivetrain only. Decals on a bare body. Etc.

I am one who wouldn't mind if all the manufacturers ever did was to re release the stuff from the 60's and early 70's.

Russ

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Russ....Id be happy with those years too...there my favorite years and body styles

[Mike999]

From Tom's article:

"I was also influenced by the movie, "The Yellow Rolls Royce", so all my Chevys were painted a Testor's (19 cents) brush yellow and black two tone. These were also the two colors known to be as thick as honey right from the bottle and I know I gave it several good coats."

Trying - patiently - to use that feature of old Testors Yellow, to fix a problem caused by impatience. (Which causes most of my modeling problems.) 

I got a couple of small runs while spray painting Testors Bright Yellow from a rattle-can.  Let the paint harden, then leveled the runs by scraping with a single-edged razor blade and feathering with fine sandpaper.  That left a couple of small dips.  I'm using old Testors Yellow from a bottle to level out the dips. It is thick, and even thicker due to its age.  Then I plan to feather/blend the dips, and LIGHTLY re-spray with the Bright Yellow. 

Yes, it's a pain, but the rest of the paint looks good and I don't want to strip the body. (Again!)  Besides, I like to experiment with stuff like this, just to see if it can be done.

[Richard Bartrop]

I'd be lying if I said their weren't some kits I'd like to see come back, but it's because I liked the subjects,  but I had little love for the promo based models where a slab of bumpy plastic was supposed to represent the chassis, and it's one of the reasons I loved the Monogram and Jo-han classics.   I like that I don't have to make do with things like thread and carboard for detailing, and that I can buy styrene like I used to buy balsa wood.  I love that there are kits of subjects I wouldn't dare to dream of as a kid.   I like all the tools materials and finishes available.   I love that I have at my fingertips, refeneces for almost any modelling subject, and that I can communicate with modelers from all over the world, and if that hard to find kit isn't in my area, then the internet will put me in touch with someone who does have it.   Even when I do revisit a favourite subject, I have the tools and skills to handle it that I didn't have then.

Reliving my modeling youth?  Forget that noise.  These are the good old days, right here, and right now.

[Greg Myers]

Lookin' for my youth 

[bbowser]

  On 12/23/2017 at 6:35 PM, Richard Bartrop said:

I'd be lying if I said their weren't some kits I'd like to see come back, but it's because I liked the subjects,  but I had little love for the promo based models where a slab of bumpy plastic was supposed to represent the chassis, and it's one of the reasons I loved the Monogram and Jo-han classics.   I like that I don't have to make do with things like thread and carboard for detailing, and that I can buy styrene like I used to buy balsa wood.  I love that there are kits of subjects I wouldn't dare to dream of as a kid.   I like all the tools materials and finishes available.   I love that I have at my fingertips, refeneces for almost any modelling subject, and that I can communicate with modelers from all over the world, and if that hard to find kit isn't in my area, then the internet will put me in touch with someone who does have it.   Even when I do revisit a favourite subject, I have the tools and skills to handle it that I didn't have then.

Reliving my modeling youth?  Forget that noise.  These are the good old days, right here, and right now.

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This says it all.  Research on the 'net and all the newer paints, glues, etc.  make this the golden age.